The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race begins this weekend in Alaska. Musher Scott Janssen, who owns funer
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The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race begins this weekend in Alaska.
The nearly 1,000 mile trek will take competitors from Anchorage to Nome, which is on the state's western coast.
One musher competing is Scott Janssen, who owns several funeral homes in Alaska, earning him the nickname the "Mushing Mortician."
Janssen has been mushing since 2007 and finished his first Iditarod in 2011.
While training, he showed off some of the gear he'll use on the course.
"The important thing is the gear you need going down the trail to keep yourself as comfortable and safe as possible, because the dogs will take care of you but you need to take care of the dogs," said Janssen.
And taking care of the dogs means bringing along snacks.
Typically "pieces of meat that are cut up, and they're cut small enough so the dogs can be able to use the leverage of their jaws to chew it up, and to eat it quickly along the trail," said Janssen.
And the dogs will need the fuel, Janssen says the average weight of his sled alone at the beginning of the race is close to 120 pounds.
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