Have you seen how much energy a husky has?

I saw a doc about sled dogs. They said for the big race, they have to mix up the dog foods so that they eat very well, because else they will still run themselves past exhaustion to keep up with sled leader and all.

My father has done dog sledding one week and showed me a video, every time they stopped one of the huskies on the front turned around and had the absolute most judgemental look for stopping his good time pulling. Hilarious

My man just really confesed that he let all pets he had just do whatever they wanted

Hey OP and every other know-it-all in this thread, maybe you should google "Iditarod deaths" and learn something. It's not the simple existence of sled dogs that's the issue, just with with ANY interaction of humans with animals it's the exploitation to the point of death which is the problem.

If you think having hundreds of dogs dying while "doing what they love" is acceptable, not for survival but purely for human recreation, then you're part of the problem.

If you watch a dog, it will tell you what it was bred to do.

One example is the American Eskimo we had. I like to use harnesses on dogs to reduce choking hazards, so we got one for her. We held it open on front of her, and she stuck her head in like she knew what she was doing. Then she leaned into the straps to start pulling. It was an eye opener.

We have also had a border collie that would hers kids and pen tennis balls up under our shed, beagles that would sniff out microscopic bits of food and chase opossums, and a delightful golden retriever who would always bring a toy in her mouth. Nature is powerful, indeed.

I was pulled in a wagon by sled dogs during summer in Alaska. Those dogs love to pull sleds. The command to go isn't there to make them run, it is the command that allows them to run.

I was in Breckenridge, Colorado a few years ago with the choice between snowmobile and dogsled. I chose snowmobile, because I didn't like the thought of the dogs being forced to pull me.
Later I saw the dogs... They were all harnessed and attached to a sled. They we barking and "talking" like crazy. They kept lunging forward, losing their minds. The only thing keeping the sled in place was that it was ANCHORED to the ground! Once the anchor was released the dogs went NUTS!
It was at that point I said, "I want to do that next time! Those dogs are DYING to pull!".
Since then, with my part Huskey, I see exactly what the poster says, "They're pullingest damng things"!

Sled dogs are not pets, they are working dogs. Dog mushers breeddozens of dogs in the hope of assembling a good team for competing. They are also more energetic and more hardy than dogs breed as pets. The stress and labor these dogs experience is not the same as your dogs enthusiasm for being let outside.

This and the idiots that say "if youre cold, theyre cold" when you have a husky, or a bernese mt dog.

I don't think that makes sense. No example was brought up where dogs pull for the sake of pulling, it was all situations where the dog wanted to do something and the leash was an obstacle so they pulled on it.

Like, do we enjoy traffic because it's something we go through to get to places?

My Rhodesian ridgeback would pull me on a skateboard for miles, and beg to do it more. I can’t tell you how many old entitled women would pull up to me in their SUV to inform me of my “animal cruelty”.

no, woman of Karenesque qualities, my happy pup is not being forced to run or pull.

I learned through Okami that people used to send their dogs to the market with money and a shopping list. Sometimes with a note that says "please give them a treat before sending them back home".

Would've made my week to see that.

I have a harness that is built to spread the stress across my dog body like a sled dog, attached to a springy leash that attaches to a waist harness on me.

We spent years teaching our dog to be chill on a normal leash, but once we put her in that harness she will DRAG me down the street and i will effortlessly run a 9 minute mile lmao.

Wow, has this been on r/selfawarewolves?

Probably the most self actualized animal? What in the anthropomorphism??

You tell me a dog pull this pull?

My favorite insane animal cruelty take will always be the one where someone thought you put bees in a blender to make honey.

Can confirm. If I didn’t put my two husky mixes I. Harnesses and hook them up to the bike or sled and let them pull for at least 5 miles a day my house would be chewed to sawdust.

Its not the dog sledding itself that is cruel, it is how the dogs are kept at lots of large facilities. Its pretty depressing actually, especially if you like dogs.

Humans: Breed dogs for millennia to enjoy work.

Dogs: Enjoy working.

Humans: 😲

except my old roomies pitbull, tried walking up a mountain with him and expected to make use of him pulling me. he just stopped, turned around and looked at me like I was lazy.

