The Distance Harness

NEW! JEFF'S LATEST DISCOVERY:

In the last four years, Jeff King has made three, maybe four major adjustments to the way mushers approach the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. He redesigned a towline system that uses Distance Harnesses and no necklines, leaving the dogs lots of freedom to move about. Here is how Jeff King explains how he keeps his dogs hydrated when they're running 12 to 16 hours a day during the Iditarod race. He credits his shift to the neckline-less towline system, and the use of Distance Harnesses. Traditional setups employ a tugline attached to the dog harness and a shorter line to snap the dog by the collar, keeping its head within 8 to 12 inches of the towline. Jeff realized that his dogs were taking advantage of the extra freedom by pulling to the side in mid-stride and "dipping" for snow on the run. Dipping snow is usually considered a no-no, because the behavior jerks the team to the side since the dog is pulling against a restrictive neckline. "Now, without necklines, my dogs are free to dip wherever, whenever they like," he said. Always the analyst, King actually counted the number of times dogs dipped for snow while he ran a 16-dog team recently. A dog would take a mouthful of snow every 10 seconds. That's more than 300 mouthfuls of snow per hour, and more than 4,000 in 12 hours of running. "Thousands of tablespoons of snow in my cooker is like several gallons of water," he said, getting more enthusiastic as he spoke. "It's like a drip irrigation system!" And that, he pointed out, was a totally unexpected benefit from a change intended solely to make it easier and safer for his dogs to maneuver while pulling.

HARNESS FITTING TIPS (by Yukon Quest Champion Aliy Zirkle):

These harnesses tend to fit like an older style (non collared style harnesses). The "collar" portion of the harness should sit just above or on the shoulder. When fitting harnesses, it is important that the "collar" portion does not ride up under their neck - this could cause a rub just below their real collar. I was used to the Taiga Collared Harness fit: tight around the neck, and that is an incorrect fit. Another interesting note is that length of your dog (long back/ short back) doesn't really come into play. The harnesses should stop a few inches beyond their withers. Remember that the girth strap (body strap) of the harness is adjustable. I try to keep this strap as tight as a collar - I can fit 3 fingers comfortably inside the harness. Most people will cut the extra webbing (on the body strap) off so that the dogs don't have straps hitting them between their legs while running. Leave a generous few inches though, you might be able to fit this harness on a little bit larger dog and will need the extra material to fit.

I came up with these sizing generalizations for my kennel: Xsmall (not many dogs in my kennel) - This is a very small dog in both weight and bone structure. Perhaps puppies. I have an adult female who weighs 38 pounds and she wears this size of harness. Small - This is still a small dog in size and bone structure. I have yearlings or thin boned adults that fit in this size. These dogs usually weigh about 40 pounds. Medium - I have over 50% of my kennel in this size. The dogs weigh between 42 and 48 pounds on average. They are still not the big boned dogs. As far as bone structure these dogs usually wear a medium bootie. Large - Everything in my kennel over 50 pounds is in a large. Right now, I have no dogs over 60 pounds. A dog larger then this would have to size up. I tend to size up if I am wondering about a certain dog.

Dogs MUST always go under the mainline when changing sides. If they step over the line there is an immediate tangle. We have set up the system so that the mainline is as high off of the ground as we can get it. We try to keep the mainline as lightweight as possible too, so that it never sags and dogs are not tempted to step over it. Also smaller dogs are run in the wheel position - they have an easier time diving under the mainline at corners.

NEW USE FOR DISTANCE HARNESS (by Ann Jandernoa):

We have found a new use for the Distance Harness. After reading about Arleigh Reynolds's pool in Mushing Magazine, we decided to build our own. We really don't need to swim as many dogs at once, and we wanted to have it where we could simulate the dogs swimming from their harness. Building the pool was easy part. I think figuring out the best way to get the dogs to swim, as if they were running in harness, was a little harder. We went through five swimming sessions, till we got the dogs swimming as we wanted them to. We did not want them pulling off their necks (the way Arleigh Reynolds does it). We have found if we hooked them by their necks they spend so much time splashing and getting frantic. The harness gives a dog more support than just a collar. Once we figured out how to set the harnesses in the middle of each section, the dogs automatically want to swim to the edge. So now we can swim five dogs at a time. They free run before swimming then they keep coming up to the pool as if they were asking if it was their turn. We have stop watches on the dogs so we know how much they are swimming. They are swimming a little over six minutes and then free running after that.