Endurance Kennels » Seppo

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.

Bikejoring Video #1

Tone — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:46:59 +0000

Well, here it is! I’ve been playing with my new helmet cam and still need to make some adjustments so you can see the dogs better. It’s a long video, sorry for keeping you waiting while it buffers but it’s kind of fun.

Seppo and Jaana are in lead, Ari is the wheel dog and the one barking at the beginning. That boy loves to run! On this training session we averaged 18.1 mph over 3.5 miles with 250 feet of elevation gain.

[See post to watch Flash video]

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!