Leader Dog Secrets, a Journey of 1000 Miles With Tanya McCready

Howard Brown: 00:00:03

Hello, it's Howard Brown. This is the Shining

Howard Brown: 00:00:05

Brightly Show. I have such an interesting guest. Oh my god,

Howard Brown: 00:00:09

this is incredible. I have Tanya McCready with us today. Tanya,

Howard Brown: 00:00:14

how are you?

Tanya McCready: 00:00:15

I'm doing wonderful, Howard. Thank you for

Tanya McCready: 00:00:16

having me.

Howard Brown: 00:00:17

I'm excited because you're going to teach me

Howard Brown: 00:00:20

a little bit about life, business, family and sport.

Howard Brown: 00:00:24

Tanya, I have to tell you, I don't know a lot about. I did a

Howard Brown: 00:00:29

rod racing. But I'm going to learn today the audience is

Howard Brown: 00:00:32

going to learn today. But I did as a little kid, watch the Wide

Howard Brown: 00:00:35

World of Sports here in the US and learn a little bit and I

Howard Brown: 00:00:39

can't even imagine being you know, the musher or on the pit

Howard Brown: 00:00:42

crew, as you say. So you're going to tell us that but before

Howard Brown: 00:00:44

that, would you please You know, just introduce yourself. Give us

Howard Brown: 00:00:47

your short bio. Let everyone get to know you.

Tanya McCready: 00:00:50

Absolutely. Well, it was 24 years ago, my

Tanya McCready: 00:00:53

husband Hank De Bruyne and I quit our jobs, moved out to the

Tanya McCready: 00:00:56

wilderness to turn our love for our Huskies into a lifestyle of

Tanya McCready: 00:01:01

business and a dream. So you know, we could have never

Tanya McCready: 00:01:05

guessed we're winter dance dog sled tours 24 years ago would

Tanya McCready: 00:01:07

take us but now we welcome two to 3000 guests. Every winter

Tanya McCready: 00:01:11

from around the world. We have four children, my husband and

Tanya McCready: 00:01:15

our dogs have run 6000 mile races. And now we get to share

Tanya McCready: 00:01:18

our messages through our books and also speaking on stages

Tanya McCready: 00:01:21

around teamwork, leadership, challenges and just touched so

Tanya McCready: 00:01:25

many lives through our dogs. So it's it's been a magical

Tanya McCready: 00:01:28

journey.

Howard Brown: 00:01:29

That's incredible. I and also you're an engineer by

Howard Brown: 00:01:32

trade. We'll talk about that. Yeah, yeah. But tell us

Howard Brown: 00:01:35

something that you know, something we may not know about

Howard Brown: 00:01:38

you. Share what share us share?

Tanya McCready: 00:01:41

We may not know Oh, gosh. Like Guess I'll go

Tanya McCready: 00:01:44

back to early days. So let's see. So we grew up as farmers

Tanya McCready: 00:01:49

both my husband and I and I actually was a dairy Princess

Tanya McCready: 00:01:52

way back in the days. So you know, pro drinking milk and, and

Tanya McCready: 00:01:56

dairy farming. So that's something a lot of people don't

Tanya McCready: 00:01:59

know,

Howard Brown: 00:01:59

good skills to know, you know, as you as you

Howard Brown: 00:02:02

navigate life and all that. Alright, take us back to

Howard Brown: 00:02:05

engineering and how did you get involved with dogsledding?

Tanya McCready: 00:02:10

Yeah, it doesn't seem like a direct connection,

Tanya McCready: 00:02:12

for sure. But always grew up loving environment, wildlife

Tanya McCready: 00:02:16

nature. So my teenage brain thought, well, since I'm good at

Tanya McCready: 00:02:19

math and science, why don't I do an engineering degree and then

Tanya McCready: 00:02:23

ultimately, I'll go on to law and be an environmental lawyer.

Tanya McCready: 00:02:25

That was the plan. But the plan kind of derailed after I got the

Tanya McCready: 00:02:29

PNG because I decided that maybe working in corporate wasn't

Tanya McCready: 00:02:33

really what I wanted to do. And being behind a desk wasn't where

Tanya McCready: 00:02:36

I was gonna be happy. So we got a husky shortly after we got

Tanya McCready: 00:02:39

married, and gosh, fallen in love with her and got three more

Tanya McCready: 00:02:43

and try dogsledding fell in love with dog sledding. So at one

Tanya McCready: 00:02:47

point, it's like, you know, we're not thrilled living in the

Tanya McCready: 00:02:49

city, and each of us going in different directions. And one

Tanya McCready: 00:02:53

night on the phone, a friend said, Why don't you turn your

Tanya McCready: 00:02:55

love for your dogs into a business? There was a lot in

Tanya McCready: 00:02:58

between, but that was that was the seed. And it's like, gosh,

Tanya McCready: 00:03:01

like, that would be amazing. And so now

Howard Brown: 00:03:04

you moved out of the city.

