Bold: Racing with dogs

Dog musher Julia Cross tried dog sledding for the first time when she was five, at the Fort William Historical Park. “I went for a ride, and I was immediately hooked,” she says.

Cross says she loved dogs so much as a child that for her fourth birthday, she asked to invite the neighbourhood dogs to her party rather than kids. She also loved spending time outdoors, so the idea of an activity that combined dogs and the outdoors was irresistible.

She eventually started going for rides at Boreal Journeys Sled Dog Kennel in Kaministiquia. The owner of the kennel taught her the basics of mushing, and Cross participated in her first race in 2014.

Now 19, Cross is a second year student at Lakehead University, and also works part time at a vet clinic in town. Her goal is to become a veterinarian.

She has participated in well over 20 races, and hopes to go to the Sidewinder race in Winnipeg, Manitoba later this month, and to another race in Grand Marais, Minnesota in March.

Cross lives with her team of seven dogs. Jitterbug and Brooks are her “superstar dogs,” the lead dogs that run at the front of the team. “Both of those dogs are forward oriented dogs. When you hook them on the line, they’re not looking back, their harnesses are always tight, always pulling, always charging forward,” Cross explains.

It’s also important that the lead dogs are smart and have a great bond with the musher. “When you’re out on the trail, you have to trust that these dogs will listen to you, and take you down the trail, and follow your commands.”

The seven dogs spend 50-60 per cent of their time outdoors, but they live at home with Cross, so they get lots of time with her, especially the lead dogs. “I make sure they have a really good bond with me,” she says.

Cross likes to get her dogs as puppies. “Genetics are huge in dog mushing,” she explains. The dog mushing community is large and well connected, so Cross know who has the type of dogs she prefers. “The key thing with puppies is you want to look at the parents. You want to get puppies out of parents that do the type of racing and running you want to do.”

Her preference is for versatile dogs; ones that can run faster for mid-distance races, but who can also gear down for long-distance races. “Ours are able to do both and adapt to the type of racing I’m doing at that time,” she says.

Training has been a challenge lately, since Cross has to juggle her studies and job at the vet clinic as well. “I spend a lot of late nights out training the dogs,” she says. “They’re on my schedule but they still need to run; they need exercise and to get stimulation.”

When there is no snow, she does dryland training and racing, which is a sport where mushers race with a smaller number of dogs, or one dog, on bicycles, scooters, carts, or on foot. “I really like that because you get to work one on one with certain dogs, and build that relationship,” she adds. In October 2021 she went to Quebec for the Canadian National Drylands Championships.

In the Thunder Bay Area, people who want to try out the sport can go to Boreal Journeys in Kaministiquia, or Borealis Sled Dog Adventures in Vermilion Bay. There are about a dozen dog mushers in Thunder Bay, Cross says, so you could ask around and try to get to know some. For equipment, Chaltrek on Balmoral carries dog sleds, harnesses and other equipment.

Cross says her main focus right now is to finish her degree and to get into vet school. When time allows again, she hopes to ramp up to serious racing, and one day, participate in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska. “It’s the Super Bowl of dog mushing; it’s a 1000 miles,” she says. “That’s my eventual goal; I’d love to enter that race and maybe become the highest place Canadian in that race!”