“Gee” is the voice command a musher uses to tell the lead dog to turn right. Its counterpart, “haw,” means turn left. Together, these two words form the basic steering system in dog sledding, giving the musher directional control over a team that may be 20 feet or more ahead of the sled.
How Gee and Haw Work on the Trail
A dog sled team is steered entirely by voice. The musher has no reins, no steering wheel, and no mechanical connection to the dogs at the front of the line. When the musher calls out “gee,” the lead dog shifts the team to the right. When the musher calls “haw,” the lead dog takes the team left. The rest of the team follows the leader’s path.
These commands can also be combined with “come” for sharper maneuvers. “Come gee” and “come haw” tell the lead dog to make a full 180-degree turn in either direction, essentially reversing the team on the trail.
Because the commands need to carry over wind, distance, and the noise of the sled, mushers typically call them out loudly and clearly. The two words are deliberately distinct from each other in sound, which helps the lead dog distinguish between them even in rough conditions.
Origins of the Command
Gee and haw weren’t invented for dog sledding. The word “gee” as a command to turn an animal right appears in English print before 1700, originally used for directing oxen and draft horses. Teamsters working plows or wagons walked alongside their animals and used these short, sharp words to steer them. When dog mushing developed as a mode of winter transportation, it borrowed the same vocabulary. The commands carried over because they solved the same problem: directing an animal that can’t see hand signals from behind.
Why the Lead Dog Matters
Not every dog in a sled team needs to know gee and haw. The command is directed at the lead dog (or lead pair), who sets the direction for the entire line. Dogs further back in the team, like swing dogs and wheel dogs, follow the path the leaders create. A reliable lead dog that responds quickly and accurately to gee and haw is one of the most valuable animals on a mushing team. Training a dog to consistently distinguish right from left on voice cues alone takes significant time and repetition.
Other Essential Mushing Commands
Gee and haw handle direction, but mushers rely on a small set of additional voice commands for speed and behavior:
- Hike (or Let’s Go): Start moving, or pick up speed if already running. Some mushers use a whistle or other vocal sound instead. Interestingly, teams often don’t need a start command at all. When dogs feel the sled brake or snow hook release, they take off on their own.
- Easy: Slow down.
- Whoa: Stop completely.
- On By: Keep moving past a distraction, whether that’s another team, wildlife, or anything that might tempt the dogs to veer off course.
The entire vocabulary a musher needs to run a team is remarkably small. Six or seven commands cover nearly every situation on the trail. The simplicity is the point: dogs learn short, distinct sounds far more reliably than complex instructions, and a musher shouting into a headwind needs words that cut through clearly. Gee and haw sit at the core of that system, giving the musher the one thing they can’t do any other way from the back of a sled: tell the dogs where to go.