Tanya McCready: 00:03:05

Six years later, here we are, we've gotten better

Tanya McCready: 00:03:08

jobs, quit our jobs rented our house, and it was September 1

Tanya McCready: 00:03:12

1999, we moved to the wilderness 50 acres of wilderness and

Tanya McCready: 00:03:17

nothing was here other than a driveway when we got here, and

Tanya McCready: 00:03:20

had our first child a month after that, and winter dance,

Tanya McCready: 00:03:23

and this crazy lifestyle was born. So it's a it's had a lot

Tanya McCready: 00:03:27

of challenges. I won't lie. You know, people often say you're

Tanya McCready: 00:03:30

living our dream and, and I'm like, what you're seeing the

Tanya McCready: 00:03:33

glossy sections, you know, you're not seeing all the

Tanya McCready: 00:03:35

challenges. So there was a lot that wouldn't change it for

Tanya McCready: 00:03:39

anything in the world.

Howard Brown: 00:03:40

Right. So all right, let's what we're gonna

Howard Brown: 00:03:43

get back to family and business, but we got to get into the race.

Howard Brown: 00:03:47

All right. So this is a competitive sport. All right.

Howard Brown: 00:03:50

And there's a lot that goes into us. So take us in how you prep a

Howard Brown: 00:03:55

team, how many? How many? How many dogs are on a team?

Tanya McCready: 00:03:59

So yes, absolutely. It's a huge

Tanya McCready: 00:04:01

undertaking. 16 dogs on it if you're on team when we ran, they

Tanya McCready: 00:04:04

reduced it a bit now. But that was part of the dream when we

Tanya McCready: 00:04:07

moved, you know, started our business to was for Hank and our

Tanya McCready: 00:04:10

dogs to compete in the Iditarod. We figured it take three years

Tanya McCready: 00:04:13

to get there took 10 What 2010 We finally were at the starting

Tanya McCready: 00:04:17

line in Anchorage. Two years it took just for Hank and the dogs

Tanya McCready: 00:04:21

to run the qualifying racist will work up to where you could

Tanya McCready: 00:04:24

even be allowed to enter the Iditarod. The team will train on

Tanya McCready: 00:04:28

average 2000 miles before they even leave for Alaska that fall

Tanya McCready: 00:04:31

and winter. And I mean we try to prepare them for anything they

Tanya McCready: 00:04:35

could face in Alaska as best as we can, you know, not being in

Tanya McCready: 00:04:38

Alaska. And then there's the other side of it all the

Tanya McCready: 00:04:41

logistics because everything they're going to need for those

Tanya McCready: 00:04:44

two weeks has to be shipped out onto the trail for us even

Tanya McCready: 00:04:47

before the team left Ontario. So you know all the like, Well what

Tanya McCready: 00:04:50

if what if, what if what if you know, because everything has to

Tanya McCready: 00:04:54

be there that the team could possibly need? So yeah, huge

Tanya McCready: 00:04:57

amount of training time commitment, money, commitment,

Tanya McCready: 00:04:59

legit stucco commitment and then you're at the starting line and

Tanya McCready: 00:05:02

anchorage hoping that you've done everything right to get to

Tanya McCready: 00:05:05

the finish.

Howard Brown: 00:05:06

And it's part survival. I mean, you're in

Howard Brown: 00:05:08

there and you never know what the outdoors in the environment

Howard Brown: 00:05:11

is going to send you as well. And so the training is just

Howard Brown: 00:05:16

intense right and now divided the roles Hank was doing the

Howard Brown: 00:05:19

actual mushing, is there one person or two, mushing?

Tanya McCready: 00:05:23

Yeah, it's only one person machine one. So and

Tanya McCready: 00:05:26

you know, you can't switch them out. So we're Felipe's, the

Tanya McCready: 00:05:29

starting line is the one who's with the team for the whole

Tanya McCready: 00:05:31

race. So yeah, I mean, he does he does the machine the dog work

Tanya McCready: 00:05:37

and, you know, the rest of us do everything else that we possibly

Tanya McCready: 00:05:40

can, so that all he has to focus on is the dogs.

Howard Brown: 00:05:43

And your and you told me, you're the head of the

Howard Brown: 00:05:45

pit crew. So that means you're managing everything else.

Tanya McCready: 00:05:49

Well, thankfully, I have a lot of

Tanya McCready: 00:05:50

help. But yeah, there's a lot that that goes on behind the

Tanya McCready: 00:05:53

scenes. I mean, as Hank always says, like, there's no way you

Tanya McCready: 00:05:56

could do it on your own. Because you're just there's so much time

Tanya McCready: 00:05:59

draining that there's no time to do all the other stuff that has

Tanya McCready: 00:06:02

to be done for the team to be successful. So it's it's

Tanya McCready: 00:06:04

definitely a team sport in every way from dogs to people.

