Hebron woman trains sled dogs, but sport isn’t just about racing

For dogs that want to race, “they have to love running more than they love you,” Hebron resident and dog trainer Hanna Kowal said.

Now 22, Kowal has been training her dogs to race while pulling a sled since she was 16 and in high school. That is when she got her first Siberian husky. A neighbor saw her with the puppy and asked if she’d like to learn to sled train the dog, Kowal said.

That first experience working with the neighbor, then training with other sled dog racers, led Kowal into spending a good portion of her high school years competing solo or as part of a team for races in Wisconsin and around the region.

But these days, Kowal works and attends McHenry County College. Competition racing will wait until after she completes her radiology technician degree, Kowal said.

While competition is sidelined, the dogs and Kowal are not.

Anyone who regularly hikes on the McHenry County Conservation District’s Glacial Park or Winding Creek trails might see Kowal and her four dogs as she trains with them on what looks like a tripod bicycle.

“As long as [the park] allows bikes and dogs – and they are a leashed dog, they are attached to me – they allow it,” Kowal said of the conservation district parks.

She usually has the Siberian huskies, Milo, Damon, Aarluk, and black Labrador Rigby, with her. A fifth dog, Onyx, is a new addition to the pack that Kowal rescued. The dog hasn’t been introduced to the sled dog life quite yet.

For the uninitiated, what might be surprising is that sled dogs don’t actually need snow to run or pull sleds or rigs like Kowal’s. In fact, many dog race events are designed for running on dry land.

The Wisconsin Trailblazers Sled Dog Club hosts a dry land race every October in Minocqua, club President Dan Bocock said.

Kowal and her dogs have been a part of that race, and she previously competed in Trailblazers events.

Now, Kowal runs the dogs about every other day through the winter months to keep up their skills. That means mornings loading up her truck with the rig, lines, harnesses and food, then getting the dogs into their crates.

When they get to wherever they are running for the day, it is Rigby, the black Labrador, on the line first because he will keep it the straightest, Kowal said.

“Rigby, he is the takeoff. He gets us out” and running the fastest of all the dogs, she said.

That is another surprise for people not familiar with the sport, Bocock said. At the Wisconsin organization’s races, there can be “60 to 70 people running with their dog and it is every breed of dog out there,” including labs, cocker spaniels and pit bulls, he said.

He runs what are called eurohounds, a cross between an Alaskan husky and German shorthaired pointer. They look more “greyhoundy” than either of the two other breeds, Bocock said. “It is a misconception that you have to have a husky,” he said.

Mutts also are popular for racing, Kowal said.

“For most people, huskies are the least popular. People have mutts because they want the diversity of a good, strong, willing-to-work endurance dog,” Kowal said.

She’s also learned a lot about racing dogs since she started – such as how it can be an expensive sport and not just because of how much the dogs eat. Driving to competitions and keeping them and the gear in top form adds up, she said.

And not all dogs interested in running.

“A dog isn’t going to run and pull just because you tell them to. They can learn to love it,” she said.

A dog will tell its person pretty quickly if racing is something they want to do. “You will know. They will do a hard sit and won’t move” when they aren’t into it, Kowal said.

And she doesn’t race them in the summer heat. That is when the dogs are practicing agility in the family’s back pasture or dock diving at a lake as a way to keep in racing form.

“It keeps their muscle up and works them differently” for the offseason, Kowal said.

It took only one race for Kowal to decide racing was something she wanted to keep doing. That happens with other dog lovers and owners, too, Bocock said.

“If your dog likes to run, you don’t have to have a sled dog” to get into the sport, he said.

Bocock invites those who want to see what sled dog racing entails to come to the Wisconsin Trailblazers Sled Dog Club events in the southeast part of the state. The International Sled Dog Racing Association’s website, isdra.org, has a getting started page, too, he noted.

There are “quite a few mushers” in Illinois, including those at the annual Rig Rendezvous event each November in Woodstock, Bocock said.

“Talk to people who have gotten into the sport,” he suggested. “Go out and have fun and run with the dog and get started. If you want to get further into it, look into the races around here.”