Gracie!

Gracie was the 2nd dog to come my way. The first Yukon dog I got. She was born at the kennel I was working at, along with her 2 sisters George and Lucy. They were the first litter I'd ever seen born, and I was in that pen with them at -40C watching, observing and waiting for all the pups to come out! It was so exciting!! Their mom, Devil was a great mother and took care of each of those pups like a pro.

Here she is following her big buddy:


I started taking Gracie (and her siblings) out on walks and stuff with Kuna when they were pups, so they bonded pretty early. He loved to beat the crap out of Gracie, but that was just adopted "brotherly love" I think. He made her into the tough, stubborn little Ms.I-take-crap-from-NO-dog that she is today. And she is the only one in the yard who will NOT take crap from Kuna, who outweighs her by well over 50lbs!!! I've seen them get in one good scrap and couldn't believe she took him on. Most of the time though, they're good buddies.

This dog is ALL personality!


As much inclination as she has towards brattiness, she can be a darn sweet little thing the next moment. She's a bit bipolar that way. Here she is licking a wound on Jack's head. She went at it for like 15 minutes as her nurturing side emerged, and he didn't seem to mind one bit. He probably knew beter actually. In fact, she's probably the one who gave him that wound!


One thing, she ALWAYS looks happy! She is a little sweetheart with me though and loves to be practically on top of me all the time. She'll lay on top of me for hours on the couch and nuzzle her head under my armpit. Weirdo.



As for Gracie's sled dog tendencies... well, I will say she gets better every year!! I think that by the time these 3 are ready to retire, they'll be AWESOME sled dogs!!!

They're off to their best start ever, but when they were young (6 months), I didn't really have a sled or anything, just the 4 of us, so they didn't really get trained early on. I still take them because they are usually pulling, and if they get tired (or bored) they'll just pull less. Which is ok by me. If they're excited to go out and still enjoy it, then I'll take 'em! They just don't like to go on long runs so we'll stick to short, faster ones.

Gracie is fun to skijor with because she gets a real kick out of going FAST!!!