Howard Brown: 00:06:08

Right. And so what are some of like the lessons

Howard Brown: 00:06:13

that you've learned about mushing? And then you turn it

Howard Brown: 00:06:16

into a business? And then I just there's the lead dog gets? Is

Howard Brown: 00:06:22

there? Is there a special there's you don't not everyone

Howard Brown: 00:06:25

gets to be the lead dog of the pack? Right? What are some of

Howard Brown: 00:06:28

the qualities you look for in a lead dog? And then take me into

Howard Brown: 00:06:31

the business?

Tanya McCready: 00:06:32

Yeah, I mean, a lead dog is a special creature

Tanya McCready: 00:06:35

for sure. And it's not so much less picking them, it's, it's

Tanya McCready: 00:06:38

them picking themselves. You know, when I speak to

Tanya McCready: 00:06:41

corporations often say our leaders born or they made and I

Tanya McCready: 00:06:44

always get various answers, but in our experience, it's both.

Tanya McCready: 00:06:48

You know, some of our lead dogs, we've picked them out as

Tanya McCready: 00:06:51

puppies, because they're the first to do everything. They're

Tanya McCready: 00:06:53

almost fearless. But other leaders don't become leaders

Tanya McCready: 00:06:56

till they're 567 years of age. So we give the the dogs the

Tanya McCready: 00:07:00

opportunity every year in training to be a leader if they

Tanya McCready: 00:07:03

want to be and they tell us really quickly whether they have

Tanya McCready: 00:07:05

that desire not. Once they do, then we team them up with our

Tanya McCready: 00:07:09

experience lead dogs, and they teach them even more, almost

Tanya McCready: 00:07:12

like a mentorship programme. But traits of a lead dog, my gosh,

Tanya McCready: 00:07:17

passion, heart intelligence, dedication, they just quit is

Tanya McCready: 00:07:22

not in their vocabulary, curiosity to see what's around

Tanya McCready: 00:07:25

the next corner. And to be in charge of that team. I mean,

Tanya McCready: 00:07:29

because you can have a dog that has all those other traits. But

Tanya McCready: 00:07:31

if they don't want to be the first one in that team, they'll

Tanya McCready: 00:07:35

sit down, and your team will go nowhere. So it's so important

Tanya McCready: 00:07:39

and every leader has different strengths are some of our lead

Tanya McCready: 00:07:41

dogs that are brilliant, and storms and wind and crowds and

Tanya McCready: 00:07:45

mount like there's always scenarios where just like people

Tanya McCready: 00:07:49

leaders, we all have our different strengths. So

Howard Brown: 00:07:50

change them up during the race, or no or you do

Howard Brown: 00:07:53

it depends on the circumstance. Okay,

Tanya McCready: 00:07:56

depending on the circumstances, depending on the

Tanya McCready: 00:07:58

dog, we've had some leaders like Lilly is the first one that

Tanya McCready: 00:08:01

comes to mind that she could lead in pretty much anything.

Tanya McCready: 00:08:04

And she would be upset if she was put further back in the

Tanya McCready: 00:08:06

team. Now there's other dogs like Mavericks belly, Charlie,

Tanya McCready: 00:08:10

some of our other leaders Strider that have different

Tanya McCready: 00:08:12

strengths, and they're completely fine with being lead

Tanya McCready: 00:08:15

or you know, moving back and letting someone else leave for a

Tanya McCready: 00:08:18

time. So it's just like people so many personalities. And the

Tanya McCready: 00:08:22

better you understand every single one of those dogs on your

Tanya McCready: 00:08:25

team, the better team you have. It's the

Howard Brown: 00:08:28

difference between winning and even finishing,

Howard Brown: 00:08:30

right? I mean, it's

Tanya McCready: 00:08:32

the difference between finishing and not

Tanya McCready: 00:08:34

absolutely.

Howard Brown: 00:08:35

Yeah, finishing right I mean, just just

Howard Brown: 00:08:37

finishing is an accomplishment of course. How long is the race

Howard Brown: 00:08:41

is a two weeks is

Tanya McCready: 00:08:42

miles and winter. Generally we'll do it

Tanya McCready: 00:08:45

nine days ish. The last leg team usually is around 14 days.

Howard Brown: 00:08:49

Okay, so now take take me in how does this become

Howard Brown: 00:08:52

a business?

