DOWAGIAC — Jan Bloom’s entrance into sled dog racing first began when he attended an adopt-a-rescue program. When he got to the event, a Siberian husky approached him and would not leave him alone.

“I ended up getting adopted by a husky,” Bloom said.

On Saturday, at Dowagiac’s 24th annual Ice Time festival, Bloom and three of his six total sled dogs stood on Beeson Street greeting visitors and informing them about one of North America’s oldest sports. Bloom also and discussed the differences between an American style sleds and a European style sled.

Bloom is a member of Mid-Union Sled Haulers, Inc., a nonprofit organization located in the Midwestern U.S. dedicated to dog sledding on an amateur basis. MUSH was started by Bill Raabe, of Battle Creek, Michigan. The group name came from “Mushing,” another term used for sled dog racing, which requires a team of well-behaved, social athletes who relish performing with like-minded canines, according to the MUSH website.

After his first husky, Bloom adopted a second husky and somehow ended up with a sled.

“We weren’t going anywhere or doing anything, so then I got a third husky, who is a trained lead dog,” Bloom said. “If you have a dog that knows what’s going on, then the other dogs can learn from it. It always helps to have a trained harness dog to help train your other dogs.”

With three dogs in total, Bloom discovered one of his huskies was slower than the others, so he bought a fourth dog to add to the trio. Shortly after, a fourth well-trained harness dog needed a new home. Bloom adopted the dog and ended up with five.

“Then I really went nuts and got this little, young racing husky out of a racing kennel in Wisconsin,” he said Saturday, holding the shy 15-month old dog on a leash. “He doesn’t understand or know people very well.”

When the dog is full grown, he will weigh about 50 pounds.

Also on display at the Ice Festival were two of Bloom’s sleds. One American racing sled was half traditional and half modern, since it had both some pieces of plastic and some pieces of wood. Traditional racing sleds are made of wood, Bloom said, while modern American racing sleds are plastic.

Modern racing sleds have two types of brakes, a drag mat that helps drivers slow down slightly or when they are making a turn, Bloom said. If a driver has to stop abruptly, there is a firmer brake on the sled.

The last race that Bloom knew of in Michiana was in 2014.

“Since then, everything is up north, and even up through the middle part of the state we are having trouble having good snow throughout the winter,” he said.

Bloom said a well-trained, four-dog sprint team should be able to top out on the right course and with the right kind of snow at 25 miles per hour. A six-dog sprint team should be able to reach speeds of 30 miles per hour. In middle distance races of 25 to 50 miles, a sled dog team can average 15 miles per hour. In long distance races, teams can average eight to 12 miles per hour.

“You want to be able to maintain, and really well-trained teams can do that day after day,” Bloom said.

Bloom added that sled-dog teams that run in races like the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which is a 1,000-mile competition in Alaska, are very well-cared for dogs.

“They are not abused dogs by any sense of the imagination,” Bloom said. “These are pack animals. These dogs came out of Siberia. They came out of fairly small hunting villages. In the summer, the dogs were turned lose to fend for themselves they would pack up, and they would go hunting.”