Flaherty, who has had his own dog teams since the early 1990s, uses his nine full-grown huskies on day trips with his family, other recreation and hunting.

Despite his own enthusiasm for the sport, Flaherty's children still prefer using a snowmobile for those 69-kilometre trips south toward Devon Island, where they know a good sculpin-fishing spot.

"They say 'it's faster' and 'I don't want to travel all day and get trapped in a storm,'" Flaherty said with a chuckle.

Still, the big plus for Gjoa Haven Mayor Michael Angottitauruq Sr. is that dogs will track back to where they started, something a snowmachine isn't programmed to do.

Once, Angottitauruq says, he blindly passed his tent because of a thick fog and even though "My instinct was telling me my tent was this way ... the dogs knew better. I kept trying to turn them around and I ended up going all the way back to town because I could only see those lights."

Angottitauruq said this could be why he has seen dog sled come back in the past 20 years after a virtual disappearance during the 1960s and 1970s.

Then there's the tourists. To prove the interest, Grant Beck, who has won eight gold medals in dog-sled racing in Europe, says he gets business from more than 1,000 tourists a year with his family's dog-sled operation, which is based in Yellowknife.

Meanwhile, in the more remote Grise Fiord, Flaherty is less busy.

"Once in a blue moon I'll take tourists," he says.

Flaherty feeds his huskies ringed seal and the occasional walrus catch, while Beck focuses on high-calorie commercial food with added fat, oils, meat and protein supplements such as egg powder.

"They can burn 8,000 to 12,000 calories a day," Beck said, "depending on how far they go."

Canine diets and other details of raising a dog team will take a back seat to more immediate excitement of the race, however. All around the North people are aware of the 1,600-kilometres-plus Yukon Quest, which starts on Feb. 8. It can take about 12 days to complete.