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Dog-Sledding, Like Climate, Heating Up
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Animal rights activists have occasionally targeted the sled-dog business as cruel. But people in the industry say dogs are treated with care and respect -- and they insist that the dogs enjoy the sport.
"The dogs love their job, and that's why I love my job," Leissner said. "In the morning when I harness the team, all the dogs are jumping, like, 'Take me! Take me!' "
Without breaking stride, the dogs dragged their open mouths through snowbanks alongside the trail, using their tongues to cool themselves. For many delighted children riding the sleds, the highlight was not the tranquillity, but the dogs pooping as they ran.
An hour into the trek, Leissner and the other guides stopped their teams in front of a wilderness cabin, a round wooden hut with a peaked roof and a big wood fire crackling inside.
"It's not a metal, modernized, mechanized machine," said Jo Lees, a teacher from Liverpool, England, admiring the old-fashioned wooden sled on which she had arrived, its parts fastened together with twine. "It's so peaceful, and it's something new."
After 20 minutes' rest, the dogs started howling again, demanding to run.
Special correspondent Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