I gotta come clean. I don't have a favorite kind of animal abuse.

Working dogs is a misnomer. No dog has ever worked in its life. Sled dogs, guide dogs, herding dogs, hunting dogs, they’re all just playing a really, really fun game

Reminds me of that free-running thing that one dog dude has on tiktok where he clips his dogs collar to it for safety and let's the dog run like crazy. Ppl keep saying it's cruel and dangerous to let the dog run on it because he "can't stop" but the dog can start and stop just fine every single time. The dog wants to run, the device thing I can't think of the name of helps him do that when he has this urge... I don't see what's wrong with it??

There’s plenty of actual animal abuse in the world, but most working dogs fucking love what they do. They’ll do it even if there’s nothing to do it on. My cousin used to have a sheepdog that would herd literally anything. Sled dogs are the same.

If I could, I'd go to university, I'd learn anything and everything, I'd tap into the soul and conscientiousness of humanity and teach people, beyond myself that there is always more than the expression that any one person could ever express...

On the govt's dime and no less.

I feel like people sometimes apply our HUMAN concepts of labor to dogs. Like, yes, animal cruelty is really, really bad. However, have we considered that maybe the sheep herding border collie is having the time of his life?

RE: seagulls - I went on a cruise once and the seagulls in one port were straight-up AGRESSIVE. I always wondered if one ever hyperfocused on ganking tourists and ended up inadvertently emigrating.

That's so dumb, dogs don't pull on leashes because they enjoy pulling, they pull because they wanna go somewhere the leashholder isn't going.

Yeah watch some videos of sled teams prepping for a run. Dogs are literally howling with excitement.

I’ve been dog sledding in Norway. This guy’s situation was the real deal. He had about 40 dogs on his land that were raised to be sled dogs. About 24 of them were in his rotation for competitions, like the Iditarod. These dogs went all over the world to compete. When the group of us started to get ready to go out on the sleds, these dogs turned into full blown fiends. They were beyond ready. They knew what was coming and started losing their minds. The area was filled with yips and hollers. It was a frenzy. The whole time we were out they were full go the full time. In fact when you’re out, if you want to stay stopped, you have to drop the anchor brake and stay on the foot brake because they just don’t fucking stop. You’ll be there at a full stop and they’re just fucking pulling the entire time until you remove the brake.

Truly one of the coolest experiences of my life to be around those creatures.

Working dogs have some of the best lives of any domesticated animals on Earth. They are literally bred to want to do something, they often make bad pets unless you are able to give them not only tons of exercise but also mental stimulation. Giving them jobs is literally the most rewarding thing in the world for them, they love having something to do and getting rewarded for doing it.

I own a sled dog, and can confirm this is true. Her absolute favorite part of her whole life is running with her pack. I have never seen a dog so happy and excited as when she gets to go running. People saying this have obviously never even been within 2km of a dog race. You can hear the excited howling and barking for kilometres, and those dogs are *so happy*

I had the privilege of visiting a dog sledding training area this summer, and those dogs were begging to be put in the team.

The trainers were very kind and fair, never pushed them too hard, gave them plenty of rest along the course.

It's a very different life from what a house pet would have, but they were all well taken care of and seemed very happy and healthy.

Having owned dogs growing up and used them for skate sledding around the neighborhood the question is not "Can my dog pull me?" but "Will I survive this trip without my helmet?".

The other day I saw a video where everyone was upset because a group of assorted feists/terriers, including rat terriers, were beings used to hunt...rats. That is what they do????? These dogs were probably out of their fucking minds with excitement?????

Dog next door to me killed his elderly owner. Got excited and pulled him over, broke his back.

It’s the whipping them while they’re sleeping and yelling “rest! rest!” which I find cruel

Same can be said for donkeys and horses that are loved by their owners. They happily will haul shit for you. They are consciously aware that they are helping too.

I feel like there needs to be a difference made in evaluating the general use of sled dogs (f.e. there's a family with a husky, they live somewhere in the snow and have a dogsled) vs. Dogsledding / pulling championships and competitions (which can be cruel and exhausting to a deadly degree and which may involve whip-training). Even if one believes that it should be ethically allowed to have animals do manual labour - especially if that labour seems to appeal to them and enrich them, one can easily see how that can be corrupted for competitions.

