Alaska News

Meet the Sled Dogs: Muddy Waters

Age: 1

Gender: Female

Weight: 35 pounds

Position: Lead

Musher: Karin Hendrickson, Wasilla

"This is Muddy Waters, she comes from the 'Blues Legends' litter....she is just a year old. She's gonna lead. We don't have a lot of one-year-old leaders but she insists on it ... When she's not in the lead she spends all of her time trying to get around the guys in front of her and screaming her head off like a wild dog. She just prefers to lead.

"A bigger kennel, there'll be a main team that's a competitive team and then they'll have a handler or somebody else take their dogs on a nice slower trip where they can learn. I don't have that many dogs or that much money or that much help, so my puppies have to learn along with my main team. So she's my only yearling going this year, I think....Muddy has made it clear that she wants to be on the team.

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"She's a baby and because there was so much bad weather this year we haven't done any racing, so she's never raced before. So that's too much pressure for a baby. So with her...as soon as it looks like she's not feeling good or she's tired or she's just not having fun anymore, then she's going to go home. I'm not going to push her."

Devin Kelly

Anchorage Daily News / adn.com

Anchorage

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