Living in the center of a continuous forest, my nomadic bird dogs don’t spend much time walking on a leash around our home. As a result, they have terrible leash manners. Luckily for me, their tendency to pull works wonderfully with pulling sports like skijoring and kicksledding, as long as you can get them to stop. This is where “whoa” comes into play. This one word allowed me to dive into winter dog sports with my bird dogs.

“Whoa” is a critical command nearly every pointing dog and sled dog owner uses. In both worlds, it simply means “halt.” This term encourages or demands steadiness on birds in the upland scene. However, regarding sled dogs, this command is paired with heavy pressure on the foot brake while setting the snow hook.