Tanya McCready: 00:08:54

Yeah, the business actually came first. So

Tanya McCready: 00:08:56

we started dog sled for business. And the goal was that

Tanya McCready: 00:08:59

the business would help fund the race team which it which it

Tanya McCready: 00:09:01

eventually did. So we teach people how to dog sled I mean,

Tanya McCready: 00:09:06

people come literally from all over the world. And we give them

Tanya McCready: 00:09:10

an instruction you know, we teach them how to drive a sled,

Tanya McCready: 00:09:12

how to interact with their dogs, and then we take them out, we're

Tanya McCready: 00:09:15

very blessed to have 2000 acres of wilderness. We take them out

Tanya McCready: 00:09:19

dog sledding in the winter, so a guy goes with them on their own

Tanya McCready: 00:09:22

sled, but we try to make it as close to the real deal of dog

Tanya McCready: 00:09:26

sledding as we possibly can. And to get to share that with

Tanya McCready: 00:09:30

people. It's not just what people come away with in the

Tanya McCready: 00:09:34

stories they send us in the lives we get to touch from, you

Tanya McCready: 00:09:37

know, people with terminal illnesses to you know,

Tanya McCready: 00:09:40

blindness. There's so many disabilities and challenges that

Tanya McCready: 00:09:44

we've welcomed guests over the years and you know, we love all

Tanya McCready: 00:09:47

of our guests but of course those stories just even deeper

Tanya McCready: 00:09:49

when when you know the the deeper meaning behind their

Tanya McCready: 00:09:52

visits. So that's that's how it started.

Howard Brown: 00:09:55

Did the pandemic slow things down a lot? Or not

Howard Brown: 00:09:59

so much. That's One way to really hurt me people weren't

Howard Brown: 00:10:03

trying to arrive in Canada get into Canada. I mean, I was 15

Howard Brown: 00:10:06

minutes from Canada and I couldn't get in. So that really

Howard Brown: 00:10:11

hurt.

Tanya McCready: 00:10:12

Yeah, it. It hurt for sure. I mean, there was

Tanya McCready: 00:10:14

one winter, we pretty much I think we lost three quarters

Tanya McCready: 00:10:17

that winter just because of lock downs. But there's always silver

Tanya McCready: 00:10:21

linings, right, you know, better than anyone, Howard. So our

Tanya McCready: 00:10:24

silver lining one. And that was how are we going to care for

Tanya McCready: 00:10:27

these dogs for the next year. And we had done a little bit of

Tanya McCready: 00:10:31

speaking, but just when requested before that. So we're

Tanya McCready: 00:10:34

like well speaking is one option. And we wrote our second

Tanya McCready: 00:10:37

book. So during the 1000 Miles got wrote that year, and we

Tanya McCready: 00:10:40

started leaning heavier into speaking and now it's become,

Tanya McCready: 00:10:42

you know, a huge part of our business, which without COVID it

Tanya McCready: 00:10:45

probably never would have and, you know, it just is such a joy

Tanya McCready: 00:10:49

to get to share our dogs with more people than we ever could

Tanya McCready: 00:10:52

just by welcoming people on site. Yeah.

Howard Brown: 00:10:53

And then additional income source as

Howard Brown: 00:10:55

well. So how did you find time for for children? You created a

Howard Brown: 00:11:00

family and tell me a little bit about your family and that

Howard Brown: 00:11:04

journey as well as juggling that?

Tanya McCready: 00:11:07

Yeah, I mean, I don't think you ever find time

Tanya McCready: 00:11:09

for a family. It's you decide you want to have a family and

Tanya McCready: 00:11:13

you know, you have a family. So our first child was born. As I

Tanya McCready: 00:11:16

mentioned, Logan, a month after we moved here, we had no house

Tanya McCready: 00:11:20

at the time we were building so we lived in this dilapidated

Tanya McCready: 00:11:23

motorhome. And that's what we brought him home to the first

Tanya McCready: 00:11:26

winter because our house still wasn't done, we decided to move

Tanya McCready: 00:11:29

into the camera because the kennel was done. So that's where

Tanya McCready: 00:11:32

we spent our first year in his first year who was living with

Tanya McCready: 00:11:35

the dogs. So it was not perfect. You know, I would have never

Tanya McCready: 00:11:39

planned that. But life happens and you just work with it. So

Tanya McCready: 00:11:44

that was our first one. And then Dustin came along. And then

Tanya McCready: 00:11:47

Mikayla and Jessica, and yeah, it's, I get asked a lot. How did

Tanya McCready: 00:11:51

you build a business and a family? And I wouldn't say I did

Tanya McCready: 00:11:55

anything perfectly. But you just kind of give your attention

Tanya McCready: 00:11:58

where it's needed at the time. And the joy of our business was

Tanya McCready: 00:12:02

that being that we were our home based business. Kids were with

Tanya McCready: 00:12:05

us all the time. So yes, Mom and Dad were often busy, but they

Tanya McCready: 00:12:09

were busy with us. So it you know, we always joke that they

Tanya McCready: 00:12:13

would grow up and be bankers and lawyers in downtown Toronto

Tanya McCready: 00:12:15

because we live such an unconventional lifestyle. But it

Tanya McCready: 00:12:18

doesn't seem at the moment that's happening, our oldest son

Tanya McCready: 00:12:21

as a pilot, our second oldest one has his own diving business

Tanya McCready: 00:12:24

underwater diving business. So far, anyway, they've taken very

Tanya McCready: 00:12:28

unique paths as well just, I guess, out of what they saw with

Tanya McCready: 00:12:32

us do but yeah, like there's a way to make anything work if

Tanya McCready: 00:12:36

you're committed and dedicated enough and I can't imagine not

Tanya McCready: 00:12:39

having either the children or the business,

Howard Brown: 00:12:41

but they grew up with the dogs, they grew up and

Howard Brown: 00:12:43

they helped.

