A musher Tony Greenway said, "We do run a traditional sled on the snow when we have a snow race, but on dirt races we run a vehicle known as a gig. It's a free wheel gig so we can run on dirt. Obviously we can't run a snow sled on dirt. Being Aussies we adapt and we modify things to our climate so we're pretty inventive in that way."

The Canberra Classic is for single mushers with four and eight dog teams.

The national title featured Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies, and drew competitors from across Australia.

An Australian Sled Dog Sports ASSOC. Andrew Gersbach said, "We'll probably have 100 competitors here this weekend and There's probably three or four hundred throughout Australia, who actively compete and everyone who can certainly do this sport as long as the dog is capable of pulling out and running on the trail."

The northern hemisphere may even take on this hybrid style and run "off-snow" competitions in the summer months.

(CCTV September 2, 2008)