What Dog Sledding on a Glacier Taught Me About Your Doodle

Ever had someone call your Doodle a "mutt" or insist they're "not a real breed"? I just got back from Alaska, where I went dog sledding on a glacier and completely geeked out on the musher. 🐾

Here's what stopped me in my tracks: the Alaskan Husky, one of the most respected working dogs in the world, isn't a registered breed either. It's a type, intentionally bred for purpose over generations. Sound familiar? It's the exact same story as our Goldendoodles and Labradoodles.

In this short and sweet episode I share the picky eater test (some of our Doodles would not make the sled team, and that's okay), why your Doodle was bred for companionship, and the phrase that changed how I think about the whole "real breed" debate: purpose over paperwork.

Plus, I'm pulling back the curtain just a little on the biggest project I've ever built for you.

Get on the wait list and grab your complimentary Morning Flow Blueprint: https://doodleprosummit.com

Corinne Gearhart is the founder of The Doodle Pro®, a science-based training platform helping Doodle parents raise calmer, well-mannered dogs using positive reinforcement. She is the host of The Doodle Pro® Podcast and author of Your Doodle’s Daily Schedule Blueprint™.

📘 Get the Doodle Schedule Blueprint:
https://thedoodlepro.com/doodle-schedule-bonus/

🎧 More episodes:
https://thedoodlepro.com/podcast

Transcript

Corinne Gearhart: [00:00:00] I just got back from Alaska, and I have to tell you what I did because I could not leave the doodle nerd at home, not for a single second. Picture this. I'm in a helicopter with my son flying over the Tongass Rainforest, mountain peaks everywhere, sun shining, headed for the Mendenhall Glacier, where we're going dog sledding on top of a glacier that a helicopter had to fly us to.

Doodle dogs are easy to fall in love with, but living with one can feel overwhelming if you don't have the right guidance. I'm Corinne Gearhart, known as the Doodle Pro, and I help doodle parents build calmer, more connected, and more rewarding relationships with their dogs using positive, science-based training.

I've spent years working exclusively with doodles across many different mixes and personalities, and I understand what makes them wonderfully [00:01:00] unique and sometimes uniquely challenging. On this podcast, I bring you practical, compassionate guidance along with insights from trusted training, grooming, and veterinary professionals so you can get doodle-specific answers that actually fit your real life.

I'm so glad you're here. Let's help you parent your doodle like a pro

And before anyone worries, because I know this crowd and I love you for it, I chose this program with real care. This was a reputable operation, the kind that flies you out to a professional glacier camp, and I went looking for genuine welfare standards, the kind grounded in the five freedoms, which is the same welfare science that sits underneath everything I teach you about force-free training.

I wanted to see dogs work who were truly thriving, and that's exactly what we found. These dogs were lit up, energetic, absolutely desperate to run. The kind of joy [00:02:00] you can't fake. And then I proceeded to completely geek out on this poor musher. My son's seen this before and just sighed, but in a dog sled.

Okay, here's what fascinated me and where the doodle nerd took over completely. These dogs pulling our sled, they were not purebred Huskies. They're Alaskan Huskies, and here's the thing that stopped me in my tracks. The Alaskan Husky is not a registered breed at all. It's not recognized by the AKC. It's a type, a dog bred purely for purpose.

The mushers cross these dogs for drive, for endurance, for tough feet that hold up in the ice, for the temperament to work as a team without drama, and they've brought in all kinds of dogs over the generations to get there. Malamutes for strength and cold tolerance, Siberian Husky in the lines. Some even have Pointer or Greyhound bred in [00:03:00] generations back for speed.

And then they breed back and back and refine and breed back again. Intentional, purpose-driven cross-breeding happening right in front of me on a glacier. And as I'm standing there, wind in my face, thinking, "I know this story. This is a story I tell all the time." And then he told me something that made me laugh out loud.

I asked about feeding because of course I did, and he told me that they do not keep picky eaters in the program. They can't. The calorie demands on an endurance run are enormous, and a dog who fusses over dinner simply can't do the work. So over the generations, that pickiness just gets bred right out, and they remove the picky dogs from the breeding program.