Tanya McCready: 00:12:44

Absolutely, they grew up they helped with the

Tanya McCready: 00:12:46

dogs you know, they got to travel to Alaska with Hank and I

Tanya McCready: 00:12:50

when he ran the deterra they've been to Nome to watch their

Tanya McCready: 00:12:52

father cross the finish line you know they've smoked they flown

Tanya McCready: 00:12:56

on Bush planes through Alaska boys have been to the Hudson

Tanya McCready: 00:12:59

Churchill on the slow train to molasses that that goes through

Tanya McCready: 00:13:04

Manitoba I mean, they've had some very unique trips that have

Tanya McCready: 00:13:07

not had the trips that a lot of kids have had as far as

Tanya McCready: 00:13:10

Caribbean and Mexico and stuff but they've had some pretty

Tanya McCready: 00:13:13

unique travel load of it. And obviously like sons around you

Tanya McCready: 00:13:17

know, work and work ethic and setting goals and dreams and and

Tanya McCready: 00:13:21

even failure.

Howard Brown: 00:13:22

So, what are some of the some advice or lessons

Howard Brown: 00:13:25

from you know, the balance which is sort of was immersed the

Howard Brown: 00:13:28

business in the family what are some some takeaways from there?

Tanya McCready: 00:13:33

The one takeaway is I gave up on the word balance

Tanya McCready: 00:13:35

a very long time ago because I found there was no easy way to

Tanya McCready: 00:13:40

separate and, and boundary off anything. Because you know, my

Tanya McCready: 00:13:44

office is in the house, the dog is and all our kennels 100 feet

Tanya McCready: 00:13:47

away. Our staff are in and out of the house and the kennels so

Tanya McCready: 00:13:51

we just stopped trying and when we stopped trying life got a

Tanya McCready: 00:13:54

heck of a lot simpler when we stopped saying there has to be

Tanya McCready: 00:13:56

boundaries. You know, our staff who usually you know, being

Tanya McCready: 00:14:01

adventure guides are in their 20s became like Big Brothers and

Tanya McCready: 00:14:04

Big Sisters to our kids, you know, as they grew up, and now

Tanya McCready: 00:14:07

we're at a position where the kids are, you know, the same age

Tanya McCready: 00:14:09

as the guys and they're great friends. So yeah, for us, I

Tanya McCready: 00:14:13

can't say that works for everyone. But for us when we

Tanya McCready: 00:14:15

just let go of the boundaries and just went you know, for

Tanya McCready: 00:14:18

loving what we do, whether there were with the family with our

Tanya McCready: 00:14:20

customers. Everybody's having a great time. If you love what you

Tanya McCready: 00:14:24

do, and why do you have to have boundaries between everything?

Howard Brown: 00:14:27

Yeah, so take me out on the course. And give me

Howard Brown: 00:14:32

some memorable moments from the race time. Good, good,

Howard Brown: 00:14:37

challenging,

Tanya McCready: 00:14:38

good and challenging. The challenging

Tanya McCready: 00:14:40

ones are always what we end up talking about because they're

Tanya McCready: 00:14:43

the biggest lessons right but but the good ones I'll start

Tanya McCready: 00:14:46

with them is you meet so many incredible people Howard I don't

Tanya McCready: 00:14:50

know if you've been to Alaska you but

Howard Brown: 00:14:52

I have been to Alaska, but never do a race.

Howard Brown: 00:14:54

Yeah.

