Byron won 3 Alpirods in lead

In a couple of words, Byron was the best dog I ever owned.
He was born in the summer of 1987 out of an accidental breeding.
His father Rhino who was the first sled dog I owned, coming from Whitehorse in the Yukon, was a Siberian Husky. He was a good leader but was missing some physical ability to be a top notch sled dog. He did finish the Iditarod placing at the end of the pack. He was my pet dog as well as being a sled dog.
Byron's mother Devil was a top leader for me, finishing several Iditarods and Alpirods, she came from Joe Redington out of one of Joe's leaders called Manley, we never knew who her mother was.
Rhino died of pneumonia one month before Byron was born, so I adopted Byron as my new pet dog as soon as he was a few weeks old, not knowing if he was going to be a good sled dog or not.
When he was about 3 month old, I harnessed him, running behind him and from then on, he ran and never looked back, he was born to be a leader.

Byron, 1/2 Siberian, 1/2 Alaskan

When he was one and a half year old, he ran the Alpirod in swing in the second team, so I decided to take him in the Iditarod and he finished the race in 11th place.
Having him as a pet besides his phenomenal physical ability really helped him mentally in his first Iditarod because it is a lot of pressure for a young dog to run an 1100 miles race. After a few days, the unexperienced dogs don't know if there will be an end to this trail; The trust in their musher is the one thing that makes them overcome their doubts and keep going.

Later he made me win 3 Alpirods and one Kobuk 400 and finished several other Iditarods.
In the Alpirod where there were a lot of intersections and trails in towns, he was awesome at steering the team without even slowing down. If I missed a turn, he would jump over a snow burm or anything to get back on the right trail.
He retired from racing after the last Alpirod in 1995 and went to live at home until he was 17 years old.
Sometimes he would lift his leg on the video cabinet in the leaving room and Magali would get mad at him, I would respond: "This dog paid for the house by making me win races, so he can pie on it once in a while if he wants"

Thursday, November 09, 2006 9:43:01 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)