Louisa Morrissey: Skijoring a great sport with dogs

I think it is great that the Summit Daily put in a note about skijoring in “Ted’s Picks” on Friday Jan. 2. As both a skijorer and as someone who has taught several skijor workshops, I would like to shed a little more light on the sport. Having had first-hand experience at the Devil’s Thumb workshops, as well as other community skijor workshops, I know that all of these organizations support the ideas below.

First, it is a sport about people and their dogs … and developing the relationship between them. It is a team sport! The person needs to ski and work as well; the dog is not just pulling. Even more importantly, the person needs to have and develop good dog-handling skills as well as basic skiing skills. Of utmost importance is patience, consistency and a positive attitude.

Skijoring is a sport that can be enjoyed on classic, touring, backcountry and, yes, skate skis. The main skiing prerequisites are the ability to keep one’s balance on crosscountry skis, to control your speed and to be able to stop. Skate skiing is NOT the only prerequisite for doing skijoring. The type of skiing one chooses will depend on the terrain, the speed and the experience someone wants to have that day with their dogs. Similarly, people can enjoy skijoring with their dogs at many different speeds. It is misleading to think one is being pulled along at breakneck speeds in an uncontrolled fashion. People should be in control of the dogs and the top speed is determined by the person, using good, positive dog-handling techniques.

I hope people will learn more about this sport and realize there is something for everyone and their dogs to be enjoyed, fast or slow!