Tanya McCready: 00:14:55

I mean, once you get out well not not even once

Tanya McCready: 00:14:58

you get off the main road Alaskan Yukon just haven't heard

Tanya McCready: 00:15:00

Trouble people period. But when you get off the main highways in

Tanya McCready: 00:15:03

the back country, I mean, you get to meet people that don't

Tanya McCready: 00:15:06

see a lot of people. And, you know, as Hank will say, some of

Tanya McCready: 00:15:10

our best friends in the world are on those trails, even though

Tanya McCready: 00:15:12

we've only met them a handful of times. Because when you live a

Tanya McCready: 00:15:17

lifestyle that very few people live, it just creates bonds so

Tanya McCready: 00:15:21

quickly. So, you know, just the friendships that are born on

Tanya McCready: 00:15:26

that trail, are worth worth all of the effort just to get there

Tanya McCready: 00:15:31

in and of itself. So that certainly some of the beautiful

Tanya McCready: 00:15:33

moments, of course, the landscape, I mean, who can't

Tanya McCready: 00:15:37

think of Alaska and the Yukon without incredible landscapes

Tanya McCready: 00:15:40

and to get to travel through that for two weeks, even though

Tanya McCready: 00:15:43

it's winter and cold. But Northern Lights, you know, Hank

Tanya McCready: 00:15:46

has stories. And they're one night in particular, the

Tanya McCready: 00:15:49

Northern Lights were stunning. We were just at the border of

Tanya McCready: 00:15:52

Yukon and Alaska. And he was probably 50 miles away from

Tanya McCready: 00:15:55

where my brother and I were waiting for him. And I remember

Tanya McCready: 00:15:58

looking up in the northern lights, and like, oh, my gosh,

Tanya McCready: 00:16:00

you know, we're 50 miles apart, but I know he's seen the same

Tanya McCready: 00:16:02

Northern Lights I am. And he tells the story of watching them

Tanya McCready: 00:16:06

and thinking, you know, tanyon water season, he said, the dogs

Tanya McCready: 00:16:10

actually were running, watching the Northern Lights, too. So, so

Tanya McCready: 00:16:14

many special memories, bonding times with our dogs. Spiritual

Tanya McCready: 00:16:19

moments, you know, come on that trail, when you're out on your

Tanya McCready: 00:16:23

own for so long in the elements. Hank doesn't talk a lot about

Tanya McCready: 00:16:27

them. But there are moments that are very, very precious that I

Tanya McCready: 00:16:30

don't know, that you'd ever experienced. And

Howard Brown: 00:16:33

I mean, your stop and for the stopping if you

Howard Brown: 00:16:35

stopping to rest the dogs and to eat and to, you know, give them

Howard Brown: 00:16:39

I mean, you have to plan this course out. That's up to you as

Howard Brown: 00:16:42

the musher right,

Tanya McCready: 00:16:44

to some extent you plan, and then life happens,

Tanya McCready: 00:16:47

right. So that's what we always go into. Exactly. So. But yeah,

Tanya McCready: 00:16:52

on average, the dogs rest the same number of hours that they

Tanya McCready: 00:16:55

run on the trail. So even though the dogs are getting lots of

Tanya McCready: 00:16:58

rest, Hank has to care for them, of course, pack his sled cook

Tanya McCready: 00:17:02

their next meal. So his first race, I think he figured he got

Tanya McCready: 00:17:05

between one and two hours of sleep a day. So by the end of

Tanya McCready: 00:17:09

it, I mean, monsters are like zombies, right? It's just like,

Tanya McCready: 00:17:12

What day is it? I mean, it's just, it's so much now as he did

Tanya McCready: 00:17:16

more races, he got better, he probably got up to three to four

Tanya McCready: 00:17:19

hours of sleep a day, just by getting more dialled into his

Tanya McCready: 00:17:23

routines and had to do things more efficiently. But it's a

Tanya McCready: 00:17:26

learning curve for sure. It's an incredibly good challenges.

Tanya McCready: 00:17:31

biggest challenges are mine, right? I mean, a lot of people

Tanya McCready: 00:17:36

assume it's young dogs that run these races. And yes, there'll

Tanya McCready: 00:17:39

be some younger dogs in there. But those aren't your prime

Tanya McCready: 00:17:42

dogs, your prime dogs are the five to nine year old dogs.

Tanya McCready: 00:17:45

Because it's a mental gamble for your musher and the dogs. It's

Tanya McCready: 00:17:48

it's, I mean, obviously, it's endurance, but it's way more a

Tanya McCready: 00:17:52

mental game. And the dog is knowing they're going a long way

Tanya McCready: 00:17:55

and knowing how to you know, kind of just, we're going to be

Tanya McCready: 00:17:58

doing this for days, guys, like we're not going to put

Tanya McCready: 00:18:00

everything in the first day. That's something that only comes

Tanya McCready: 00:18:03

with age and experience. And also knowing how to lead and get

Tanya McCready: 00:18:07

through those tough times. Because they'll run through

Tanya McCready: 00:18:10

storms, you know, where they literally can't see anything.

