Endurance Kennels » Magnus

Sled Dog Racing: Coughlin Third in 10-dog Class

Tone — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:22:54 +0000

By: News Tribune staff, Duluth News Tribune
Published on February 15, 2011

Tone Coughlin of Iron River was third in the adult 10-dog class Saturday in the Pine River Run of the Wisconsin Trailblazers Sled Dog Club races in Merrill, Wis. Jan Bootz-Dittmar of Wausau, Wis., won the 20-mile event in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 47.20 seconds. Coughlin’s team finished in 1:08:32.16.

Sled-Dog Racing: Wallace, Coughlin Place 2-3

Tone — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:48:09 +0000

By: News Tribune staff, Duluth News Tribune
Published on February 2, 2011

Ted Wallace of Wrenshall and Tone Coughlin of Iron River, Wis., placed second and third in the Adult 10-Dog Speed class at the Willow Springs Round Barn Rally race Sunday in Wausau, Wis.

Wallace finished the 20-mile course in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 51 seconds; Coughlin was next in 1:17:28.57. Jan Bootz-Dittmar of Wausau won in 1:12:58.08.

The race is sanctioned by the International Sled Dog Racing Association and counts toward the International Championship Series.

Heading Out to the First Sled Races of the Year!

Tone — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:27:17 +0000

Deb, the dogs, and I are headed out tomorrow morning for the first sled race of the season tomorrow morning in Kalkaska, MI. It’s the second longest running sled dog race in the lower 48 behind Laconia, NY. I am driving three teams, 8 dog, 6 dog, and 4 dog. The teams have been training hard and have lots of hookups, Ari and Jaana (1.5 y/o) have 110 hookups in the last two seasons!

8 Dog Team Picks – 4 Endurance Kennels and 4 Windigo Kennels
Seppo-Jaana* in Lead
Ari*-Elroy*
Jetson*-Magnus
Ollie**-Ragnar**

**,* – Littermates

6 Dog Picks
Mandy-Diane
Dan-Snape
Astro*-Raimo**

4 Dog Picks
Toivo-Sven
Toivo-Prongs

Yes, there are two Toivo’s here!!

It’s going to be fun to see how they do, the 8 dog team may be competitive if we have some clean runs. I think we would do best in the 10 dog and up races, but the dogs don’t have the mileage yet. By mid Feb., they should be ready to go. The 6 and 4 are just there to get experience since most of my competition is 14 y/o girls that weigh 90 lbs! LMAO!

Ready to Race!

Tone — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:09:02 +0000

One of Deb’s long time customers from northern Illinois came up last weekend to run his rescue siberians on some snow. Jason got some good footage of my team heading out for our first interval training session of the year. The dogs in blaze orange and Raimo in wheel are Endurance Kennel’s dogs, all the other ones are Windigo dogs. Seppo and Jaana are in lead.

And here is a shot of us during the third interval.

We are unsure what race we are doing first, it all depends on when Steve is going to have his new knee put in. Most likely we will be heading to Merrill, WI on Jan. 8 & 9 instead of Markstay-Warren, ON. After that is Kalkaska, MI, Antigo, WI, Wausau, WI, and Land ‘O Lakes, WI. I’m excited to race and I think the team is ready too!

2010 East Meets West Dryland Championships

Tone — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:50:50 +0000

All I have to say, is that the race crew had their shit together this year! Everything was great, ppl were friendly, trail was awesome, volunteers were spectacular, and trail help was superb! The staff definitely raised the bar compared to last season. If you didn’t come down, too bad. You missed out. Thank you Monica Jendro and Joel Nelson and all of your workers and volunteers, we hope that you keep on keeping on!

Although we had our “C” team in operation, I couldn’t have asked more from the dogs especially Magnus. The poor guy had to race twice both days within 20 mins of both of his races due to Seppo wigging out. He was a real trooper, we love you big buddy. Thank you also to the folks that helped us out during the races, getting to the line, back to the truck, etc.

We DNF’ed in the one dog bikejor (Seppo). Took 4th in the two dog scooter (Magnus & Jaana), and 3rd in the two dog bikejor (Magnus & Dan).

Here are some videos from the weekend.

Endurance Kennels in Wikipedia!

Tone — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 00:39:09 +0000

Valor, Magnus, Seppo, Jaana, and Ari are in Wikipedia under Bikejoring! Check it out here.

Valor also has his picture two times under Eurohound! Check that out here.

Fun Fall Training Video

Tone — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:56:01 +0000

Deb & Steve came out to see how the dogs’ new blaze orange harnesses were fitting. Sorry for all the wheel dog action, I forgot to bring my sunglasses so I was getting pelted with sand in the eyes and had to look down.

