Jake (2002-2015)

I don’t know that I can count the number of things that will put a smile on Jake’s face.  He starts out happy, then really starts smiling when he gets food, pets, attention of any sort, human or canine, hooked up to work, and this list goes on. 

Jake, or Jacob as I often call him, was one of my first leaders.  It was Jake who first showed me that beginning male leaders will sometimes do a great side-on pass and then try and mark the next available tree. Rest assured neither I nor the musher we just passed were pleased with the boy.  While almost none of my dogs will follow the trail and scent of another dog team, Jake is one of the best at finding good footing along a trail.  I remember when I was running him in lead as a pup and he was checking out which snowmobile track looked best.  There were times I thought to correct his choice, but I know from skiing and hiking that my choice has only slightly better than 50/50 odds of being the correct one.  I’m sure even as a pup, he did no worse than I did.

Beyond being happy, Jake likes everybody and everybody likes Jake.  Only Mitzi is more playful in the play-yard than Jake is.  He’s submissive to a fault, only now is he starting to say “enough” when enough had long since passed.  Still, it’s not like anything really upsets him.