Puppy Team

This morning I awoke to thick smoke filling the valley and obscuring the mountains. There have been some big forest fires this year, but this is only the third time that the Island Park area has been impacted by the smoke. Strenuous exertion is not healthy when the air is full of smoke particles, so I did not run any dogs this morning.

In spite of nothing more than the slightest breeze all day, the smoke cleared out enough towards evening that I decided to run one team before dark. The puppy team was at the top of my list.

Sox was a naughty girl and chewed her neckline in half, so she got to run without a neckline. That girl has tons of drive and energy, so there was no problem with her not facing forward or trying to slack off or wander away from the team. She seems pretty smart. She will be a year old next month, and her speed has improved greatly since this spring.


Cinder and Soot are just a few days younger than Sox and are looking really great, too. Soot is probably the better dog, with more speed and a better stride, but Cinder drives hard and has such enthusiasm, that I am sure she will be an excellent sled dog too.