Mushers beat their dogs with quirt whips. The whip has two tails at the end, and a core that's normally filled with lead shot. Mushers roll up their whips and hide them in their pockets. ... Beatings and tethering make Iditarod dogs aggressive.

Do Mushers beat their dogs?

Abuse is not rare:

Mushers beat their dogs with quirt whips. A quirt whip has two tails at the end. The core of the quirt is normally filled with lead shot. Mushers can roll up quirt whips to hide them in their pockets.

How do Mushers train their dogs?

Apprentices raise the dogs from pups and start running them attached to a sled when they're roughly one year old. Before they are ready to run in a harness, some trainers will run the pups through obstacle courses or encourage them to chase vehicles like ATVs.