Tanya McCready: 00:18:14

You know, they've had a river break up under them one year,

Tanya McCready: 00:18:18

they've gone across the Sea crossing where they couldn't see

Tanya McCready: 00:18:20

a thing. I mean, all those kinds of challenges without confidence

Tanya McCready: 00:18:25

in your leaders in your team. And equally them having

Tanya McCready: 00:18:28

confidence in Hank, they've never go anywhere. The one year

Tanya McCready: 00:18:33

they left Shaktoolik, which is right on the Bering Sea and the

Tanya McCready: 00:18:36

Iditarod to cross that section sea ice. And it was a bad storm

Tanya McCready: 00:18:40

going in. And it was the scariest section of trail for

Tanya McCready: 00:18:43

Hank to run. And as he said, they left the land behind in the

Tanya McCready: 00:18:47

wind hit them full. He couldn't even see the dogs. It was so

Tanya McCready: 00:18:50

bad. And he said I got so fearful that his lead dog was

Tanya McCready: 00:18:54

Maverick at the time and Mavericks the only dog we've

Tanya McCready: 00:18:57

ever had that can turn a team 180 degrees. He literally turned

Tanya McCready: 00:19:01

the team 180 degrees and he took them back into the checkpoint,

Tanya McCready: 00:19:03

because as the lead dog, he's like if you have that much fear

Tanya McCready: 00:19:07

because of course dogs read our energy just like that. I'm not

Tanya McCready: 00:19:10

going any further. And there, they sat for hours until Hank

Tanya McCready: 00:19:14

got his mindset, right, got his confidence enough that they

Tanya McCready: 00:19:16

could do it. And the team had it out. And that time they did

Tanya McCready: 00:19:19

manage to get across that stretch of ice. But, you know,

Tanya McCready: 00:19:23

it's all the lessons that you hear about with people. But we

Tanya McCready: 00:19:27

learned it through our dogs, you know, trust. Trust is so huge,

Tanya McCready: 00:19:31

because without trust, there is no team and literally if you

Tanya McCready: 00:19:34

don't have trust in a dog team, they sit down and they quit.

Tanya McCready: 00:19:37

They're not going anywhere. So yeah, so many I could go on for

Tanya McCready: 00:19:41

two hours. I know we don't have two hours, Howard but so many

Tanya McCready: 00:19:44

stories on challenges and the lessons they've taught us it's

Tanya McCready: 00:19:47

beautiful

Howard Brown: 00:19:47

because it's all about perseverance and but

Howard Brown: 00:19:50

there's so much that went into this the training the team and

Howard Brown: 00:19:54

the learning. I mean, again, it took them it took you 10 years

Howard Brown: 00:19:58

to finally actually get to the idea To ride Yeah, to earn your

Howard Brown: 00:20:00

way on. And I imagine that there's separation between the

Howard Brown: 00:20:05

different mushers and you know, you're, you're alone out there

Howard Brown: 00:20:08

basically trying to trying to actually go at the fastest pace,

Howard Brown: 00:20:12

but to say a safe pace to because a lot of issues, dogs

Howard Brown: 00:20:16

can get hurt, right? I mean, you got what you said is 12 or 16

Howard Brown: 00:20:19

dogs on the team

Tanya McCready: 00:20:21

16 dogs on the team dogs on one of those two

Tanya McCready: 00:20:24

years. Yeah.

Howard Brown: 00:20:24

And they got to eat because they need that

Howard Brown: 00:20:26

energy to go and they're pulling through as well. So this led to

Howard Brown: 00:20:30

two books. And so tell me about the first book, give me the

Howard Brown: 00:20:34

highlight reel on a guitar rod dreamer.

Tanya McCready: 00:20:38

First Book was our journey to our first 1000

Tanya McCready: 00:20:40

mile race. So it has a little bit of our, you know, our origin

Tanya McCready: 00:20:42

story of starting winter dance and, and takes us through the

Tanya McCready: 00:20:45

couple of years of of all the races, we had to run to get to

Tanya McCready: 00:20:48

the Iditarod. And then, you know, the joy and the excitement

Tanya McCready: 00:20:51

of actually being at the start of the Iditarod and what Hank

Tanya McCready: 00:20:54

and the team experienced along that trail. Now, unfortunately,

Tanya McCready: 00:20:58

we didn't get to finish our first two Diderot. So that book,

Tanya McCready: 00:21:02

you know, ends with the very tough non finishing of that

Tanya McCready: 00:21:06

race. And with that, and then journey with 1000 Miles picks up

Tanya McCready: 00:21:11

where that one leaves off, you know, with with that huge

Tanya McCready: 00:21:14

disappointment, that a huge failure, and goes through our

Tanya McCready: 00:21:17

next 1000 mile race, which was how we got through that

Tanya McCready: 00:21:20

devastation was we set a new goal. And that was, you know,

Tanya McCready: 00:21:24

the biggest lesson we learned out of that was, whenever life

Tanya McCready: 00:21:28

throws you, lemons, my gosh, who am I talking to, I don't even

Tanya McCready: 00:21:31

tell you this hour, I got to set a new goal and find a way to

Tanya McCready: 00:21:35

keep going and get excited about life again, because that's what

Tanya McCready: 00:21:37

makes life magical again. So during the 1000 Miles was our

Tanya McCready: 00:21:40

second 1000 mile race, which Hank did finish. And just so

Tanya McCready: 00:21:44

many stories of him and the dogs and you know, unique characters

Tanya McCready: 00:21:47

that we get to meet along the trail and, and the challenges

Tanya McCready: 00:21:49

that they went through and how they dealt with them. So yeah,

Tanya McCready: 00:21:52

those are the two

Howard Brown: 00:21:54

works. Yeah, you retooled and regain planned and

Howard Brown: 00:21:58

you put forth you know, this meant, as you said, mental

Howard Brown: 00:22:02

toughness, physical fitness, you needed the finances to move

Howard Brown: 00:22:06

forward. And then you also had the faith to incorporate the

Howard Brown: 00:22:10

family into doing it. It's actually an incredible story.

