Skijoring In The Twin Ports – duluthsuperiormagazine.com by Chris Godsey

Josh Tesch

Such horrific screams were coming from Josh Tesch’s truck, parked in a Superior Municipal Forest ski-trail lot, that a concerned citizen called the cops. When Tesch returned from skijoring (which is skiing and being pulled, in this case, [...]]]> Here is a link for the full article.

Skijoring In The Twin Ports – duluthsuperiormagazine.com
by Chris Godsey

Josh Tesch

Such horrific screams were coming from Josh Tesch’s truck, parked in a Superior Municipal Forest ski-trail lot, that a concerned citizen called the cops. When Tesch returned from skijoring (which is skiing and being pulled, in this case, by a dog) the responding officer was waiting.

Tesch, a 32-year-old, world-class dog-skijoring racer, smiles while telling the story. “It was Verdi,” he says. “I was doing short out-and-back training runs, switching back and forth between dogs, and when I put Verdi in the truck and took the other dogs, he just about turned himself inside out.”

Like many people who work or compete with dogs, Tesch exudes a reticent, unsentimental, intense affection for his partners. “There’s the old man,” he gently says with a melancholy grin when, while scrolling through computer-photo folders, he unexpectedly finds a shot of him and 10-year-old Aero, his first dog, in their last race before Aero’s retirement. It’s a form of affection not (usually) expressed in “Who’s a good dog!?” baby talk and under-the-table treats; it’s more about reciprocal accountability and respect, and the inexpressible camaraderie built while sharing hard work.

Well-treated competitive dogs don’t run if they refuse to or shouldn’t. Mindful, experienced guys like Tesch and Tone Coughlin, a 32-year-old sprint musher and bikejorer, can discern exhaustion, coyness, passive-aggression, illness, joy and many other states in their animals. They know when hard work means damage, and they tolerate no action that approaches mistreatment.

“They want to run,” Coughlin says of dogs Helena, Toivo, Åsa (pronounce it oh-sah), Magnus, Valor, and Seppo, the sinewy crew he’s acquired from well-regarded sled-dog breeders. “They want to please you.”

Coughlin, a Denfeld graduate, spent his teens and twenties as an elite endurance runner, skier, and cyclist. He’s now a swim coach, for Cloquet High School and the UMD Rec Sports Program’s North Shore Swim Club.

“I didn’t swim till I was a student at UMD,” he says. “But the discipline required for cross-country ski technique definitely applies to swimming, which is also a very technical sport.”

That taste for mastering combinations of demanding technique and physical exertion led Coughlin to try skijoring a few years ago.

“After having Helena for about three years,” he says, “I got Toivo to keep her company. He kept growing and growing”—Toivo is a tall dog, with legs long enough for him to trot at 14 mph—”and I was curious about skijoring, so I got him into a harness.”

Skijorers wear a hip belt that’s connected to a bungee-type line that clips onto a harness that allows the dog to run and pull safely and comfortably. “It was so much fun to have a training partner,” Coughlin says. “My friends used to just whine, but Toivo never does.”

He eventually transitioned to bikejoring—the dogs still wear a harness, but the bungee line is attached to the front of his mountain-bike. Sometimes he runs one dog, sometimes two. Never on sidewalks or roads.

“We run at 4:30 on summer mornings,” he says. “If it’s more than 55 degrees, we do maybe one loop through Hartley then everyone goes in the pond to cool off. We had a hot September, so on most of those days I’d get on the bike and just let the dogs run for five or six miles.”

Coughlin says that a common first impression of both skijoring and bikejoring is that the dog is doing all the work.

“But one dog can barely pull you from a dead stop. If you’re up to speed on a flat, you might be able to hit five or six miles per hour without pedaling.” He does say that once, Magnus and Valor topped out at 23 mph on a flat.

“Obviously,” he says, “the more dogs you have, the faster you can go. And the more dangerous it becomes.”

Dangerous for the human on the bike, that is.

“Your bike-handling skills have to be very good,” Coughlin says. “Especially in corners. You always have to anticipate. I’ve had a couple friends, good cyclists, try it, wipe out, and not want to do it again. I’ve had some good crashes, too. Once last year, while heading downhill into a left-hand turn, the dogs took off after a deer. It wasn’t pretty.”

Coughlin is the team’s coach and Toivo is the captain. “Toivo’s good at stopping if he hears something crazy going on behind him. If he looks back and I’m not there, he’ll stop.”

Tesch, a Wausau, WI, native whose past also includes a lot of high-level ski racing, and who teaches physical education, health and wellness, and basic exercise science courses at Lake Superior College, says teaching dogs to pull can be challenging.

“Looking back,” Tesch says, “and knowing what I know now, I see how much I was asking of Aero, physically and mentally, to understand what I wanted him to do. Every dog that’s added to a team makes it easier for the whole team to stay out front, not turn around, and have confidence.

“My dog Ulu won’t pull if she’s by herself. She gets confused. But if she’s hooked up with another dog she’ll go, even if it means dragging the other dog. Aero did a really good job. He was a confident guy. Now he’s a huge asset. The best way to teach a dog to skijor is to put it next to a dog that knows what’s happening.”

Coughlin adds, “Don’t get frustrated with a confused dog. Be patient. Work with them. Make it fun and positive. Dogs see anger and frustration, and it affects them.”
Tesch says any willing dog can be taught to skijor.

“You don’t have to have a special kind of dog,” he says. “All they need to be able to do is stay out in front of you. The best way to start is to go with someone who knows what they’re doing, and borrow equipment. The initial setup can be expensive, and using a regular dog collar and leash, or a static rope, is unacceptable.”

Tesch and Coughlin have full competitive winters planned. Tesch and his wife, Karen, will do some cani-cross (trail-running while hooked to a dog) this fall, and skijoring events most weekends once it snows. Since winter bikejoring races don’t exist, Coughlin bought a small sled that he’ll hook four dogs to for sprint races, which are usually a bit more or less than five miles.

Tesch gets pumped up talking about his plans.

“Some people look at mushing sports and wonder if they’re humane,” he says. “But if you watch these dogs before a race, you’ll see they’re not sitting still. They’re vibrating. I call it sizzling. We get into the parking lot, and it becomes a dog party. It’s noisy and exciting, and the dogs just quiver with anticipation.

“Then there’s something about being out there with a dog you’ve raised and trained. You’re both working so hard, and the dogs aren’t making any noise, and it seems like they know exactly what you’re doing. It creates a unique bond, working with them to do this thing.”

We just returned from the largest dryland dog race in North America, right here in our back yard.  If you didn’t make it you definitely missed out on a $10,000 prize list!  The organization was very close to canceling the race because of the low number of entries, but they decided to stick [...]]]> 2009 EMWDC Results

We just returned from the largest dryland dog race in North America, right here in our back yard.  If you didn’t make it you definitely missed out on a $10,000 prize list!  The organization was very close to canceling the race because of the low number of entries, but they decided to stick it out thanks to Monica Jendro for taking entries at the Dirty Dog the week before.

We previewed the race course at the end of October when I came down for a swim meet in the cities.  The course is very flat double track and sandy with two bridges and a 1/2 mile finishing stretch on a one lane gravel road, very fast.

The categories we were competing in are the 1 dog canicross (Toivo), 1 dog bikejoring (Valor), and the 2 dog bikejoring (Valor & Magnus).  Laddie came along to help out with the dogs and experience the dryland racing.  He was going to compete in the 1 dog canix but the entry fee was $90 if you weren’t an ISDRA member.  In hindsight, he wishes he would have signed up because I’m sure he would have finished well.  On Friday night we set up camp in the rain and went out to preview the course.  I free ran Toivo and Valor so they could memorize the start, turns, and finish.  The course looked great and well marked with snow fencing in all the right places, they did a good job at laying everything out.  That night at the mushers meeting, I realized we were doing dual starts every 1:00 which means two teams start at the same time.  I wasn’t too keen on that since the trail was too narrow to pass at 20+ mph, but I couldn’t do anything about it.  I mentioned my concern to Joel Nelson and he said they were doing it that way for spectators.  He told me several times how many races he had competed in, 40 or so, and that he had been doing it for years.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him my racing experience because I could tell that nothing was going to change and that we would just have to deal with it.