Our run was a non-stop pace run, 3.54 miles avg spd 15.4 mph with 210 feet of climbing, ouch!

How Much Is A Sled Dog Team Worth?

Tone — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:08:35 +0000

Sometimes family and friends wonder how much does it cost to put together a sled dog team. From what I’ve experienced being around the sport for 4 years, it varies dramatically! There are broad ends of the spectrum, you can spend as much as you want or as little as you want which is true for a lot of things in life.

I chose to go the cheaper route, to see if I would like it or not. Mushing is not for everyone, and especially racing. I believe there are more mushers that have dogs for working or for fun rather than racing dogs.

I’ll share with you just the cost of the dogs, which is the exact price I paid to attain the athlete. Why, because I think some people get overwhelmed when they are starting, thinking that they can’t afford a dog team.

Toivo – $250
Valor – Free on CPU trade
Seppo – $100
Magnus – $400
Jaana – $250
Ari – $250
Angel – Free
Barracuda – Free
Helena – Adopted

Total – $1250 for seven working dogs.

What is the team worth? I’ve learned from other mushers to price that dog for what it costs to replace them. This is an honest estimate based upon my reasoning and limited experience. Most mushers overprice their dogs for whatever reason, I’m not sure. But there are some mushers out there that have good honest prices.

Toivo – $800 – Well, I would never ever sell him. He’s neutered and he’s my pet. Toivo is not super fast but he’s a gee/haw leader and goes forever. He also keeps the younger dogs in line when they are learning. I tend to pair him up with the youngsters.

Valor – $2000 – I’ve never had a better dog, leader and performance wise. Jim Benson said he would sell me his unproven brother for $2000 so that’s what I am going on. Valor is a proven champion, so he could be worth more.

Seppo – $1200 – He’s the kind of dog that I can hook up and forget. Leader or follower, he’s fast, bomb proof, and a key dog on the team.

Magnus – $800 – He’s an Alaskan, nuf said. Runs great in team or wheel, hook up and forget too but don’t run him in lead. Sometimes he disappoints up there. But then again, he’s a proven champion too!

Jaana – $1500 – How many female leaders have you had at 11 months old?

Ari – $1200 – Fast, attitude, great figure. This boy has tremendous potential running point at 11 mos and has never looked back.

Angel – $300 – I haven’t run her enough yet to know if she’s going to work. She’s a proven brood bitch and runs lead and that is all I have to go on.

Total – $7800 for seven dogs, IF I had to replace them.

I’ve heard of dogs selling for way more than that, so believe what you will. I guess it’s all relative to your goals anyways!

Snowflake Sprint Classic

Tone — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

We finally were able to race close to home, so very nice to sleep in your own bed! The weather was very warm this weekend, in the upper 30′s to low 40′s, almost too hot for dogs. Good thing we only had to race 4 miles!

Saturday’s race was beautiful, sunny and clear skies with little to no wind. Great spectating weather! Our run didn’t go so smooth though, we came up on our 1:00 team within the first mile. Toivo and Magnus were running lead with Ari and Seppo in wheel. The dogs tried to pass on the inside but they punched through the deep snow causing Magnus to tangle on his neckline. Then we tried another pass which succeeded only to have Ari slam on the brakes on a short downhill causing another tangle and me taking the sled right into the woods to avoid running over the dogs! Finally we got back up and going again only to have Toivo looking at all the cutoffs! He wanted to take the short way back since he knows the trail system pretty well, silly dogs. I think we stopped at least 6-7 times, not good for a sprint race! I think we ended up in 6th place in the sport class for the first day.

Sunday’s race went much better, even though the trail was chewed up and in terrible shape. All the dogs must have punched through at least a half dozen times, no one was hurt though! Jaana did an awesome job, she’s going to be a superstar! The run was almost perfect, Toivo only stopped once at the main cutoff making me set the hook down and steer him in the right direction. Seppo ran lead with Toivo and had a rock solid performance, he’s going to be doing more lead from now on!

We moved from 6th to 4th posting the 2nd fastest time of the day for our category. It was fun to have a hometown race, thanks to all that made it happen and thank you VERY much to my friends that came out to help. William, Seth, and Laddie!

Land O’ Lakes – Three Bear Sled Dog Races

Tone — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:27:26 +0000

written by Anna Beltrame & Tone Coughlin

A Fully Loaded Jeep and a Wonderful Race Weekend in Wisconsin! With the sled strapped to the roof, kibble in the cab, and beef, bags, and booties bunched in behind the buckets seats, we were almost set to go. The only thing missing in the tightly packed Jeep were the dogs. “Load ‘em up.” The dogs were walked, one by one, from their dog house in the yard to their weekend home in the Jeep. Toivo, Valor, Magnus, Seppo, Jaana, and Ari were compliant little beings, not fussing about their tight quarters. One Jeep, six dogs, two humans, a sled, and all the essentials needed to make for the successful completion of a sled dog race. Off to the races!!!

