By Anne Aurand / For The Bulletin

Skijoring — cross-country skiing while being pulled by a dog — makes every glide a little longer, every effort a little easier. It's fun if you already like to cross-country ski, and it's a great way to commune with your four-legged friend.

It's still kind of a niche sport here in Central Oregon, but it definitely has a presence.

No one has any real numbers about how many skijorers blaze through Central Oregon's trails. But the president of DogPAC, the group behind the first and only groomed, dog-friendly ski trail near Bend, guessed that fewer than 5 percent of the people out on the snow with their dogs are skijoring. There's a regional club for sleddoggers and skijorers, and there's at least one Bend company that manufactures skijoring gear.

Work like a dog — together

Nevertheless, most days when longtime Bend resident Rick Johnson goes skijoring, he's the only one of his kind on the trails. But that, he says, is no measure of people's fascination with the sport.

“The interest level is huge,” Johnson said. “Whenever I go out, people stop me every quarter-mile and ask all these questions.”

Johnson, a 43-year-old who does electronics design for a living and typically skijors once a week, said it's not only fun, it builds camaraderie with his dogs.

“I like that teamwork aspect of it. You're building a cooperative bond with your dog,” he said. “You're working on something together.”

Sometimes they ski an easy out-and-back on the road near Tumalo Falls. When his now-10-year-old malamute-German shepherd was younger, they took longer trips, sometimes to Moon Mountain, using the snowmobile trails between Mount Bachelor and the Three Sisters Wilderness (permit required; see “Where to skijor”).

Johnson and others say it's important to assess the dog's health, condition and speed before trying to skijor. Generally, any breed of dog that likes snow and loves running can be trained, he said. Some dogs are endurance dogs, and some are sprinters. A young, strong, fast dog might be best with a skate skier, so the skier can keep up with the dog. The dog is not supposed to drag the skier, just augment his speed. A slower or older dog might be best paired up with a classic skier or a backcountry touring skier who would move more slowly.

“People I pass on the trail often comment how much easier having the dogs pulling me makes the skiing appear. Even non-skiers sometimes think that having their dog pull them will somehow allow them to just relax and enjoy the scenery. In fact it's quite the opposite. It takes additional skill and effort to maintain control and balance when being pulled by the dogs,” he said.

“I like to summarize it to them this way: You can go twice as fast, or you can go twice as far, but it isn't half the work. And you definitely need to have enough skill to be in control of your skiing.”

Someone interested in skijoring needs to be a confident skier to start. In addition to having cross-country ski equipment, skijoring gear can cost another $150, Johnson said.

Local entrepreneur Mike McDowell founded Spindrift (spindriftdog.com) years ago after sewing his own equipment to skijor with his husky mix, Max. Spindrift's operation is based at the Westside Bend Pet Express. Basic skijoring equipment includes a harness for the dog, a belt for the skier and a towline to connect them. McDowell figures he sells six to eight sets a month.

First, he measures the dog for a custom fit. A properly fitted, padded pulling harness starts around $40, he said. A wide belt that the person wears below the waist can cost between $40 and $80, he said. A towline with an internal bungee, so the rope will stretch instead of jerking a skier when a dog takes off, connected to a quick-release system for an emergency disconnect from your dog, costs $15 to $40.

Paws for safety

Safety, for the dog and the skier, might take a little extra thought on a skijoring trip. You might venture farther into the woods than you would using only your own ski power. Minor pet problems are more common than they would be at a neighborhood dog park.

For example, moisture can get between the pads of a dog's paws, melting from body heat and freezing from contact with the snow, resulting in painful ice balls in the paws, said Kreg Lindberg, DogPAC president and a recreation associate professor at Oregon State University-Cascades Campus. If a dog is chewing its paws or limping, check its feet.

Most dogs are working hard enough to stay warm, but consider the comfort of thin, shorthaired dogs on really cold days, too, he said.

And at popular places like Wanoga Sno-park, a skijorer should prepare for off-leash dogs approaching a harnessed dog, which can create tension between animals.

Lindberg's goals for DogPAC (www.dogpac.org) are to get his and everyone else's dogs more exercise. DogPAC grooms trails around Wanoga where dogs can accompany skiers, on or off leash, and apart from snowmobilers.

Happy tails to you

Wanoga is a temporary dog trail, said Lindberg, who thinks there would be more skijoring if there were more dog-friendly ski trails. Wanoga is a fairly small area. DogPAC is working with the U.S. Forest Service to develop a new, bigger ski trail system that allows dogs. He is not ready to disclose where that might be.

DogPAC prepared a fact sheet recently that said 25 percent of residents who snowshoe or cross-country ski do so with their dogs. In Central Oregon, the figure is 33 percent. And that, he said, is in a region with what he called restrictive dog access to winter play areas, just illustrating the need for more dog-friendly ski trails.

Other regions, he said, are less limiting of dogs on ski trails. DogPAC's fact sheet says there are no dog restrictions on the trails around Santiam Pass, in the Sisters Ranger District of the Deschutes National Forest, or in the Diamond Lake Ranger District of the Umpqua National Forest. Some winter trails on Mount Hood allow dogs.