Sled Dog Team Positions
The purpose of this post to describe the positions and different roles of dogs in a sled dog team. There are two major types of hitch setup for running sled dogs. The most common is called a tandem hitch, with the dogs running is sets of 2 stretched out in front of the dog sled itself. The other type is called a Fan hitch and is used primarily in Northern regions in areas consisting of open terrain well above the tree line. I will focus on the Tandem Hitch because it has the most well defined positions and it's the setup that I am most familiar with. Leaders: These are the dogs that occupy the two front positions on the team and are responsible for taking commands from the dog driver. The lead dogs will turn the team based purely on voice commands from the driver. The lead position dogs also hold the team out in a straight manageable line. This will prevent dogs from turning around and causing tangles in the team. Leaders almost always run in pairs, rarely in sing