Whitehorse cross-country skiers work on new dog rules

People who use Whitehorse's Mount McIntyre cross-country ski trails have come up with some ideas to prevent conflicts involving dogs.

The Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club started enforcing policies about loose dogs this past winter after a number of incidents were reported. One rule required skiers to leash dogs for the first few hundred metres down the trail.  Many club members with dogs fought back saying the rules, are not realistic.

Several dozen skiers turned out Thursday night to a public forum to talk about the issue.

Carrie Burbidge says there were lots of good ideas at the meeting and discussion that all members have to consider other people's interests as well as their own.

"There's a lot of different user groups on the trail," she said. "We need to take responsibility for our own use on the trail, but also accept that skiing is an inherently risky sport."

Club president Anne Kennedy says a common theme at the meeting was to separate skiers with dogs from skiers without dogs, "whether it's improvements or changes to the trail network or to create a staging point for people with dogs so that they're separated from other skiers," she said.

Kennedy says the club's directors will now decide how to implement the proposals.