Alaska husky sled dogs work at more than being cute

From owning huskies, Alaskan and Siberian, to following the Iditarod every year, I’ve found a magic in the barks, yips and howls of working dogs.

Alaska lets you explore the husky life. Sled dogs and cart rides are everywhere in the summer, as well as excursions that allow you to interact and spend more time.

Denali National Park and Preserve has its own working sled dog pack and has for 100 years. The dogs are happy to meet people at their kennels in the summer, and literally jump at the chance to be part of a demonstration team for park visitors. During the season, kennel tours and demonstrations are offered three times a day as part of your entry fee.

During the winter, the Denali sled dogs take mushers and rangers out to distant parts of the six million acre park to check on animals, conduct scientific research and resupply huts in designated wilderness that does not allow mechanized vehicles.

We visited the dogs three of our five days at Denali and quickly learned the pups’ names. You are allowed to lean against a rope around the dog’s homes and if the huskies approve, offer a rub behind the ears, a scratch on the back or a belly rub.

Then there’s the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla, where you can learn about the history behind the race. The race commemorates the desperate 1925 effort to bring diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska, which couldn’t be reached any other way besides sled dog teams.

Many modern children learned about the event from “Balto,” an animated movie that depicts the finish of that desperate race to save children. A more recent movie, “Togo,” spotlights the true heroes of that effort, Togo and his owner Leonhard Seppala (who also owned Balto).

Four-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser was the stunt-double musher for the movie. And thanks to our rehabilitation vet at Ace of Paws in Albuquerque, Dr. Ana Esquivel, we knew how to meet Buser.

Buser’s Happy Trails Kennels are open for paid tours and demonstrations on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can spend even more time with the dogs if you stay at the bed and breakfast there.

We met three Iditarod mushers at Happy Trails: Martin Buser himself, Chad Stoddard who was the Iditarod rookie of the year in 2021, and Shawn Sidelinger who raced in the late 1990s and now helps with tours at Happy Trails.

They were warm and genuine and happy to share their love of their dogs. We got to meet every dog, including this year’s puppies. The dogs at the kennel weren’t taking people for rides, but huskies were waiting to run at the Iditarod Museum in Wasilla with musher Riley Dyche. And those dogs move fast. Dyche placed tenth in this year’s Iditarod and said in an interview on Powerdogs TV after the race that the summer training with riders made his dog team top competitors.

Huskies work as sled dogs, ambassadors for Alaska

Other Iditarod mushers have kennels you can visit. We didn’t have enough time to go to all of them, but you can find out more at iditarod.com in its business directory. The Iditarod website also offers an education section with information for teachers.(tncms-asset)c3a8ad96-3a6f-11ef-9570-6fd04d833a62[2](/tncms-asset)