i was talking to phil from culpeppers and he said that getting permits is very hard these days as the forestry commission only give out a certain number per year and its a case of ' dead mans shoes', some people have them but dont use them, but they wont give them up, which is a shame for people who seriously want to train. the forest near me is too small, so they dont give out permits at all, i am currently trying to persuade the MoD to let me train on a nearby disused airfield

well if im honest my first thought was maybee there was something wrong but the owner said it was probably his fault as he thought maybee he hadnt trained enough???? they all seemed happy enough when they started up again though!!

Oh we were there too - my OH was running 2 Malamutes

Had to share this, I found it the other day when I was looking for reference for sled dogs for a tattoo, he is an Alaskan Husky Pointer cross.

Wow - isn't he striking.

True, but that doesn't preclude other breeds if you're dedicated. A team of standard poodles ran, and completed, the Iditarod 3 times in the 90s. The guy running them, John Suter, ran over 280 races with standard poodles, including sprint, middle and long distance, and they came 1st, 2nd or 3rd in about a third of those races. And apparently his daughter and her team of SPs still hold the record for the fastest time to complete the junior iditarod by a first-timer.

I've often wondered how their diamante, ribbons and bows stood up to it

I just love that picture, I should have entered it in the competition, he looks very striking and such a happy looking fella too, beautiful blue eyes....Poodles I would never have believed that thanks for the info.

John Suter did race the Iditarod four times with his poodles, finishing three times. The poodles were banned from entering the race after one of them died in the 1991 Iditarod. They got extremely wet and cold.

Hence this is why it now says in the Iditarod rules the dogs have to be of nothern breeds.

Sadly about 120-130 dogs have died in the Iditarod, most of which are of course northern breeds. Cause of these deaths include injuries, pnemonia and heart failure. I'm not suggesting the rules excluding anything but northern breeds for the gruelling Iditarod is wrong, though I do query the limitation to northern breeds for sledding in the UK.

The first Iditarod was run in 1973 so since then there has been 36 races. Almost 100 teams have signed for the 2007 race (all including 16-20 dogs). During the last years there has been 1 or 2 deaths per year.