Necklines or no necklines
Quite a few years ago in the 80's, when I started running dogs in Alaska, it was quite common for people to run their leader without a neckline.
A the time though as far as I know, everyone was using necklines on the team dogs.
The necklines where about a foot long (30cm) with a small snap at the end to tie it to the dog's collar.
In Alaska's interior, it was known that a lot of people did not use a snap on the neckline because it increased the occurrence of frostbites on the dog's tongues that would stick to the snaps at temperatures of -20°F -40°F.
Short necklines in sprint races
They used necklines with a loop at the end and they would just pass it around the dog's neck.
There are other problems that happen with necklines; among those we can name: Dogs chewing the necklines, dogs getting their legs tangled in the neckline, dogs not being able to get away from an obstacle (hole, tee..) and getting injured, dog being drug by the neckline and getting a neck injury...
More recently, we have seen people try several other techniques: Cable necklines, iron rope (spectra) necklines that the dogs have a hard time chewing through, elastic necklines to absorb the shock on the dog's neck, longer necklines so that the dog has more freedom to avoid obstacles and finally no neckline at all.
We have tried all these alternatives and they all have advantages and disadvantages.
The iron rope is nice, but it is expensive, hard to work with and mostly soaks water a lot and ices up very easily when it is cold (We tried soaking it in a non toxic water repellent but it was not very good). We still use those in the fall when it is not too cold.
We really like the longer necklines vs the shorter ones (about 2 feet or 60 cm). One thing you need to do with those though is angle them back a little more so that the dogs don't get their legs tangled in them. The dogs have a lot more freedom to avoid holes or ruts in the trail and when you stop, it is harder for longer necklines to get twisted to the point where the dogs have no more line to move.
No neckline, a lot freedom for the dogs
The last two years, after seeing some successful Iditarod mushers like Jeff King or Jessy Royer run without necklines, I started training my dogs this way.
For a while, I have to admit that it makes things more difficult because the dogs have a lot more freedom and they have not been trained to behave before, they tend to do a lot of stupid things like turning around, pissing on trees...
The one thing I like is that it forces you to train your dogs better. They are responsible of their own behavior and dogs don't like that at first. For example, if they have to poop and they have a neckline, they don't have to think about it, they can just let themselves being drug by the neck, but if they have no neckline, they quickly understand that they get run over by the other dogs or the sled if they don't pay attention.
The consequence of that is that it is a much smaller gap for a dog to go from back in the team to lead.
Once they behave good in the team, it won't be so hard for them to behave in lead. They may goof around after a while in lead, but at least, they should not misbehave right away.
One of the problems with this is if you have regular harnesses, the dog can get out of it in case of a tangle and get loose. We can catch our dogs normally easily, but in a stress situation, sometimes it can be hard. Jeff uses a special kind of harness that the dogs cannot get out of, but they have other disadvantages for a lot of people.
2 feet necklines
I have not been brave enough to try it in races, so I still run 2 feet neck lines. On trick I found last year is that I also use 2 feet tuglines so that they are interchangeable with the necklines, but I add a piece on the tail of the harnesses to make the tugline longer, but this way, the snap is far away back from the dog and it is almost impossible for the dog to poop on the snap. This is a big advantage when you get to a checkpoint when it is cold and your snaps are not frozen in dog poop.
Posted by Jacques in Mushing 101
Monday, November 20, 2006 8:09:09 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00) 
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