Howard Brown: 00:22:14

And I love the two books, I love the speaking. And all the dogs,

Howard Brown: 00:22:21

you name them, like family. I mean, you've got a big family.

Howard Brown: 00:22:26

We do.

Tanya McCready: 00:22:27

Yes, it's a it's a big deal. And there's a little

Tanya McCready: 00:22:29

litter of pups. And you know, it usually takes us a bit to name

Tanya McCready: 00:22:32

them because everyone has to agree. And we usually go with

Tanya McCready: 00:22:35

themes. So every litter is a theme. And yeah, so it's it's a

Tanya McCready: 00:22:39

process, but everybody has names. Absolutely.

Howard Brown: 00:22:41

So I mean, you're a breeder as well. So it's, it's

Howard Brown: 00:22:45

incredible. Well, I, I want to tell you this is when I when I

Howard Brown: 00:22:49

first got introduced you, I didn't know much about you know,

Howard Brown: 00:22:54

dog sled racing, and about your company and, uh, you and it's

Howard Brown: 00:22:57

just fantastic. Because you actually do, what I do is that

Howard Brown: 00:23:02

you actually go and you shed light on the world. And you do

Howard Brown: 00:23:06

it by raising your dogs, raising your family, finishing the race,

Howard Brown: 00:23:11

okay, and being able to, you know, meet the people along the

Howard Brown: 00:23:16

way. It's just beautiful. And that's what sharing and shining

Howard Brown: 00:23:19

your light is all about. So let's do that together. We're

Howard Brown: 00:23:21

going to enter our shining brightly spotlight, we're going

Howard Brown: 00:23:24

to put on our sunglasses for a second. And what I'd like you to

Howard Brown: 00:23:27

do is tell people how to the best way to get a hold of you.

Howard Brown: 00:23:30

And then give me some final comments. And then you'll kick

Howard Brown: 00:23:33

it back to me to to end the show.

Tanya McCready: 00:23:36

Absolutely. So winter dance.com is the best way

Tanya McCready: 00:23:39

for people to reach us by email, social everything there. Or

Tanya McCready: 00:23:43

Tanya mccrady.com That's more on our speaking and presentation,

Tanya McCready: 00:23:46

some courses. A couple things to leave people with. I think the

Tanya McCready: 00:23:51

biggest one is if you have a dream, and you want to chase it

Tanya McCready: 00:23:55

and start chasing it. Nothing was ever perfect for Hank and I

Tanya McCready: 00:23:59

when we built winter dance, but you don't have to see the finish

Tanya McCready: 00:24:02

line when you start you just have to see the next step.

Tanya McCready: 00:24:05

Because if you wait till you see the finish line, you're never

Tanya McCready: 00:24:08

going to start and when you're on your way to that finish line,

Tanya McCready: 00:24:12

just take it one step after the other that's when life gets

Tanya McCready: 00:24:14

absolutely magical.

Howard Brown: 00:24:16

I love it. I will include in the show notes and in

Howard Brown: 00:24:20

the comments on all social media, the website and how to

Howard Brown: 00:24:23

get in touch with you and the books and also how to come visit

Howard Brown: 00:24:26

you and come up as well not just for training but maybe for you

Howard Brown: 00:24:31

want to come up and meet the pups and learn about it as well

Howard Brown: 00:24:34

get away so I it's just a beautiful story and thank you

Howard Brown: 00:24:37

for sharing keep inspiring. I next time I want to have you

Howard Brown: 00:24:41

back I want Hank I know he's training so but we'll get him on

Howard Brown: 00:24:45

here because I want to hear from from your lead dog as well hear

Howard Brown: 00:24:50

from him as well. So you can always reach me at shining

Howard Brown: 00:24:54

brightly.com You can learn more about my my speaking and the

Howard Brown: 00:24:58

book of course and To pot this podcast and my advocacy work in

Howard Brown: 00:25:03

entrepreneurship in cancer advocacy and interfaith

Howard Brown: 00:25:06

relations, and just remember, if we choose to shine brightly a

Howard Brown: 00:25:11

little bit each day for ourselves, for others in our

Howard Brown: 00:25:14

communities, the world will be better place. Thank you again,

Howard Brown: 00:25:18

Tanya, what a great podcast show. And we'll share this

Howard Brown: 00:25:22

widely and, you know, I got it. I want to actually get behind

Howard Brown: 00:25:26

there and go on a training run as well. You'll teach me how to

Howard Brown: 00:25:29

do it. So absolutely. Well, thank you and keep shining

Howard Brown: 00:25:33

brightly. Thank you.