Alaskan husky sled dogs from the College of Veterinary Medicine are scheduled to appear on tonight's Late Night with Conan O'Brien show.
The dogs are scheduled to pull a wheeled "sled," carrying the show's host, as part of a guest appearance by Jeff King, winner of the 1996 Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska. The program, which is taped earlier on Thursday, will be broadcast locally by NBC television affiliates at 12:30 a.m. on Friday, April 19.
The Cornell dogs will be accompanied by Arleigh J. Reynolds, assistant professor of clinical sciences. The huskies are involved in research to determine the nutritional needs of exercising dogs, and they regularly enter sled dog races. Reynolds' research has shown that exercising dogs such as huskies, which burn 12,000 calories while running 100 or more miles a day, need fatty acids from high-fat foods as their principal "fuel," whereas a high-carbohydrate diet sometimes recommended for human athletes only impairs the exercising dogs' ability to burn fat.