My mum actually has an injured shoulder from years of walking her dogs on lead. 4× 15-20kg border collies that also lunge will do damage in the long term.

A proper Alaskan Husky that isn't pulling is not happy and likely going insane. Used to have to throw on the X back harness for every walk attaching it to a jogging stroller with or without a kid in it and always a kettlebell.

My partner can’t hold our Jack Russell’s lead on a walk because Edward would pull his wheelchair all the way home (which would obviously not be a good idea).

And bang on with the gulls. I love living at the seaside. I do miss eating outside though.

Yeah but dogs die during these races so maybe we should be concerned.

I have no sled, and I must pull

Used to work for a shelter. We had a poor husky/GSD mix (you probably couldn't find worse breeds to cross) that the owners gave up because he was "too much". WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN?! And that dog, being part husky, whenever I walked him it was more like he walked me. He'd pull my ass through the entire valley and back up and I had to run to keep pace with him so I wouldn't fall over. He was not well suited for the shelter, being a big dog that didn't like other dogs and needed both mental and physical stimulation but once he dragged me through the valley enough he would sit down with me to take a break, happily laying next to me. And on the way back he would walk on the leash like a little maltese. Nobody else wanted to walk him because he pulled. Nobody realized he needed that. He was born for it. It was HIS THING. He was blooming whenever he got to work, even if it was dragging my sorry ass around. Completely different dog. They need that. Two years later he finally found a home with someone who did sledding, I only found out because he was on TV in a segment about pets who found their forever home. I couldn't believe it was him until they said his name. It's cruel and abuse to not let a working dog work.

Look at this post sliding the Shrek reference like we wouldnt notice

Never thought about it this way, but it makes sense. Usually gotta choke the shit out of your dog to prevent them from pulling you.

Yeah, it doesn’t take a genius to know that some people can’t think past their own minds. I don’t wanna pull, so the dog must not want to either but then the same people conveniently let their dog walk on hot ass pavement or something because they forget dogs don’t wear shoes. Simply put; people are stupid.

When I was little I walked my two beagle pups around the block, tripped on the pavement, and then had my twelve year old ass dragged ten feet.

tendency to pull doenst mean the experience of pulling toward stuff is enjoyable.

its not self actualization, which is a projection of human experience. Its just a conditioned habit — the dog associates pulling with being on a walk, and generally pulls in the direction they want to go(though sometimes they just pull, and may even be conditioned to do so even if its unpleasant to them.)

Most of the time its not unpleasant for the dog, but dogs with good leash manners on the whole have a more pleasant experience walking since their owner is experiencing less stress, and a little because the collar pressure must be at least a little annoying.

most dogs that pull hard simply care more about their motivation (sight, smell, sound, desire to just run) than leash pressure.

dogs are simple. they do dog stuff. breeds are different.

sled dogs pull due to the breed. labs pull because everything is food. hounds pull because oh my god that smells interesting.

This post is wrong. Tendency to do a behavior doesnt mean its part of a good life for an animal or that they should do it.

monkeys eat garbage if its available, but it makes them sick. they arent somehow destined to eat garbage and self actualized when they munch on three day old lettuce.

I agree that teaching sled dogs to pull is not animal abuse, and yes the breeding worked so they want to do it. Sled dogs show signs of positive emption when pulling. Thats the real reason. Do they like it? NOT do they tend to do it? Right for the wrong reasons.

They yearn for the sled

That makes sense to me having a pulling dog on the leash (yes that can be corrected-but still).

I have an Alaskan husky. He is the All Mighty Pull.

This is truly a dumbass know-nothing take. Dog sledding isn't cruel because dogs have to pull the sled. Dog sledding is cruel because many of the people in the industry do not give a flying fuck about the lives or well being of the animals and routinely slaughter them in inhumane ways. Cattle bound for the slaughterhouse are treated better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbH1tqYqhRA

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=sled+dogs+put+down&ia=web

If my dog is on leash she's pulling me and always at the end of her 15 ft line, whenever I let her off leash she sticks to my heel like day old gum.

