...And he is. Flash is one of the fastest dogs in the group. Opened up to a fast lope, he's just beautiful. Great leader, fast learner! Typically, I find girls easier to train to lead when they are young. They just seem to learn more quickly than the young boys. I'm sure it's an issue of females maturing a tad faster and able to focus better. Flash, however, counters that theory. He's getting commands the quickest of all the dogs. He's very friendly. Loves people and gets along with all the other boys. Two issues we are working on with Flash....he's quite the picky eater (not a good thing for Iditarod where caloric intake is everything) and he's the only dog that when we get home from runs and I let them all free, he finds it necessary to come down to the house to visit all the pet dogs. He will come back to the yard, but on his own time. He'll be getting some one on one work to learn to come when I call him.
Flash is littermate to Presto and Hasty (and Quick - a little girl who's running with Magnus right now).
There are 23 dogs at Happy Trails Kennel that are 18 months to 2 and a half years old. These are the pool of dogs that Martin wants me to choose from for a "camping trip" to Nome. I have 16 here at my kennel that I'm currently training. Martin, Sean and Magnus are training the rest of that group with their teams. It's a huge help to me to not have to train such a big team. When the whole team is young, they require lots of attention since they have no older, veteran dogs to learn from and to help keep them in line. I can, pretty much, stay on top of a team of 16 right now. As the season progresses and they mature and learn, I'll be adding more to the group. I appreciate that the guys are willing to add these young ones to their teams. They are each driving 22 dog teams right now.....geez!! That's a lot of dog power!
Flash has quite the smile, don't you think????
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