It is the most common way to keep sled dogs. It's cheap; it's easy; you can keep lots of dogs without much land; makes kennel management simple; prevents unwanted breedings; prevents fights; reduces vet bills and makes it easy to monitor who is eating what and adjust their diets. Much easier to get a dogsitter for a tethered yard than for one like mine!

Done properly sled dogs do fine tethered--properly means they get daily exercise off their chains; can socialize with other dogs; area is scooped at least once or twice a day; they have toys, bones ect to keep them occupied; holes are filled in regularly; decent houses with insulation and flat roofs so they can lay on top.

Do most mushers do it properly? Subject to debate. Most competitive mushers have handlers who do the daily grunt work in a kennel. An unhealthy, unexercised dog is not going to be a good sled dog.

Most sled dogs don't know any different and are actually quite comfortable being chained. My Sundin came from a long distance racing kennel. On a tether, he's a confident, easy to handle, happy dog. Unchained, he's equally happy, but impossible to handle, has to be lured into a trap to catch him again! When I first got Sleet, I put her in a big pen thinking I was being nice to her. She howled for 3 straight days. She never stopped! I finally called her first owner, a tour operator musher. She told me that the only time Sleet had been fenced, she was in trouble, sick or pregnant! I snapped Sleet on a chain and she shut up and settled in. In her mind, I was punishing her by putting her in a fence! Took months for her to adjust to being loose. Course now she's a 14 year old couch potato!