Many mushers snack their dogs every two hours, or two and a half, on long runs. The phone can now remind you, without you taking it out of your pocket.
What changes
At the start, in the "Equipment & conditions" step, the section that held the hydration alerts is now called "During the run". It has a second line, "Snack reminder":
- it is off until you turn it on; once on, the phone remembers it for the next starts;
- the interval is set with the two big
−and+buttons, from 0h30 to 4h00 in quarter-hour steps; 2h00 by default; - time counts from the start, pauses included: a stop to untangle a line resets nothing.
During the run, when it is due, the phone buzzes three times, short, and plays a sound of its own, different from the water one. You know it is the snack without looking. If you wear a watch that receives the phone's notifications, it buzzes too and shows "Snack · 2h00 out". The reminder says "at the next good spot": it does not ask you to stop right away.
If you take the phone out, the reminder's banner is there, with a big "Snack given" button. It is optional. Without touching it, the next reminder falls two hours after the previous one: 2h, 4h, 6h. If you touch it, the next one falls two hours after that tap.
During a stage (a long rest), the reminder stays quiet. It starts again from zero when the stage ends: the meal was taken during the rest.
On snow, the snack is their water
The hydration alert only sounds on dryland, above the kennel's temperature threshold. On snow it stays silent — and that is where runs are longest. In winter, food is what hydrates the dogs. On snow, the snack reminder therefore says so ("on snow, it's their water too"), and the Water line of the start step now reads "On snow there is no water alert: the snack is their water" instead of promising an alert that never sounded.
On dryland, when water and snack fall less than three minutes apart, you feel only one buzz, the snack one, and the reminder says "Snack + water".
What others see
Nothing. The reminder lives on your phone: the setting is not shared with the kennel, and the snack is recorded nowhere. The session does not say how many snacks you gave, nor when.
What it does not do
- It asks for nothing. No confirmation, no acknowledgement, no repeat. A reminder nobody touches is not "missed": that is the normal case, phone in pocket.
- It does not guess that you snacked. A stop near the due time looks like a snack; it may be a tangled dog. The app only moves the reminder on your tap.
- It does not count snacks in the day's ration, and does not say what to give or how much: meat, fish, kibble, fat, that is your kennel's practice.
- It does not bring snacks closer by itself when it is cold. Mushers give more in deep cold, but no rule with numbers exists. You set the interval at the start, on the very screen where you enter the temperature.
- It does not get through "Do not disturb", no more than the water alert.
Why these choices
- On time, not on distance like water. Every practice we found counts in hours, one to three depending on the musher, and what the dogs spend follows time on the trail more than distance.
- Off by default. Most mushers do not snack on short runs. A phone that buzzes at two hours for someone who does not snack teaches them to mute the app's notifications — and the water alert with it.
- No gesture asked. Taking the phone out means removing gloves and waking a screen: cold and battery for a fact the app does not need. The reminder costs no extra battery: it is decided on the beat the capture already runs every second, and it never turns the screen on.
- Three short buzzes rather than a stronger one. Rhythm is what the skin recognises best, through a jacket and a cold hand. On an iPhone, a notification cannot have its own vibration: the sound makes the difference.