And I thought about our doodles. Oh, friends, some of our beloved doodles would not make the team. Some of our doodles stage a full hunger strike [00:04:00] if you so much as change the kibble brand by one flavor or feed them the same one twice. And you know what? That's completely okay because our doodles were not bred to pull a sled 1,000 miles across a frozen wilderness.

They were bred for something else entirely. They were bred to be our companions, to be soft and Velcro and endlessly, ridiculously loving. Purpose, just a different one. And here's what really made me smile given what we've been talking about the last few weeks. You all know we've spent three whole episodes on how the traditional breeding world loves to criticize purpose cross dogs.

Goldendoodles, Australian Labradoodles, that whole they're not a real breed conversation. The word mutt said with derision. So I asked the musher, kind of grinning, whether the AKC had ever come after the Alaskan Husky [00:05:00] for not being a real breed. And he just looked at me. He genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.

It had never once crossed his mind because out there, nobody's asking whether the dog is registered. They're asking whether the dog is healthy, whether the dog can do the job it loves, and whether the dog is thriving. Purpose over paperwork. And I thought, "Huh, maybe there's a lesson in that for all of us."

So we came home from Alaska, and I was absolutely buzzing. Can you tell? Head full of dogs and purpose and this feeling that something was clicking into place. And I did something a little bit magical. My dear friends Jen and Claire shared their space with me up in the mountains, and I took myself on a work retreat, just me, the quiet, and the biggest project I have ever built [00:06:00] for you Because here's the truth, where else would you go to build a mountain-themed summit than tucked in the Rocky Mountains?

From one mountain in Alaska to another right here at home, this whole season has felt like one long climb towards something waiting at the top. And I want to be honest with you about why I disappeared up a mountain to do this. The speakers I have gathered for you are incredible. Genuinely pinch me, I can't believe they said yes, incredible.

And this summit is completely complimentary. It's my gift to you, Doodle Nation. But complimentary has never once meant less. If anything, it made me wanna work even harder, because Doodle Pro Nation deserves this done right. You deserved me behind the scenes sweating the tiny details, making [00:07:00] this the very best it can possibly be.

Not good enough or the best I have in me, that's what I've been building up in those mountains For you. So let me tell you just a little bit about what's coming, just enough. I'm bringing together a group of experts, some of the most respected, genuinely science-based modern voices in the entire dog world in one place at one time for you.

I'm not gonna tell you who on here yet. That reveal's coming, and it's going to be so much fun to share. I can hardly stand it, but I will tell you this: This is the science-based, no shame, no blame guidance that doodle parents have been searching for and struggling to find, finally all gathered in one place virtually so you can watch from home with your doodle on your lap.

And the whole heart of it, the promise of this entire summit is [00:08:00] this: We're gonna help you raise the whole doodle, not just train one. And here's what I would love for you to do today, and it couldn't be simpler. Get on the wait list. Go to doodle.com. That's D-O-O-D-L-E pro summit.com. Get your name on the list because here is what wait list friends get.

You find out first. You'll be the very first to know who's joining this incredible lineup, the behind-the-scenes de- details before I announce a single name publicly, and you get first access before a door is open to everyone else. And while you wait, I wanna send you a gift, my Morning Flow Blueprint. It's my step-by-step routine for calmer, happier doodle mornings, and it's yours completely complimentary the moment you join the list.

So go, doodleprosummit.com. Go save your spot right now before you forget, and I'll have that Morning Flow Blueprint waiting [00:09:00] in your inbox. That's all for today, friends. Short and sweet because I have a summit to go finish building for you. But next time I start pulling back the curtain, I'm going to introduce you to some of the incredible people I gathered, and I promise you, you're going to want to meet them.

Until then, give your wonderfully imperfect, possibly very picky, endlessly loving doodle a scratch behind the ears from me, and I'll see you on that wait list.

Thanks for spending this time with me. If today's episode helped you, be sure to follow the show so you don't miss what's coming next. I'll see you in the next episode