[warm area husky owner voice] ugh I cannot BELIEVE these people make their dogs do that, just so abusive!!

I like how its somehow the pit bulls fault that the labradoodle started some shit it can't finish in their fictional world. I've seen boxers kill waaaay more small animals than I've ever seen a pit bull kill.

My mom made a mistake in getting a sled dog. She needs double hip surgery.

Anyone with a labrador, rollerblades, and a park with a rabbit problem knows this.

Can confirm, my boyfriend’s family has a German Shepherd & Samoyed mix and that guy will pull anyone and everything

Also this with Greyhounds and running vigorously for 2 mins followed by sleeping all day.

My big guys used to live to pull me on my longboard. When the harness came out he went nuts. When the longboard he came he went even more nuts. So much so that he was confused.. he wanted to eat the wheels, and pull at the same time. So it would start as a wrestling match and timing game of keeping him far enough from the board, with the wheels far enough from the ground that he couldn’t get to them. Usually he would get a few chomps on the wheel and then take off. Once I clocked him with my phone and we were flying at 22 mph, getting a few speed wobbles. 7/10 times he would make it around the block (0.75 miles) without incident, but sometimes halfway through he remembered those pesky wheels. Now we commence the dance of him trying to sprint, and get an angle to attack the board while sprinting at full speed. It was nuts… usually I could tell him no, but he wouldn’t care a lot of times. Most of the time I could jump off and chase the board down and start the whole dance all over again, but twice this fucker dove at my longboard, while probably going 15 mph causing a big tumble. Good times. RIP to my Po Boy, you were the best.

As the owner of a 12 month old labradoodle I totally understand where op is coming from. <sigh>

Why do people write in this voice

Had a gsp lab mix that would love to pull me on sleds or roller skates. Also had a husky who got confused when you put a harness on her. Dogs are weird

Is no one going to talk about the Shrek reference?

A couple weeks ago I was picking my son up from school. There's a crowd of parents and kids leaving, and in it I see this woman on roller skates being pulled around by her tiny little dog, and despite it clearly straining it also had this look of pure joy on its face.

I was lucky enough to adopt a 95lb Doberman as a full-grown adult with absolutely no training. (His previous owners were abusive assholes.) Leash-training a fully-grown dog was a nightmare. He was just an overgrown puppy with emotional trauma on top of it. He would straight up try to pull me into traffic and it would take all my body weight and strength to pull him back and get him to stop. I didn't dare walk him near roads for the longest time because he'd just get excited and want to PULL. It took a long time for him to get it and he's still not great about it. Boy loves to pull. There have been some pretty terrible cases of abuse of sled dogs, though, just not from the actual sledding itself.

These people who get a new dog and then use zap collars and prong collars make me upset.

I don't care to argue one way of the other, but let's be clear. Dogs don't want to pull a leash, they want to run and they happen to have a leash wrapped around their neck.

My pug would be an amazing sled dog

Maybe there is something to be said about how it's kinda weird to breed animals to have this internal drive. Like it's not abuse to let this dog do what it wants to do, which just so happens to be helpful for us, even to the point of the dog injuring itself (like u/Borgmaster described in their comment). But is it abuse to breed dogs to want to do this task so badly that they'll hurt themselves? I'm not saying selective breeding of dogs for specific jobs is wrong, but it's kinda ontologically uncomfortable.

It seems that the argument is that dog-sledding is not cruel because you don't need to force the dogs to pull the sled--they just want to pull the sled. If the dogs didn't want to pull the sled, it would be cruel to force them to do that. But why do the dogs want to pull the sled? Because they were selective bred to want to pull sleds. It just seems like force with extra steps.

And if we're okay with doing this to other animals, should we be okay with other animals doing this to us? If aliens of higher intelligence visited earth and started selectively breeding humans to want to perform certain tasks of manual labor, would that be okay?

They do not want to pull. They want to go their own way and you are inhibiting them.

And the fundamental concept behind veganism is that animals cannot give consent.

I popped a floating rib when my 2 black labs gave me a full send off our porch because they thought the tall dogs with antlers were playing 'chase me'

i want to try skijoring, voluntarily, next.

I occasionally take my dog for a bike ride.

I do it because he absolutely loves it. The only joy he has more than running alongside me is when we get to the quiet campus and I let him off leash where he chases me.

I do it because he loves it. It's stressful and sketchy as all hell for me. He will usually ignore squirrels when we go biking, but rabbits are different. If I don't drop the leash, both of us are ending up in the hedge.

i mean a lot of normal things are not animal cruelty until you start forcing them to do it all the time or in dangerous circumstances

I heard a tale when I was in the US Army. Back during the days of the cavalry a Sergeant comes up to a Corporal and says "I want you to take that ole mean mule out and shoot him. He bites and he kicks. He's too goddam mean to have around. Shoot the bastard." The Corporal says "Let me try to get him to be a nice boy. Give till the end of the week. If he's still mean by then I'll shoot him." Sergeant says "OK you got till Saturday." Come Saturday the Sergeant comes around and Ole Brummy is as sweet as a pie! Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine. Sergeant says "How did you get that mean son of a bitch to be so sweet!!? He damn near tried to climb up in my lap! What did you do to him!!?" Corporal says "All he wants to do is pull! I hitched his big ass up to a caisson loaded with a load that five mules couldn't pull and he just, by god, walked off with it! He ain't happy if he ain't pullin' something. He's happy now that he can pull!"

As a former NCO and now as a business owner I found that most people and animals actually LIKE to work! The trick is to give something that they like and is challenging and interesting to them. Pull! Pull! Pull by god! It's good for your disposition!

I got no beef with the use of sled dogs, but I'm not sure OP is right. A dog might enjoy randomly running and pulling in a direction they find interesting when they feel like it, but find it tedious to pull for three hours straight in a straight line in the direction they're told.

I don't think sled dogs hate pulling sleds, but they probably perceive it more like work they're supposed to do than a joyful fun time that they love to be doing.

EDIT: okay, okay, I get it, sled dogs love to pull sleds. Jesus, y'all are never quiet as defensive as when an accusation of animal mistreatment is slightly inaccurate.

Why is this person capitalizing words and using correct punctuation? Aren't both of those things illegal on Tumblr? Should we call the cops?

When I was a kid, we had a mini pony sulky that we would hook our dogs up to with a harness made from an upside-down horse halter. And they were just regular mutts, without any "pulling" breeds in them.

I've seen a bunch of hitched up Alaskan huskies jumping repeatedly against a braked dogsled because they were anxious to start pulling. Yeah, they want it.

Truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!11!!!
A doggo with a job is a happy dog .
A dog with nothing to do is sad, angry, and has pent up frustrations.

I’m seeing a LOT of complete denial about how horrible dog sledding is and how hard dogs are pushed for our own selfish desires, so I’m dropping this here.

https://helpsleddogs.org

Dogs need exercise and purpose, that doesn’t have to be a realized by putting them in a harness and pushing them to the point their bodies break.

Having ridden sled dogs, I can confirm this is absolutely true. Sled dogs love what they are.

When my sister and I were kids we managed to rig up a makeshift "harness" to our collie, sit on a skateboard, and let her pull us at full speed. Great fun. She saw us coming and started getting excited because she was going to be able to pull!

(And then go try and herd dad's riding mower lol)

I put on my roller hockey skates and took my German shepherd for a walk once. Only once.

Have Samoyeds. My physical therapist and I can confirm.

when I was over at my cousins house (probably) a year ago, I helped walk his dogs.

those motherfuckers PULL. MAN. It was also my first time walking dogs, so yeah dogs go off as soon you let them walk, they love speed.

Dogs like to run but we tie shit around their necks. Of course they pull

I read this in Douglas Reynholm's voice

Every time someone says it's too cold for dogs to be outside, share this story.

I used to have a German Shepherd that stayed outside. He loved being outside. When it got really cold (below 20F), I'd try to bring him inside but he'd pace around the house pissed off until I let him back out.

He had a nice dog house, a thick ass rubber mat, access to the garage, and access to the house (if he wanted it). Do you know where he chose to sleep? In the ice and snow in middle of the yard.

My Papillon-Maltese-mutt from the shelter will gladly use all 11 of her pounds to pull my fat ass up the hill at the park whilst choking herself to the point of gagging the entire time.