An Aliquippa dog breeder and sled dog driver said his recent 12th-place finish at an important Michigan race was "expected." Eric Ayers, whose pure bred huskies are ranked among the world's top sled dogs, conceded he "didn't train enough this year."

And, he said, maybe the hole in his aorta and two recent surgeries had something to do with it, too.

Two years ago, Ayers, a 32-year-old software engineer, was in an accident that ripped a hole in a major artery. But that didn't stop him and his wife, Kristen Ayers, from continuing to rear world-class huskies at their Tugline Siberians kennel, a passion they've shared for 11 years.

"I grew up in Moon, and I guess it started in high school," said Ayers. "My girlfriend, now my wife, and I had a couple of Siberians as pets. We did obedience training."

A chance encounter with a Pittsburgh sled dog racer led the Ayerses to competition in 1999.

"I got beat lot," said Ayers, "so I got very competitive. I took a couple of years to research dogs, build up a kennel and learned to race competitively."

He started racing in pro classes in 2005. Specializing in purebreds puts the Ayerses at a disadvantage.

"It's a small gene pool. There aren't a lot of purebred huskies," he said. "They mostly race with mixed breeds -- huskies with German short hair pointers that grow muscles faster, are more obedient and want to please their owner. They can get a dog that weighs 60 pounds and runs 20 mph. Siberian huskies can't get bigger than 45-50 pounds."

But in the small world of purebred Siberian husky sled dog competition, Ayers said their dogs have ranked as high as No. 1.

In January at the Kalkaska Winterfest, Ayers drove an eight-dog sled over a fast, hilly but well-groomed 17-mile course in above-freezing weather. His combined time in two 8.5-mile sprints was 1 hour, 1 minute and 16.41 seconds, a 12th-place finish among 15 drivers. First place clocked in at 51 minutes, 15.52 seconds.

Ayers said he plans to skip a race scheduled for next week and prepare for 10 races in 2011.

"Next year, I'll be able to retire some older dogs and will have a pool of 12-14 dogs that I can train really well," he said. "Next year is my year."

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