They call 'em "The Misfits:" Thunder the Airedale in harness with Windy, his Siberian Husky sidekick, leading a crew of rescued dogs transformed into a sled team. Bringing up the rear, Jim and Joy Wheeler, mushing paramedics and fans of all dogs, but most especially Airedales.
ATCA [Airedale Terrier Club of America] members who participated in the Hunting/Working Workshop for the past two years had a chance to meet the Wheelers and their dog team. Jim, Thunder, and the team demonstrated basic sled-pulling, and later Joy and Jim helped workshop participants introduce their own Airedales to harness and sled.
In between times, Jim talked at length about his respect for Airedales, whom he says, "can't be beat for versatility."
Jim Wheeler recently spoke with The American Airedale about his family's involvement with dog sledding and the role of Airedales in this sport.
As often happens with dog sports, the Wheelers didn't plan their route. After losing their first Airedale, Thor, the Wheelers were browsing in a pet shop where they saw the husky puppy who was to become their lead bitch, Windy.
As Jim tells it, "Joy and I are softies. We didn't like seeing the little husky in that pet shop, so we took her out of there thinking she'd be a good outdoor dog for hiking. Three weeks later Joy came home from another pet shop with what we found out was Windy's litter brother. That's how we got our second husky, Storm."
Even though the huskies were good dogs, Jim wanted a better watch dog to help guard his home following some neighborhood robberies. Jim and Joy set out to buy an Airedale, their only "planned purchase" dog.
They found the kind of Airedale they wanted in a litter by Ch. Bravo Starbuck. The Wheelers bought a Starbuck son and named him Thunder.
As time went on, harnessing the dogs began almost as a defensive maneuver. Living in New England with two huskies and an Airedale, Jim found "it was kind of tough to walk them."
Soft hearts for what they call "throw away" dogs helped complete the Wheelers' sled team. First they adopted Dudley, a short-haired Golden Retriever who was orphaned when his owner died in an accident. Next came Spirit, a black Lab-husky mix who'd almost used up his time at the pound. Both dogs took readily to harness work.
Then one fall day when out on training run, the Wheelers found a young Golden Retriever with an unhealed eight-inch knife wound in his leg and a tail broken in several places. They picked up the dog and paid for its surgery. After considerable healing, socialization, and training, "Lucky" is now a strong puller with the team.
Tara, the most recent dog, was a brown Siberian Husky pup found with a mouthful of porcupine quills by a dog warden. When no one claimed the pup, the warden held on to it until the Wheelers passed through. He knew they might make a place for it in their pack.
So the Wheelers had a unplanned dog team and an unconventional theory on the subject. Jim believes almost any large, sound dog can be a sled dog, "as long as it has heart and likes to run."
The Wheelers have two dogs who don't meet that criteria. Dozer, their Beagle-shepherd mix who was found chained to a tree in a campground, would rather be a couch potato. Apollo, their 13-1/2 year old Cairn terrier, is a little too short and elderly to be a sled dog.
As their sledding hobby progressed, the Wheelers thought it might be useful in their work as emergency medical technicians. One of their jobs was working the medical stations at sled dog races. A mobile sled unit following the slowest racers could provide care where it was most needed.
"The most inexperienced teams run near the back, and that's where most accidents or mistakes happen," explains Jim.
In the freezing environment of sled-dog races, even minor accidents or mistakes can quickly become dangerous. A tipped sled can leave a driver with a broken limb or concussion lying helpless in the snow. Racing dog teams aren't keen on stopping for recalls, so even uninjured drivers separated from their teams are stranded without survival gear. And if the driver has missed a trail marker, he is adrift in the wilderness.
Perhaps injured drivers don't know whether to laugh or to cry at the sight of a friendly, hairy Airedale face grinning from the front of the rescue team, but no one has ever turned down a fast trip back to the ambulance.
And while an Airedale sled dog may be unusual, Jim points out that with the proper care and conditioning, the breed is well suited to outdoor work under the most severe conditions.
