Quote:
Originally Posted by AMERICANI
I was talking to someone who raced sled dogs in Alaska at the Iditarod. There was a team of Standard Poodles in the race that did very well, but later the tree huggers protested using them because they were not "sled dogs"... This type of mentality is ludicrous.... many different dogs, EVEN OF THE SAME BREED are good at many different things!
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That's not exactly true.
Mr. Suter did alright with his Poodles in the Iditarod.. But I don't think that any of the Iditarod teams were exclusively Poodles. In 1988 he became the first to finish with a Poodle as lead-dog because he'd put the Poodle in that position about a mile out from the finishing line. In 1990, he finished the Iditarod without a Poodle left (he started with 12 Poodles and 8 Huskies).
The Poodles had been dismissed early on in the race at vet check points, which, trust me, have nothing to do with 'tree huggers' due to safety and health concerns. Poodles do not have an insulating undercoat due to their water-friendly coat, and their feet are not insulated like a Nordic breeds' would be.
Mr. Suter himself said in an 1990 interview, "Those young poodles looked great up to about McGrath, and then they faded really bad."
http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...4&slug=1111229
Breeds are bred for a reason and whatever that reason is should be their strong point. Of course there are frequently breeds that excel at things outside of their typical use, but it should be done in fun and one should never buy a dog meant for X and
expect it to do Y. It is exactly this mentality that leads to wrong expectations of a dog and can lead to surrendering dogs to the shelter. For example, buying a Jack Russel Terrier to be a nice quiet home companion. I'm sure you can find some like this, but this is far from the norm.
I'm sure that Mr. Suter might have found his Poodles to be even better water retrievers.
