Dog legend Artur: The dog which can handle any terrain

A team of Swedish athletes one of whom is Mikael Lindord regularly attends one of the most difficult races in the world to challenge other teams – the Adventure Racing World Championship. When Mikael and his friends stopped in the middle of an Amazonian virgin forest to eat and drink something and refresh for the next part of the hike, a quiet dog joined them.

Mikael showed mercy to the animal that looked really impoverished and shared a part of his own resources. Since that, the dog hasn’t left the Swedish team :). Artur didn’t become discouraged by all the things that the racers had to overcome on their journey through the Amazonian wilderness. They say they were mainly worried about its safety. After all, the organizers of the race didn’t take into account dog participants and warned the racers to think it through if they want to take dogs.

Adventure Racing is a type of an extreme sport that combines mountain climbing, hiking, cycling on a mountain bike and kayaking. All of this is happening within only a few days. World championships held annually in Ecuador cover three geographically different regions – the Andes, Pacific and an Amazonian virgin forest. Artur threw himself into the individual tasks together with the racers without hesitation, he swam with them next to kayaks, waded through mud, climbed steep hills.

In one moment, the racers decided they can’t continue further with Artur. They left him the content of two cans on the bank for him and headed to the river. But Artur ran to them and started swimming. When Mikael saw this, he couldn’t resist and took the dog into his kayak. He earned ovations of all onlooking fans. Since this moment, it was clear that Artur became a full-valued fifth member of the team and finished the race together with the Swedes.

An indomitable dog earned the title of the most extreme dog racer of the world by completing a 430 miles long hike. At least in the opinion of the Swedish team. His achievement impressed Mikael so much that he decided to adopt him and take him to Sweden. Mikael had to apply for an exception at the Swedish ministry of agriculture in order to be able to take this foundling from Ecuador to his country. In the end, they allowed that.

One life chapter therefore happily ended for Artur and a new one started. You can see how the whole team was excited about Artur’s adoption at the fun page of Swedish athletes who call themselves Team Peak Performance.

The story took place in 2014.

And what interesting dog story has impressed you lately?