"The Airedale coat is very similar to a husky coat," Jim notes. "Husky outercoat is straight and the Airedale's curly, but they have similar undercoats and oily overcoats."
During spring and summer, Jim hand-strips Thunder to preserve the tightness of the outercoat needed for protection in the woods and for cold weather.
"One thing I believe is that if you crop an Airedale's tail at all, it should be cropped long, at least head-level," Jim adds. "The Airedale needs that tail to tuck between his legs when he sleeps outdoors in cold weather. That prevents frost bite on the genitals, a big danger for dogs. Given that, the Airedale will instinctively borrow a hole in the snow for himself to sleep in just as the husky does. The huskies curl up and tuck their noses under their tails for warmth. The Airedale and other dogs just tuck their noses under their hind legs."
Jim has no problem with breaking the mushers' traditional rule against bringing dogs into the bivouac tents during severe weather.
"Normally we only bring the Golden Retrievers in, and they sleep in sleeping bags. The heavier-coated huskies and Airedale usually stay out. They instinctively dig down into the snow to make a snow cave, a survival technique humans now routinely learn. When you think about, the temperature of snow is roughly 30 degrees. If it's 0 degrees outside, the dog insulated in a snow cave is 30 degrees warmer than he'd be if he stood up and shook himself off every thirty minutes. Those of us in a tent may be coping with 0 degree temperatures."
Jim points out that animal-rights advocates who would do away with dog-sledding or pulling misunderstand because they think in human terms rather than dog terms. While most people may not enjoy overnight winter camp-outs and all-day runs, the dogs love it.
"When I get out my medical uniform or the harness, the dogs get all excited. They're jumping and hollering," Jim says. "When we have to leave dogs behind due to injuries, you should hear the howling. They get all bent out of shape."
This also applies to a conditioning schedule that could make people blanch, but illustrates an Airedale's capabilities.
"We start in the cool September mornings with the 7-dog team pulling a wheeled cart about 2 or 3 miles. By Christmas we're doing 25 or 30 mile runs in the wheeled cart or sled. We'll be doing 60 mile runs in 15 or 20 mile intervals by February. The dogs love to run in any temperature under 40 degrees, but prime weather for them is below 20 degrees. It's more efficient for their metabolism."
In top condition, Jim's team has a sprint speed of 22-24 miles per hour.
Jim maximizes his team's strengths by rotating the dogs to make the most of their individual talents.
"When we need speed over short distances, for instance to answer a call for an injury just a few miles up the trail, Windy and Dudley go in the double lead and get us there fast. For longer, slow endurance runs, the Airedale gets the lead. Thunder's is my best thinking dog, and he has a quicker response to commands. If we have to do off-trail rescues or carry an injured person in the sled, Thunder will lead. A lot depends on the trail conditions, too. If the snow is thick and slushy, I'll put Thunder back near the sled to take advantage of his pulling power, while the lighter, faster dogs break the trail."
Jim understands his dogs well because, as he often says, "they're part of our family and lifestyle, not just a sideline."
Joy Wheeler works with Jim, but he explains, "she isn't crazy enough for 5 am. January training runs or the wilderness training. The Wheelers' two girls, 9 year old Kim and 7 year old Krista, drive 3-dog sled teams as well as help socialize and care for the dogs.
The Wheelers' dogs like living outdoors, but they come into the house at night, sleeping in bedrooms of the adults and children. It goes against traditional sled-dog practices, but Jim finds bringing winter-coated dogs into a heated house isn't a problem.
"We heat the house with wood stove, and during the night we keep the temperature down to about 45 degrees. We sleep under thick comforters, and the dogs are comfortable."
Giving the dogs plenty of off-leash yard and house time for interacting with each other and family members is important for establishing pack order.
"For a rescue team," Jim explains, "there has to be a confidence between the driver and the dogs. These can't be kennel dogs. They can't afford to spook."
Thunder the Airedale is the alpha dog, the pack leader who maintains the pecking order among six other males and two bitches. He does so by being dominant without being aggressive. If another male occasionally challenges Thunder's authority, the Airedale manages it "usually without drawing blood," Jim says.
