Liz Parrish, known as "Iditarod's Littlest Musher", grew up in the Midwest with little snow and an even littler dog -- the family pet was a couch sausage miniature Dachshund. Her education and first career was in high tech, where she learned that she liked working with people much more than computer programs. After 21 successful years, she hightailed it out of the Silicon Valley rat race and bought Crystalwood Lodge (www.CrystalwoodLodge.com) near Crater Lake National Park.Always a lover of dogs and dog training, Liz turned Crystalwood Lodge into a pet-friendly destination resort specializing in hosting small groups for intimate getaways and outdoor recreation. She spent a decade building and training her own sled dog team towards a goal of completing the 2008 Iditarod in celebration of her 50th birthday. Throughout her life, she met and conquered challenges from cancer, meningitis, and fibromyalgia. Liz and her team finished the 2008 Iditarod in 14 days with 14 dogs, despite being severely injured early in the race.Liz spent a lifetime preparing for the challenge of Iditarod, and she lives by the motto, "Quitting is NOT an option."One can't go through an experience like Iditarod without being changed by it. Upon returning to the "real world" Liz was determined to find her new grounding and what life held for her post-Iditarod. Thus Life...Through Dogs(SM) was born (www.LifeThroughDogs.com). A key tenet of Life...Through Dogs is that dogs mirror and reflect, without judgment, how we are living at any given moment. We can best learn about life, leadership - and ourselves - through these wonderful teachers.Life...Through Dogs' flagship book, "Be the Lead Dog, 7 Life-Changing Lessons Taught by Sled Dogs", published in April 2010, captures the essence of the work with the life lessons the dogs share and teach. Liz's first book was "Crimp! On-By!! The True Story of a Most Unlikely Iditarod Lead Dog", published September 2009, written as a way to share with the world the incredible story of the her amazing lead dog Crimp, who by rights shouldn't have been alive, much less a sled dog, much less an Iditarod leader. Crimp inspired Liz to accomplish her Iditarod dream, as well as having a big part in making it a reality.