DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - T.J. Fordy of Fort Resolution says she loves dogs and mushing.

T.J. Fordy, a teenager in Fort Resolution, has her own kennel of racing dogs. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

And anyone who knows the 17-year-old can have no doubt about that.

Fordy believes she is the youngest person in the NWT who owns a kennel of racing dogs.

"Since I've been 15 I've had my own kennel, my own dogs," she said.

However, she has been racing for much longer than that.

"When I was a little kid they used to put me in the one-dog class," she said, noting that was when she was about seven.

Fordy – who is better known as T.J., instead of Therese Jean – said she always wanted to be a musher.

"I just really liked dogs and going for a little ride around," she said. "It makes me excited and makes me feel good."

Fordy got her own first sleigh at about 11 years old when she spotted a homemade lumber model and cross-country skis hanging in a tree at the community dump. She took it home and enlisted two pet dogs to become racers.

"I borrowed harnesses and line and I hooked them up, and I went riding around town," she recalled.

The pets were sled dog breeds, but had deformities and had never been in a harness before.

"But after I got them going, it was fun," Fordy said.

These days, she has about 45 dogs, including 20 pups.

"That's all mine," she said, noting she started with eight dogs two years ago.

Fordy spends about two or three hours with the dogs daily – feeding, training or racing them.

"It's a lot, but it's worth it," she said of the work she puts into the dogs.

She helps pay for her kennel by working as a cashier at the Northern Store

"It costs me a lot, my whole paycheque," she said, noting her parents also help out.

In addition, the kennel is located on her grandfather's property, and her 15-year-old sister, Kathleen, helps take care of the dogs and also races.

When Fordy babysits for an aunt, what she earns also goes towards her dogs, she said.

"I babysit for dog food."

She even catches fish in Great Slave Lake to feed her dogs, along with giving some of her catch away for free to community elders.

Aside from taking care of her dogs and working, Fordy attends Deninu School, where she is in Grade 11.

The young musher plans to take her dogs with her to Fort Smith, where she intends to study to become a renewable resources officer.

"I can take them with me because we'd be still in the North," she said.

In fact, Fordy looks forward to being a musher all her life.

"My plan is to get a 10-dog team," she noted. "Right now, I'm working with six."

She even hopes to race in some major competitions like the Iditarod in Alaska and Yukon Quest.

"I want to go far in dog mushing," she said.

She already competes in several NWT dog races each March, and any prize money she wins is used to feed and care for her dogs.

Fordy, a member of Deninu Ku'e First Nation, said it is important to keep alive the tradition of dog mushing.

She learned much about dog racing from her grandfather and her cousin.

Fordy has been told she has a gift for training racing dogs, especially lead dogs which are notably difficult to train.

"Everyone tells me so I kind of believe it," she said, explaining that gift may be an ability to communicate with the animals.

"I love those dogs. It's just like a person," she said. "You get a connection with them. It's like you can talk to them and they know what you're talking about."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.