Description
The equipment needed to harness 3 dogs in front of a dogsled consists of a dogsled bungee, a team section, a draft line and 3 harnesses, one for each of your dogs.
There are two ways to attach 3 dogs to the front of your sled. The first is to have 2 dogs at the helm, closest to the sled (known as wheel dogs), and 1 dog in front who will lead the team (commonly called the leader). This is ideal if you have a dog that listens to directions very well and 2 dogs that are more the muscle of the team.
It's also possible to go the other way around, with 1 helm dog and 2 lead dogs. The advantage here is to take some pressure off the lead dog, since he's not the only one listening to instructions. If you choose this option, you'll need to detach a line from the team section to put it at the front and add a neck line between the 2 leaders.
When hooking up 3 dogs, we strongly recommend having an anchor, known as a “snowhook” attached to your team just to be safe. If for some reason, the dogs get tangled or you need to get off the sled, you will be able to secure your crew to the ground to prevent them from scurrying off without you! In addition to your snowhook, you will also need a snowhook holder on your sled as well as the snowhook line to connect it to the carabiner in front of your sled.