Joe is the energy, and enthusiasm in our dog team. When we were evacuating the dogs for the flood, all the dogs were calm: they knew, somehow, that they were not going for a dog run. Not Joe! He started barking and screaming his excitement. When we unloaded him, he was clearly disappointed that we were not hooking him up to go running.
He is strangely delicate: his long wirey legs are propped up by four of the tiniest dog feet I’ve ever seen. Most of our puppies have feet bigger than his. But perhaps it’s those tiny feet that make him move so effortlessly. His brown, beady eyes protrude from his rather pointy head. He looks like he was built for speed. He’s fast, but that’s not why we are honoring Joe. Joe is the cheerleader. He’s the one that gets the team going. Every team needs a dog like that (or two or three!).
“Joe you ready,” we’ll ask and it doesn’t matter how far we’ve run or how many times we’ve been around the trail, Joe will lunge into his harness with all get out. He is one of the most excited dogs I’ve ever seen. Most dogs settle down after running for a little while. Most dogs, don’t continue that enthusiasm day after day after when they are running the same 2 mile loop over and over again. Most dogs, but not Joe. When we’d stop out on the trail to take pictures during tours for our guests, Joe would always be the first one to start barking as if to say “Alright already, they got their photos, what’s the hold up!”
“Why does he bark so much?” Guests would ask. We’d explain he was excited and often say something along the lines of “he’s too stupid to know any better,” but really that couldn’t be further from the truth. Typically, Joe runs at the back of the team. We like to tell our guests that’s where you put the blockheads, the dogs without brains who will just go! go! go! but lumping Joe into the category would be unfair. He is a very intelligent dog who, for the first time, ran lead last night. He is a good trotter and an excellent pace setter. Enthusiasm is important — attitude is everything — but so to is the physical ability to do the work. Joe is a powerhouse: smoothly gaited, efficient and beautiful to watch — but he also knows his limits. He finished Iditarod last year and will be a great addition to this year’s team.
