IQALUIT - It's a familiar sound at the edge of the town - sled dogs singing in their summer home at the upper creek.

Rick Armstrong and Gerard Nadrowski brought their team of eight over last week from the West 40, where the dogs spent the past few months of lingering cold.

Rick Armstrong (left) and Gerard Nadrowski get ready to load up their dogs for a trip to one of the designated dog team sites in Iqaluit. The dogs will spend the warm weather months in the upper creek area, near the airport. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

"The snow has mostly disappeared there, and that's where they get their water in the winter. We move them down to the river so they can get a drink whenever they want," Armstong said.

To make the trek he and his partner hooked four dogs at a time to a chain in their truck bed, and drove them over.

"Two male and two female, to keep them from fighting," he explained.

Their team joined about five others who will wait out the warm weather until fall, in one of a handful of areas designated by the City of Iqaluit for the dogs.

Their coats still mottled in the awkward stage between winter and summer fur, they greeted their new neighbours and settled in by the river bed.

"They're on holiday," said Lynn Peplinski with a laugh earlier that day. Her team is still out at the causeway, but she'll soon hook it up to the front of a truck and allow it to "pull" its way there.

"They know exactly which way to run, each turn. It's amazing, and the younger dogs learn from the older dogs," she said. "One year they got loose when we were heading out from their summer spot to their fall spot, but they just took off and headed right to where they were supposed to go."

In the warm weather the dogs are seldom exercised aside from trotting around on their leash - even a short run has them panting and searching for puddles to cool off in, she said.

"They just hang out in the heat and the bugs. It's sort of like taking siestas, in hot countries," she said.

Since the dogs require less exercise and a diminished feeding schedule, summer means a down time for the team owners, too.

Although she'll still be cutting seal meat and providing other care, "it's less intense of a commitment," Peplinski said. "When the temperature is -5 C on a Saturday morning, then we know it's time to start running again."