Canine expletives were tossed around like an old tennis ball at the Arctic Winter Games' dog mushing competition in Grande Prairie, Alta, on Tuesday. 

If one dog barked, he was met with a deafening onslaught of yelping vulgarity--as if to say, "Mush off!"*

Thankfully, there were no pups in attendance. 

Then again, my understanding of dog mushing is limited. Wanting to learn more, I was given a crash course in the sport:

(Note: "Dog's are cool", may not be an eloquent thing to say -- but it is, nonetheless, a correct observation.)  

With spring's early arrival in Grande Prairie, melting snow damaged much of the dog-mushing course at Evergreen Park last week.

"I think we had the Cypress Mountain problem," said Monty Haughian, director of sports facilities for the Arctic Winter Games--referring to the warm weather that plagued freestyle skiing venue in the weeks leading up the Vancouver Olympics. 

Haughian told me that last year, on April 4th (yes, precisely April 4th), the snow at the Evergreen Park trail was up to his thigh. 

Glenn Bielech, the Games' venue manager at Evergreen Park, told me that the course is usually 13 kilometres, but had to be chopped down to 3.5 kilometers for the AWG events.

Even with the change, the volunteers are struggling to keep up the conditions.

"We're out here at six in the morning, grooming and packing and keeping her ready," Bielech said. "It's a lot of work, but it's been fun."

Through the effort of volunteers like Haughian and Blielech, families like the Kinvig's were able to spend Tuesday morning racing their hyper (yet adorable) pack of dogs. 

The family made the trip from Whitehorse, Yukon, so Ben, 16, and Rachel, 13, could represent their territory at the AWG. 

For the Kinvig family, dog mushing is a long-standing tradition.

"Well, my family's been doing it for, I don't know, lots of years. My dad mushed, my grandpa ..." Rachel said, trailing off, assuming the point had been made.

As it turns out, the trip was well worth it--Ben won the gold medal on Tuesday. 

(He makes an appearance in the video above, along with Rachel's lead dog, Nadie the Alaskan Husky). 

*My sincere apologies to any dogs who feel they were misquoted in this post.

Follow Dan Robson on Twitter. He can also be reached at dan.robson@cbc.ca.