Off to the races!

The world’s fastest dog teams are currently competing in Minocqua, as the International Federation of Sleddog Sports’ Dryland World Championships are held through Sunday, Oct. 26 at Minocqua Winter Park — marking the first time the championship series has been hosted by the United States, much less northern Wisconsin.

Dryland dog racing is inherently similar to winter sleddog racing (like the famed Iditarod) because it was first-developed as way for racers to train their dogs outside the winter season.

Allen Micheal from the United States competes in the Dog Bikejor Men Masters race during day one of the 2025 IFSS Dryland Mushing World Championships was held on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at Minocqua Winter Park. The event will continue through Sunday, Oct. 26.
(Photo by Kate Reichl/Lakeland Times)

Each morning this week, animated sled dogs will set off, pulling their riders through the 5K trail system of Minocqua Winter Park in a variety of categories.

“The dogs are doing over 20 miles per hour, they’re doing under four-minute miles — theoretically it will take under 10 minutes,” said Niina Baum, a competitor from Keenan who played an instrumental role in bringing the vent to the Northwoods. “Top teams will be right around 10 minutes. It’s fast and intense.”

The world championship races will feature more than 350 entries and competitors from 23 different countries.

For Baum, bringing this prestigious event back home to northern Wisconsin was a process six-years in the making.

“I have been working on getting this to come to the U.S. for a number of years,” she said.

Baum, who started dryland racing at age six, eventually competed in the 2019 world championship races in Sweden.

“I was completely blown away — I was like, ‘this is so cool, this is so neat, why haven’t we brought it to the USA yet? This is something we’ve got to do,’” she said.

Baum spent the next five years working to develop a bid for a U.S. host site. Being from Keenan, which is along Highway 8 west of Phillips, she knew the Northwoods of Wisconsin had several great venues.

“I knew about Minocqua Winter Park, I had been up there in the wintertime to skijor,” Baum said, referencing the activity of riding skis behind a dog. “They didn’t really have much going on outside the winter season, so I thought this might be a really good venue because we’re not trying to compete with other recreation they’ve got going on there.”

Baum’s bid for a Minocqua world championship host site was sealed after Winter Park hosted regional races and eventually the continental championships as a test run last year.

“That’s when all the officials from the international federation came down to scope out the venue and make sure it met all the requirements,” she said.

With the dog days of summer gone, the crisp fall mornings make northern Wisconsin weather a perfect fit for the races, which are required to be held in sub-60 degree temps. Baum said Winter Park in particular was seen as a great fit by officials because of the variety of trail options.

“The trails out there are in incredible condition,” she said. “They’re wide, there’s a certain level of technicality to them but they’re not dangerous necessarily. You have to be a skilled person. It’s just a really nice trail system.”

What’s more, the event is projected to bring “hundreds of thousands” in economic impact to the Lakeland area, according to an economic impact study Baum and the Minocqua Area Visitors Bureau completed to qualify for a Joint Effort Marketing grant from Travel Wisconsin. 

“The nice thing is this is a bit of an off-season for Minocqua, so it’s not quite so crazy busy in town either, so we can bring business to an area when things are beginning to slow down a bit,” Baum said.

Mush! Mush!

The world championship opening ceremony was held Monday and the races begin today, lasting through Sunday.

Races are held daily from 9 a.m. to noon, with teams starting at one-minute intervals, providing non-stop action. A vendor village and food trucks are on site daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Podium ceremonies are held daily at 2 p.m. to end the day’s activities.

The sport consists of several different classes, ranging from races with a single dog pulling a runner, to teams of four, six or eight dogs pulling three- or four-wheeled carts down windy trails.

The dogs themselves are split into two different divisions: open class, allowing virtually any dog breed, and registered nordic breed class, which is limited to classic sled-dog breeds, like the Siberian husky — the most common breed for that division.

“The registered nordic breed division is really there as a tribute to the history of dog mushing because they all started out with nordic breeds,” Baum said.

The open class will bring a variety dogs to Winter Park this week, including many hound and pointer mixes, Baum said.

Overall, the dogs are the stars of the show — and treated as such.

“The standards for dog care are really high,” Baum said. “Every dog goes through vet checks before they race. All vaccinations have to be up-to-date, it’s more than your typical vaccinations … If you come out and watch you will see that these dogs are dying to run, they want to so badly. These dogs absolutely go crazy for this and love this. It’s like any other working dog, it’s instinctual.”

For more information and a schedule of events, visit www.minocqua.org/ifss-dryland-mushing-world-championships.

Michael Strasburg may be reached at [email protected].