Five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey had a hard time picking just one dog to talk about — “There’s a lot of standouts in this team,” he said — but he settled on five-year-old Titan.
“He’s a sweet boy. There’s a lot of things I love about him,” Seavey said.
More than anything, Seavey said, he appreciates the history Titan represents. Titan’s father is Prophet, who was on Seavey’s winning team in 2021, and his grandfather is Reef, a legendary Golden Harness winner that ran with Seavey for three straight victories, in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
“What that allows me to do is have a little more information about this dog, that he may not even know about himself yet,” Seavey said. “So it’s kind of fun to have that information and watch the next generation grow and race, and so he’s one that I’m looking for great things from.”
Titan made it to Nome in the 2022 race when Seavey finished in second place.
Titan and the rest of Seavey’s team — with one exception — are capable of running in lead, he said.
“I literally have one dog in the team that I don’t trust in lead,” Seavey said. “Not that he won’t do it, he’ll run up there, I just don’t trust him. He doesn’t have no commands and he’d rather pee on things. That’s Frank. He runs in the back.”
Titan is part of our “Dog of the Day” Iditarod series. Previously we met Paul, Ralph, Mussel, Junior, Meg, Schooby, Mayhem, Skookum and Rolex.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere.