The
dogs bark eagerly as they see the sled being pulled out, and the harnesses
attached. They jump in anticipation as they wait to see if they get to
run. The crowd looks toward the kennels as the barking grows louder.
The ranger stands on the back of the sled and yells, ”Let’s
Go!”
Erin Bruckner is twenty-four years old and works at Denali National Park as a
park ranger. At the park, Erin works with the dogs at Denali’s sled dog
kennel. Denali’s kennel has about thirty dogs, some of these dogs include
Carlo, Aspen, Blue, Orca, Beluga, Jenny, Muddy, Willow, Keta, Aurora, and Sesu.
When asked who her favorite dog was Erin immediately said Sesu. Erin explained
Sesu was her favorite because she gets to spend the most time with her walking
and brushing her.
All these dogs were trained from a young age to be a sled dog. They are trained
to be comfortable with people from the beginning. The commands they use for pulling
the sleds are “gee” for right and “ha” for left. Pushing
down on the break and saying “whoa” stops the dogs. Erin tells us
that they don’t really say “mush” to get the sled going. The
say “Let’s go,” but you can really use anything. As long as
you say it in an excited tone, they’ll know it’s time to go. The
dogs can start at a sprint of about fifteen miles per hour, but they settle down
into a comfortable pace of about eight miles per hour for the rest of the run.
Erin has worked at Denali National Park for a month and a half. She’ll
be there until September, which is when the season is over. Erin has worked at
two other National parks, both in Virginia. She doesn’t know if she’ll
come back again next year. “I want to work at a whole bunch of parks. That
way I can find just the right one for me, but I think it will be pretty hard
to beat Denali.” |