Racing Sled Dog Expert Articles

Champions join CSJ by Shane Murray

My name is Shane Murray.  I am a farm manager with a passion for racing Siberian Huskies.

I have been a manager with the same company for fifteen years and so my time has to be used conservatively to be able to manage my dogs, my family and myself!  I am married to Lynne and we have one daughter, Amanda, who is eighteen years old.

We started racing Siberian Huskies eight years ago.  We had had to wait for nearly six months for the right dogs to come along and when they did they were both from the opposite ends of the country.!  Our first dog was from Caithness in Inverness while our second was from Camberley in Surrey.  I ran them as a two-dog team as soon as they were old enough.  Training started for real when they were eight months old (that was the longest eight months of my life) and when they were a year old, we entered our first race at Keilour near Perth, which to everyone’s surprise, we won!  Two dogs were supposed to be our limit, but alas, we now have ten dogs in total – not bad in ten years!  We now have four girls and six males.

Over the years we have been foster parents to several foster dogs for the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain.  It all started in 1996 and we have never looked back since.

Chudleys are the main sponsors of the SDAS – the Scottish Club for racing dogs.  We regularly won and therefore we progressed to feeding it full time. I won the two-dog Championship in 1996/7/8 and by this time my daughter, Amanda, was also winning the Junior One-Dog Class.  Lynne was in the two-dog class and in 1998/9 saw me winning the four-dog class.

Over the years we have raced with other clubs the length and breadth of the country for the UKSC.  I was the six-dog Champion last year.  The biggest race in Britain is Aviemore - hosted by the Siberian Husky Club.  Lynne has won it at least three times, Amanda once, and I have also managed to win the title a couple of times. All very satisfying but my dream has always been to have the best six-dog team.  So, I set about trying to get more dogs of the same breeding that would prove to be the very best.

Although our dogs performed well on Chudley’s Greyhound Racer, they excelled throughout the racing season (October – March) when we added minced lamb to their diet (August) and changed to chicken (December) – this lasted until February.  When the dogs were no longer getting meat, we felt the pace of the team slow. All our racing dogs have natural speed and endurance with a willingness to run. 

We believe that in selecting CSJ Command Performance (CP30) we shall increase their natural abilities without having to add any additives.  The mixture of 30% protein and 20% fat will help to prolong their endurance - the difference between a good racing team and a great racing team. 

We started feeding CSJ on the 11th October and three weeks later at Devilla Forest in Kincardine, we took part in the first race of the season.  I placed 2nd in the six dog class and 4th in the three dog class. Blade who normally helps to lead the six-dog team was leading two, one year old bitches in the three dog class.  We were very satisfied with the results, the dogs performances, and their recovery rates.

After racing at the weekend many other competitors were saying that their dogs’ stools were loose, while ours were still firm – convincing us again of the goodness of CSJ.

(posted 12/01/2005)