Our neighbors William & Kathleen Duppler came down to watch the races on Saturday.  They love the dogs and know the hard work that we have been doing this fall training them.  They’ve even come out on 4wheeler with us even when it was super muddy!

Anyways, on to racing.  Our first event was the 1 dog canix with Toivo.  He pulled like a champ and we ended up in 3rd behind Tesch and Howard.  You cannot say that you know pain and hard work until you have raced canicross!  That is some of the hardest racing I have ever done.

The one dog bikejoring was one of our key events that we should have won, very easily.  However, Valor had a different agenda.  We had a great start out of the gate and were ahead of our starting team.  Valor pulled hard for 150 meters and then balked, looked back at me a couple of times and then stopped!  I kept yelling hike hike, let’s go!!  He wouldn’t go!  Finally after the team passed us he started running but he was jogging right beside me.  No matter what I did, he wouldn’t run.  Teams kept passing us and passing us.  I was so livid and frustrated that I was at a loss of words and actions.  In complete shock and embarrassment, completely blown away.  Our time was over six minutes a full 1:30 behind first place.  I have no idea why he did that, never ever has he done that.  EVER!  Completely bizzare.

We had only 30 minutes between that event and the 2 dog bikejoring.  Since Valor didn’t want to run by himself, I decided to run him and Magnus side by side instead of tandem with Valor in the lead.  I didn’t trust him.  They got out of the gate 1 second too late growling at each other in a challenging tone Magnus telling Valor, “You want to race, I’ll show you how to race you pansy!”  We were stuck behind our gate competitor slowing us down a bit because the trail was too narrow to pass.  Finally the dogs put in a big surge and we were able to pass about 1/2 way around the course.  Other than that we had a good race and finished in 2nd only 4 seconds down from first.

William had noticed the start line was not pained straight and so did I after looking at it.  Gate 1 was on the uphill and 2 on the down, but the trail curved to the right letting gate 2 have the advantage.  We explained this to Joel and he fixed it for Sunday’s race.  At least 95% of the teams in gate 2 were out in front of the teams leaving from gate 1.

Sunday’s goal was to hold my place in the 1 dog canix since there was no way I could make up over a minute on 2nd place.  I felt like I ran faster on Sunday but Toivo didn’t pull as hard so we lost 20 seconds but stayed in 3rd.  Laddie was snapping pics in front of the finish gate and called Toivo’s name as we came in and Toivo b-lines straight for him stopping 100 yards from the finish.  I kept running and called him but it spun him around and dragged him on the ground for a few seconds before he recovered and started running with me again.  I could just sense the spectators jaws hitting the floor witnessing animal cruelty at it’s finest, great.  Just great.

Earlier that morning before any of the races started I free ran Toivo and harnessed Valor and went out on the course right from the start line.  The first and second time we tried to start, Valor balked.  He didn’t want to go.  So I got off my bike went up to him and grabbed his collar and lifted it slightly and pulled on his tug line and said “stay” a few times.  Went back to my bike and said, ready…hike! Finally, he went.  He pulled the entire time with no problems.

When it was time to race I did the same thing with 30 seconds to go all the way down to 15 while Laddie held my bike.  Then we took off and had a great race until the last 500 meters where I really started to push the bike hard and I came up beside Valor and he quit again, but we finished strong with a time that beat the first place time on Saturday but it was too late.  We stayed in last place.

I used the same setup for Valor and Magnus in the 2 dog bikejoring that we did on Saturday, because I didn’t trust Valor again.  They took off without any problems challenging each other vocally and running really fast!  I looked at the GPS data and we hit 27-28 mph a few times on the course.  There was a slick right hand corner where the frost was coming out of the ground making it muddy.  I hit that mud and slid a little sideways keeping it up but going in the grass and a little outside the turn slowing the dogs down to 15.  After that it was a perfect run, Valor really pushed it with Magnus there.  Thank goodness we have an experience racer on the team!!  Our time was really fast but 1/2 second too slow!  Dangit, we had the fastest time of the day with the mess up and still finished second, but just barely!!  If we didn’t get hung up behind on Saturday and made that slippery corner we could have won.  Oh well, that’s racing I guess.

