CLAYSVILLE, Pa. - They bark and prance in eager anticipation of the fun that awaits. Let the sledding begin!

Ralph Ullum is just as enthusiastic as his Siberian huskies when it comes to hooking up the sled for a dash through the snow, whether around his East Finley Township home or at Moraine State Park with fellow mushers.

Ullum's attraction to huskies started when he was a child.

"I was fascinated with wolves and their lifestyle as a kid," Ullum said. "I bought my first (husky) 20 years ago."

Beginning with a borrowed sled and two borrowed dogs to accompany his own husky, Ullum got his first taste of sled racing from the Siberian Husky Club of Pittsburgh.

"It was the end of the racing season," Ullum said. "But I was hooked."

"Racing is just fun," said the spry 61-year-old. "It keeps me in shape and the dogs in shape."

Contrary to what detractors say about racing dogs, particularly in the famous and grueling Iditarod in Alaska, Ullum said the dogs truly love to run. His dogs get so excited when he puts the sled on the roof of his truck.

"You can't make them run if they don't want to. I had one dog who I thought would be a good racer," Ullum said. "But when I hooked him up, he went so far and laid down. I tried a couple more times, but he didn't want to run."

The key to a good team is a good leader.

"They are focused and run hard," Ullum said. "They don't look around at the other dogs, but just concentrate on the racing."

Ideal racing conditions for the dogs, who relish the cold weather, is zero degrees with no wind chill.

Ullum travels around the tri-state area to race. He enters the sprint races with six- or eight-dog teams, which consists of two heats over two days, about six miles long. Starting times are assigned the first day and then based on the order of finish on the second day. There are also mid-distance and distance races.

The sled he uses in races is made by hand from white ash and weighs only 12 pounds. The harness is nylon with fleece padding so it doesn't rub the fur on the dog's shoulder.

The race is run over a packed path, often in a wooded area. Some races even have been run on golf courses.

The dogs are started at one-minute intervals. While it is fun, it also can be dangerous running through the woods at 20 to 22 mph with nothing to control the dogs but the handler's voice.

"It is all verbal communication," Ullum said. "But mostly, you just hang on as they run the trail."

Ullum said there is a snow hook that the handler can throw to stop in an emergency.

Much of his training is done with other sled racing enthusiasts at Moraine State Park.

"It is tough to find a place around here to train, especially because the snow never seems to last long," Ullum said. "In warmer weather, I train on the dirt roads around my house."

While Ullum races his purebred dogs, some racers use dogs that have been crossed with other breeds to get a faster team. Many races have separate divisions for the purebreds and the crosses.

"Some have crossed coonhounds, greyhounds or borzois with the husky," Ullum said, adding that the crossbreeds are more for sprint races while the huskies have more endurance for the longer race.

Huskies usually run a five-minute mile while the crossbreeds can run the mile in 3½ to 4 minutes, Ullum said.

Some team owners like to get a lightweight person to ride the sled so the dogs can go even faster. When Ullum was organizing races at Moraine, a man tried to have his young son race his team. Ullum wouldn't allow him out of concern that the boy wouldn't be able to control the dogs.

Cheri Ullum used to race. "But after falling off a few times, she decided to quit," he said. "She told me that she was going to get hurt."

And the dogs seem to know where the race starts and where it ends, he added.

"You could never run them around a horse race track," he said with a chuckle. "They'd go around once and when they got back to the beginning, they'd stop."