Funny/Gross Question about Dog Sledding/Carts

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Years ago before we had kids DH and I went to a business conference he had in Vail, CO. One of the activities they arranged was riding in a dog cart. What we learned once there was that the owners of the dog sledding business trained their pups to poop only on the trail, so that they wouldn't poop back in their kennels or when being transported to and from the trails. It made for a really gross experience with the stench of dog poop hitting you in the face constantly, not to mention the constant starts and stops as one dog or another would pause to relieve themselves.

So, is this like an industry-wide thing, or was this Vail company just amusing themselves at the expense of the poor tourists who paid to have poop kicked in their faces? I would love to take the kids on a dog-sledding excursion in Alaska but not if it's gonna be like that again.

 

[Geomom]

How odd! We did not experience that on our Alaskan trip. We did the dog cart ride at Caribou Crossing Trading Post (during our Yukon bus/rail excursion through Chilkoot Charters during our Skagway stop). Did not notice any stench at all. My kids were in the front of the cart and did get hit by some dirt/pebbles that the dogs kicked up when running on the dirt track--but nothing else! The dogs do get a 'water' break halfway through the run. They go to the side of the trail where there are some kids swimming pools set up for them--so maybe they did their business there...

 

[ahain]

Geomom's experience echoed ours as well....no stench/no visible poop.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Yeah I'm starting to think that particular outfit just had a sick sense of humor. Thanks that's a relief! I think my kiddos will really live it if we get to go in Alaska.

 

[YawningDodo]

The one time I've gone dogsledding (the company that operates out of Chico Hot Springs in Montana), the dogs did poop while on the trail. I was on the guides' sled because I was a solo and had actually asked about it before seeing it because I was curious how that worked on a long run, and I got the impression that it wasn't a matter of training them to do it but simply a matter of not training them not to do it. The only time the team would stop was if the lead dog stopped (never happened on my trip), so you had to keep an eye on your lead in case you needed to brake, but if you're doing an excursion where you get to control your sled/cart yourself you need to be watching your lead dog anyway. If any of the other dogs needed to poop they would do it a full run without breaking stride -- it was actually kind of impressive to watch them squat and gallop at the same time (I only saw two dogs on our ten-dog team do this during a half day excursion). The stink was brief because you'd just zoom right past the mess the dog had made; as a dog owner I wasn't bothered since I get worse from having to pick up after my dog on walks.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We did a dog-sledding excursion in Alaska and that was not our experience at all.

 

[jrabbit]

we did our sled dog excursion in Juneau. Was fantastic. Our guide qualified for and ran in the Iditarod the prior year and plans to continue racing in it.

The dogs pulled us in a golf cart, didn't notice any poo on the course and really enjoyed the entire experience. The dogs are so excited and want to get out and run!!

and at the end we got to hold a puppy!

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

The one time I've gone dogsledding (the company that operates out of Chico Hot Springs in Montana), the dogs did poop while on the trail. I was on the guides' sled because I was a solo and had actually asked about it before seeing it because I was curious how that worked on a long run, and I got the impression that it wasn't a matter of training them to do it but simply a matter of not training them not to do it. The only time the team would stop was if the lead dog stopped (never happened on my trip), so you had to keep an eye on your lead in case you needed to brake, but if you're doing an excursion where you get to control your sled/cart yourself you need to be watching your lead dog anyway. If any of the other dogs needed to poop they would do it a full run without breaking stride -- it was actually kind of impressive to watch them squat and gallop at the same time (I only saw two dogs on our ten-dog team do this during a half day excursion). The stink was brief because you'd just zoom right past the mess the dog had made; as a dog owner I wasn't bothered since I get worse from having to pick up after my dog on walks.

LOL I wish that had been our experience. It wasn't a half-day excursion, it was maybe a 15 minute ride, and EVERY dog on the team did its business in that time. We counted ourselves lucky because we were in the first cart, there were 4 going in a row and the poor suckers in the last cart got hit by the stench of every poop from the first 3 teams! Like I said it was arranged by the company retreat so I didn't even bother to Yelp it beforehand.