Other local athletes placing well were Josh and Kate Tesch competing in the canicross (1st),  scooter (1st), and bikejoring.  Way to go northland representing top finishes at a high caliber event!

We would like to thank Laddie for coming down to help us, it always is great to have someone with on long weekends.  Also Monica Jendro for putting on this race, it’s awesome that people in the sport provide venues for us to enjoy our hobbies.  You can’t truly appreciate the effort on hosting an event unless you have done one yourself.  We got to meet some new faces, adding to the network of awesome sprint mushers that have the biggest hearts.  Everyone was helping everyone again, it was truly and experience worth being part of.

I believe with the ISDRA points that we earned this weekend we can still hold our #1 spot for fastest 2 dog bikejoring team in North America, but I’m one that doesn’t like to count my chickens until they hatch so we will see.

We got home last night after a 5 hour drive through Wisconsin roads that I have never been on, south and east of Hurley.  250 miles of smooth pavement only to be ruined by the last 10 miles of the worst roads in the nation….Duluth’s.  Anyways, we had a great weekend!  We arrived [...]]]> 2009 DDDD Results

We got home last night after a 5 hour drive through Wisconsin roads that I have never been on, south and east of Hurley.  250 miles of smooth pavement only to be ruined by the last 10 miles of the worst roads in the nation….Duluth’s.  Anyways, we had a great weekend!  We arrived on Friday and set up camp in the dark and I took Toivo and Valor on a free run over the course so they could memorize the turns.  One of the mushers camping out lost a dog that night so he left his dogs out hoping it would come back.  They barked all night so we didn’t get much sleep on Friday.  His dog came back the next morning, thanks goodness! 

Saturday morning at the mushers meeting we decided to run the short course for the mid morning categories because of the warm weather.  I think it did warm up to 63 degrees that day, way too hot to run any further than 2 miles.  Amy Cooper decided not to compete at all because of the temps.  There were a few 6 dog teams that looked pretty hot and the dogs were dunked in the big tanks they provided so they didn’t overheat.

Our first race was the 2 dog bikejoring with Valor in lead and Magnus right behind him.  The run was almost flawless except where they had the T intersection for the long and short course with a snow fence set up.  Valor wanted to go right and not left since we previewed the course last night, so he ran right into the fence.  It may have slowed us down only 5-6 seconds though, I don’t recall if we came to a complete stop or not.  Our time for 1.5 miles was 4:09.

The second race was the 1 dog bikejor with Valor about an hour after we finished the first race.  Valor ran a perfect race making the turn at the intersection with no hesitation.  Our time for the same course was 4:39.

The third race was the 1 dog canicross with Toivo about 30 mins after the previous race.  I chose Toivo because they did a mass start and didn’t want any aggressive dogs in the chute.  When the timer was counting down from 5-4-3-2-1 Toivo knew what was going on and got really excited!  He pulled like a champ but I’m not the athlete I used to be so our time was 9:19 I believe, putting us in 3rd.

The second day they start the fastest people first on down to the slowest in each category.  None of our places changed, and I think we went faster on the bike and a little slower on the run.  I’m pretty sure we set a course record for the short races.

I would like to thank the Wisconsin Trailblazers for hosting an awesome event!  I’ve been to hundreds of events around the country and some in other countries and they did a very good job!  The dogs did well with the racing atmosphere and we got to meet some very nice people.  Everyone was helping everyone get to the line and having positive conversations about racing.  I can’t wait till we get some snow, we’re definately hitting up the WI Trailblazer races again!

This week will be a prep for the biggest dryland race in North America, the East Meets West Dryland Champs next weekend in St. Cloud.  If the dogs do as well as they did this weekend things could turn out pretty good!  Wish us luck!