We spent Friday evening at Tone’s family’s home in Ashland WI, a midway point between Duluth and our destination of Land O’ Lakes. Here the dogs were excited to get out of the Jeep to stretch their legs and mingle with the resident dogs, Duke and Rex. Tone’s family served us a hearty dinner, which we were both so grateful for. Later in the evening Toivo and Valor did not refuse an invitation to spend the night with us indoors. With full bellies and fresh blankets and straw Magnus, Seppo, Jaana, and Ari were happy to spend the night resting in the cozy Jeep.

After a delightful pancake breakfast on Saturday morning, prepared by Tone’s step-mom, Mary, we started on our 1:40 hour drive to the race site in Land O’ Lakes, WI. The drive went smoothly, despite the fact that the only radio station with clear reception played nothing but Country music!

Upon our arrival to the race site the dogs were watered, new plastic was put on the sled runners and Tone suited up in his racing attire.

Our starting partner was Bob Bzdok who we’ve trained with before up in Taft. He got out of the 200 meter chute just ahead of us, but we were going the same pace. Valor tried to pass on the inside of his team but when he got to Bob’s wheel dogs they closed the door and snarled a little making Valor back off and the gangline go slack. Toivo stepped over the center line and had his front legs on Seppo’s side. So we decided to stay behind until there was enough room to pass since were going the same pace anyways. The trail was soft and punchy from all the teams that ran before us and the warm weather. We dipped down in a ditch and that’s when Toivo punched through and fell, wrapping his rear leg around the tug line. I stopped the team to untangle losing about 20 seconds or so. Bob’s team was just out of sight. The corners were empty of snow and were a virtual skating rink. You would just slide sideways and hope you didn’t end up hitting any big trees. The dogs saw Bob’s team on the long straight away that was almost a mile long. We started to gain some time back cutting it back to 12 seconds or so. Then the corners and twists and turns started again and the team lost some interest. We ended up finishing in 17th, 30 seconds behind Bob.

I was really happy with the performance of the dogs, although I do believe that I am too heavy to be running the 4 dog class since all the finishers in front of me were under 130 lbs and the soft trail conditions.

Saturday evening, after the race, we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner at the Gateway Lodge in Land O’Lakes, before retiring to our hotel in Eagle River, WI. Boy, did it feel good to finally rest after such a busy day. Toivo thought so too! He got his own queen-size bed and fell sound asleep within seconds of lying down.

Sunday’s race was hopefully going to be faster. We started with Hanna Marsh who was in 2nd place, I figured the dogs would try hard to stay with her…boy was I wrong. Out of the chutes she was 3 yards ahead of us and within the first mile she was out of sight! Seppo had to poop on the long stretch and then Magnus about a mile before the finish line! When your leader has to poop the whole team stops, I thought I could have stayed on the sled and he would get going again, but no, he had to smell the snowbank and mark it too! Seppo also stepped over his neckline so I had to hook down and untangle and restart the team. Then I saw Jenna Dittmar coming up behind us, she started two minutes back! I let her pass us after we got going, as she was passing Seppo freaked out and ran in the deep powder taking a dive and getting full of snow…silly dog. After she went by they decided, hey, let’s race again! Valor wanted to pass her team but I stood on the brake and let them stay out front. She made up two mins, I’m not going to be a jerk and cause trouble in the last 1/2 mile.

I really couldn’t complain, somehow we made up two spots after having a slower time than Saturday finishing in 15th out of 30 teams. It was a good experience for the dogs and the team as a whole. We came in with no expectations so we couldn’t be disappointed no matter what happened or what place we finished!

We could not have asked for better driving conditions on Sunday for our trip home. The sun was out, the roads were clear from snow and ice, and the wildlife of Wisconsin stayed clear of the roadway! About a half an hour into the ride home, Valor found a comfortable spot lying on top of Toivo. Other than a slight growl, Toivo displayed no real objections to Valor‘s chosen sleeping spot. Maybe Toivo really didn’t mind Valor’s 62 lb body smack dab upon him or, more likely, maybe the dull lull of Country music had him in a trance.

The ride home on Sunday gave us time to reflect back on our race weekend. What a wonderful time we truly did have! We also discussed what we will do at our next race to make more efficient use of our time. Tone talked about what he will do in the future to improve the performance of his athletes-What a Super Coach! We arrived home late Sunday night, tired after the long weekend. We unpacked most of the Jeep and walked the dogs, one by one, to their spots in the yard. Off to Bed!!!