PRIEST LAKE — As the sled dog team approaches the start line, it is all the driver can do to hold them back.

For the dogs, the trail is the happiest place on Earth and they don’t want to wait another minute to take on the snowy Priest Lake terrain.

And then, “Mush.” The team is off, and not seen again for several miles as they disappear into the woods.

“When they go out to start a race, they are so excited,” Shawn Gibson, president of the Inland Empire Sled Dog Association, said of the sled dogs. “They just love doing this. If they don’t, there is no way you can make a dog run that doesn’t want to.”

Even when the pups return from a long, hard run, their love of the sport is apparent with tails wagging and tongues hanging from their mouths in a happy, though tired, grin.

This past weekend marked the 49th annual sled dog races at Priest Lake, hosted by the IESDA. It was the first year, however, that the race has been an event of the International Federation of Sleddog Sports World Cup series.

“Dog sledding is trying to come in and evolve into the modern century, if you will,” Gibson said.

As the sport continues to grow, Gibson said joining the World Cup series ensures consistency of rules and regulations across races.

IESDA member Dan Hanks said there is also a movement to get sled dog racing, particularly skijoring, into the Olympics. It is currently under probationary status by the International Olympic Committee, he said.

Hanks started skijoring in high school, and has been racing for 24 years. With his team of Alaskan huskies and one “outlier” — an Australian shepherd — Hanks also races the three- and four-dog sprint. He has been racing competitively for the past five years, he said.

“We have gone to the world championships two times, but we sort of love the local race … It’s just super cool — it’s a blast,” Hanks said.

The Priest Lake races started off with the mid-distance classes of six and eight dogs covering 20 miles of terrain, or 40 miles over the two-day event. The goal of the mid-distance race is for the dogs to run at a strong, steady pace. In the sprint, however, they are expected to run as fast as possible for the length of the race. The eight-dog sprint covered 9 miles per day, and 5.7 miles for the six-dog sprint. Three- and four-dog sprints, as well as the skijoring event, covered 4.7 miles.

The novice sprint and skijoring classes were 2.3 miles each. While there was no distance race at Priest Lake over the weekend, mileage can vary from 200 to 1,200 miles for those events. There are also peewee and teddy bear races for the youngest of mushers.

“This is one of those sports that all ages can participate,” Gibson said.

One young competitor, Harleigh Dutton, got her start in Priest Lake when she was just 2 years old. Her mom, Tammy Dutton, said the first time Harleigh was ever pulled by a dog, they strapped her carseat to right to the sled and off she went. Now at 8 years old, though she can’t compete against the adults yet, Harleigh drove in the novice sprint class at Priest Lake over the weekend. And as she prepared to mush with four of her five dogs — one is still a puppy — she couldn’t wait to hit the trails.

“When you go out in the woods and you see the snow on the trees, it’s awesome,” Harleigh said.

Many mushers started at a young age, including Richard Hancock, who has been at or participating in the Priest Lake race off and on for 49 years.

While he started in elementary school, Hancock said it was 13 years ago when he really got back into the sport, subsequently creating the Race Beacon app. There was a big crowd at a race seven or eight years ago, he said, and once the teams turn the first corner and head into the trees, nobody knows what is going on. A lot of the mushers would carry a GPS, trying to start it simultaneously when the timer says go, he said.

So his idea was to create a phone app where, as soon as the musher knew their start time, they could set it and put it in their pocket. For a few years, he said, they had a big television screen up at the race site where spectators could follow the progress on the trails live. Since creating the app, he has also acquired the website sleddogcentral.com.

Over the past 50 years of the sport, Hancock said the biggest change he has seen is in the dogs. When he was a kid, his parents would have anywhere from 25 to 40 Siberian huskies at any given time. With the desire to go faster, mushers began breeding Alaskan huskies, which are purpose-bred, part Siberian husky mutts. Then came Eurohounds, which are Alaskan huskies mixed with pointer breeds.

“When I was growing up, if you had a team that could average seven miles an hour, you were pretty competitive, Hancock said. “Now, you have to have a team that can average about 15 miles an hour to be competitive.”

A team of five Siberian huskies averages about seven miles an hour, he said, while just two Eurohounds can average 14 to 15 miles an hour.

While the dogs are the biggest change he has seen over the years, he said it is the relationship with the dogs that makes the sport worth the work.

“It’s hard to explain the level of trust that you establish, because the dogs are way out in front of you,” Hancock said. “They are trusting you to give them good instructions, and you are trusting them to do what they are supposed to do — it’s totally different than having a pet at home.”

Information: iesda.org

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.