"Really, we haven't have any many problems as you might think we would with all these dogs. If they have their arguments, it's kind of like brothers fighting, not like two guys going at it in a bar."
Even before becoming mushing paramedics, the Wheelers used their Airedale and some of their other dogs as assistants at events such as state fairs and horse shows. Carrying bright red packs filled with medical supplies, the dogs help Joy and Jim provide prompt emergency aid.
"The dogs increase our visibility ten-fold because people recognize us. People come up and pet the dogs, so in a way the dog can be ambassadors. A dog sometimes has a calming or distracting effect on a person needing aid. "
Having a crowd of on-lookers observe an Airedale holding a down-stay while his paramedic owner treats someone who's been thrown from a horse is certainly good public relations for the breed.
As a good storyteller, Jim has one last account showing the bond of utility and friendship between humans and the working Airedale.
"A couple of years ago a friend and I went hiking on Mount Washington, which at 62,000 feet is the highest peak in New England and known for the worst weather in the continental United States. Only Thunder was with us because it's a strenuous hike, and he's our best-trained dog for off-lead work.
"It was early spring, and when we got above the timberline it was like walking into a cloud. Visibility dropped to about 20 feet. We missed some rock-pile trail markers which were unfortunately about 70 feet apart, and we were pretty much lost. We sat down for lunch and to get our bearings, and then headed down in what we thought was the right direction, though we couldn't pick up any cairn markers.
"Suddenly Thunder alerted. Tried as we could, we couldn't hear what he'd heard. But since he was looking in the direction we were heading, we decided to keep going that way.
"After about 10 minutes, Thunder's ears came up again and his head tilted toward a sound that even we could hear. It sounded like voices singing, coming up through the clouds. We knew we weren't hypothermic, but we almost wondered if we were hallucinating. But no, because Thunder heard it too.
"We kept going, and we could swear we heard female voices singing Frere Jacques . Suddenly we walked out of the cloud cover and saw on the trail below us a group of about twenty French-Canadian college women and a lone male guide, all singing as they hiked up the mountain. They were dressed in yellow rain coats, blue jeans and sneakers, and had no survival gear.
"We finally convinced them to turn back, but not before Thunder posed for photos with them. He made lots of friends.
"It was important to us that Thunder had stayed calm and gave us confidence when we were lost. But aside from that, we were glad to have him because all those nice-looking girls paid attention to us."
ATCA members will have an opportunity to meet the Wheelers, Thunder, and the rest of the Misfits at the next ATCA Hunting/Working weekend near Columbus, Ohio during the fourth weekend of March. The Wheelers will again present a sledding demonstration and invite more Airedalers to harness their dogs and give pulling a try.
As New England regional director of the International Sled Dog Racing Association, Jim is familiar with events and opportunities within the sport. He hopes to encourage interest for Airedale teams in the dog-sled world. In the future, Airedale teams could compete in ISDRA-sanctioned events for the breed and against other breeds.
"Pound for pound, the Airedale can pull as hard as any dog, as long as he has the heart," Jim believes.
While some may snicker at Airedale sled teams, it makes sense to anyone whose held the leash of an Airedale in need of exercise. The dogs can pull, and they can run. Why not harness that energy?
All that's needed is encouragement, instruction, equipment and snow. Jim and Joy Wheeler can supply three out of four of those requirements through their business, Stormrunner Outfitters, 42 Cooper Street, Agawam, Massachusetts, 01001; phone 413/ 789-2000. Canine back-packing gear and other outdoor items are also available through Stormrunner's mail-order catalogue.
Until next March, when the Wheelers pack their truck for the ATCA Hunting/Working Weekend, there are two trails: Just dream of outdoor Airedale adventures; or, like the Wheelers, Just do it.

The End

Originally published in The American Airedale. Copyright 1992 by Chris Halvorson . Article reprinted with permission of the author. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the author is prohibited.