By Cameron Jones

This year’s annual Grand Mesa Challenge Sled Dog race is not just for the dogs. Both the Colorado Mountain Mushers and Rocky Mountain Sled Dog Club work together to host “the highest international sprint sled dog race on the earth’s biggest flat top mountain.” But this year, they are looking to raise money to benefit Mesa County Partners. The idea came from local sled dog racer Jesse Miltier.

“I was at a race in Casper, Wyoming called ‘K9 for Charity’ last February, held to raise money for disabled children,” Miltier said. “It made me think, we should do something like this in Grand Junction.”

Since then, Miltier has been working to find a way to use sled dogging to help children in the Grand Valley. Miltier, a senior partner himself, decided that raising money for Partners’ Youth Mentoring programs was the best place to start. The Grand Mesa Challenge, held January 28 and 29, will be the first race used as a fund-raiser because of the amount of racers involved and the event being local.

“Both clubs are represented and competing in this race,” Miltier said. “This is the only race where this happens.”

This year, the clubs not only want to compete and raise money for Partners, but they want to promote the sport of sled dogging to younger generations. Miltier sees a poor economy and not enough exposure as contributing factors to lack of interest in sled dogging in the Grand Valley.

“We want to see senior and junior partners working together and hopefully helping make sled dogging another popular winter time activity,” Miltier said.

There are many different ways to try sled dogging. Other than various sized sled dog teams, there’s also skijoring, which is when a person on skis is pulled by a dog. This year’s race will feature sprint races with four, six and eight dog teams, and a junior class for two and three dog teams on a small track.

There will be a benefit symposium from 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Friday, January 27 at Canyon View Vineyard Church, located at 736 24-1/2 Road in Grand Junction, where a local icon in sled dog racing, John Perry will be the featured speaker.

Perry, 70, has been racing sled dogs for 15 years. He has won 11 International Sled Dog Racing Association (ISDRA) medals in a four-year period. He won three gold medals in the four, six and eight dog team competition in 2003 at a race in Ouray, being the first to ever achieve such an accomplishment. Perry said his work ethic, competitive nature and training methods have helped build his success in the sled dog world. He has formed his own breed of sled dog, which he has dubbed “the Perry racing hound.” It is part German shorthaired pointer, a breed of dog Perry has had since 1949, and a mystery dog breed that he has only revealed to those closest to him.

Perry was introduced to sled dogging at a young age. One day, when Perry was at grammar school, an Alaskan dogsledder came to his school and gave Perry and his classmates a ride around the playground in his sled.

“It was the most fun I ever had while in school,” Perry said.

But it wasn’t until his mid-50s that Perry entered his first sled dog competition. He took last place in a four-dog team race. A couple of years later, he started finishing in the top 20, then the top 10. Perry continued to persevere until he started winning medals.

“The last time my wife and I did the math, we figured I’d won over one hundred races,” Perry said.

Perry’s philosophy on training his dogs is, “Everything should be fun. If you are not having fun, you are moving backwards.”

Perry puts an enormous amount of time and energy into building a relationship with his dogs as a team, as well as individually, which is not a common technique. He believes that a love for the animal is the number one key to his success. While any dog can be trained to run, the German short hair is a breed that will seek to please its master. Perry uses this drive in training his dogs to run, “until running becomes an addiction.”

What Perry loves most about the sport is the team atmosphere he shares with his dogs. His dogs are fired up by running and he feeds off of their adrenaline. It doesn’t matter if the dogs are free running or doing plyometrics, they are always having fun. Perry trains with his dogs year round, and is currently working toward winning the ISDRA World Championships in 2013.

When he is not training his dogs, Perry spends time speaking at schools about sled dogging and his accomplishments. One thing that has surprised him is how kids react when they find he started sled dogging so late in life.

“They seem to think you have to start at a very early age if you want to be good at something,” Perry said. “I tell them you are never too old to try something new.”

Perry will be speaking at the symposium on how the appearance and performance of sprint sled dogs have changed in the past 10 years. There will also be a 20-minute clip by ESPN featuring Perry on winning three gold medals in 2003.

Tickets to the symposium can be purchased at Mesa County Partners, located at 1169 Colorado Ave. Ticket prices are $12 for adults and $7 for children under 18. All proceeds go to Partners Youth Mentoring Programs.

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