Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995                   TAG: 9505300007
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV20   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LAURA ZIVKOVICH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Long

MUSH!

Since September the class has been working on a yearlong project designing and building (and redesigning and rebuilding) an 8-foot, three-man dog sled. That's right, a dog sled, lazily pulled by one black and two yellow Labrador retrievers.

The dog sled project is "98 percent kid learning and 2 percent teacher input," says Walter. "They needed just a little help here and there."

The project's plan began after the pupils read a series of books with arctic and survival themes such as "Stone Fox," "Hatchet," "Antarctica's Last Huskies" and "Kiana's Iditarod." With Walter's and his wife, Margo's, dog expertise; a group of eager pupils; and a Student Teacher Administrator Research grant provided by the Montgomery County School Board, the project soon became reality.

The 19 pupils divided themselves into three groups: sled design and construction, dog development and training, and harness and other materials construction. "The children naturally gravitated to where they needed to be," said Walter. They each chose which team to join; some changing teams as they discovered what their jobs would be.

The project culminated last week with a series of demonstrations on the school's outdoor basketball court, each team making a presentation to the audience of pupils and teachers from other classes explaining its work. "It's nice that we can present it to other people. They are experiencing what we did," said Stephanie Ratliff of the dog development team.

Stephanie and her team members organized the running of the sled. "Briana mush! Briana gee! Briana whoa!" called Jessica Bowles as she impressed the audience by commanding the dogs around the court. The team worked with the dogs two times a week teaching them four commands for go, turn right, turn left and stop. "Alex wasn't so hard to train because he's so obedient," recalled Stephanie. "But, it was harder to train Briana and Dodger."

Margo Walter, an evaluator for Therapy Dog International and a Canine Good Citizenship Judge, was a big help to the dog development team. Not only did she escort the dogs to and from the practice sessions, but - with her experience as a lecturer on dog care and obedience - she taught the team members to be consistent and to respect the dogs. "They're so good at it," she said, "much better than adults."

The dogs like to be with the kids, too. They look forward to going to school, said Margo Walter. "They are more excited about it than anything else they do."

The Walters, who live with their eight Labrador retrievers on 27 acres in Giles County, selected Briana, Alex and Dodger to come up with the best combination of strength, training and ability.

"These three are the best-trained and most socialized," said Chris Walter. He does admit, however, that they aren't huskies and probably would prefer to ride in the sled themselves. "If they were huskies, they could pull 500 pounds or so. As it is, we're lucky if they'll pull 10."

The sled construction team created three sleds in the six-month period. The first was a cardboard model; the second was a more substantial model made of plywood. The team piled 19 dictionaries on top to see how much weight it would hold, finally breaking parts of it. "The weak parts were the handlebars and at the front," said Devon Bolejack. The next model was the final one, an 8-foot beauty made of quarter-inch plywood put together with bolts, washers and nuts.

The design work challenged the students' math and science, as well as construction, skills. The children originally wished to build a sled to pull all 19 class members until they figured out how many dogs they would need to pull it.

They also ran in to some unexpected problems and some red tape. Each new item the team wanted to get required a purchase order and phone calls or a letter to the company. The team ordered much of the material from mail-order catalogs, which the kids prefer to call "dog-a-logs." Some letters were returned with "insufficient address" stamps. They also got disgusted with a local retailer for not treating them with respect. After getting no response from a letter they mailed to the store's manager, they vowed never to buy anything there again. "It's amazing the attitude a kid will have when treated like a baby," said Walter.

Under increasingly threatening skies which held out for the rest of the program, the harness and other materials team members lined up on the white line to tell their tale at the school presentation.

To make the harnesses, they used shears to cut the large pieces of leather into strips, put the leather on a piece of wood and punched holes in it with a chisel and a mallet, then sewed the strips together.

"Once you cut the harness, you have to measure it on the dog and see where you have to adjust it," said Andrew Dickerson.

The team had to adjust the design as problems arose. The first harness, which went around the dogs' necks, pulled too tightly and choked them. The team changed the design so the dogs would be pulling with their whole bodies and not just by the neck.

The team also found the dogs to be uncooperative when they were uncomfortable. "We use fabric on the harnesses because the leather doesn't feel right against their skin," explained Randy Nogueira.

The idea of working on a problem until it is fixed is a theme that the kids really picked up on, Walter said. When the group was working on revisions of some writing exercises and having problems developing thoughts and forming paragraphs, Walter said, one of the students burst out, "Revising is like the dog sled. If you don't get it right the first time, you do it over."

It's these life lessons that Walter seems so pleased to get across to the pupils: sticking with a project to the end, trying until they get it right, the benefits and challenges of teamwork and having faith in their abilities.

He has been quite a success. He will be recognized for his efforts in November by the Virginia Tech College of Education with a certificate of recognition at its 12th annual Excellence in Education Conference. More importantly, he will be honored in the memories of his pupils who will never forget building a dog sled in the fourth grade.

Walter, who retired from the military in 1992 after 22 years of service in the Coast Guard, is finishing his third year as a teacher at Christiansburg Elementary. He had thought of building a sled for his dogs before, but it was only when he met author Shelly Gill - one of a few women to have competed in the Iditarod - at an educational conference last year that he decided to ask his pupils if they would be interested. Having enjoyed guest appearances by the dogs before, they loved the idea of working with them on a regular basis.

When he briefly mentioned the possibility of next year's class working on a similar project, the class adamantly objected.

"No, nobody's gonna do this again," quipped sled construction team member Brittanie Hopkins. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."