m single to double rig is the decay of
the cruel custom of "bobbing" the dogs' tails. When dogs are hitched
one close behind the other (and the closer the better for pulling) the
tail of the dog in front becomes heavy with ice from the condensation of
the breath of the dog behind, until not only is he carrying weight but
the use of the tail for warmth at night is foregone. So it was the
universal practice to cut tails short off. But sleeping out in the open,
as travelling dogs often must do, in all sorts of weather, with the
thermometer at 50 deg. or 60 deg. below zero sometimes, a thick, bushy tail is a
great protection to a dog. With it he covers nose and feet and is tucked
up snug and warm. It is the dog's natural protection for the muzzle and
the thinly haired extremities. A few years ago almost all work dogs in
the interior were bobtailed; now the plumes wave over the teams again.

Five dogs are usually considered the minimum team, and seven dogs make a
good team. A good, quick-travelling load for a dog team is fifty pounds
to the dog, on ordinary trails. The dogs will pull as much as one
hundred pounds apiece or more, but that becomes more like freighting
than travelling. On a good level trail with strong big dogs, men
sometimes haul two hundred pounds to the dog. These, however, are
"gee-pole propositions," in the slang of the trail, and the man is doing
hard work with a band around his chest and the pole in his hand. For
quick travelling, fifty pounds to the dog is enough.

The most useful "outside" strains that the white man has introduced into
the dogs of the interior are the pointer and setter and collie. The
bird-dogs themselves make very fast teams and soon adapt themselves to
the climate, but their feet will not stand the strain. The collie's
intelligence would make him a most admirable leader, did he not have so
pronouncedly the faults of his good qualities; he wants to do all the
work; he works himself to death. It is the leader's business to keep the
team strung out; it is not his business to pull the load. But the
admixture of these strains with the native blood has produced some very
fine dogs. The Newfoundland and Saint Bernard strains have been perhaps
the least successful admixtures. They are too heavy and cumbersome and
always have tender feet; their bodies and the bodies of their mongrel
progeny are too heavy for their feet.

[Sidenote: DOG LOYALTY]

The last statement, with regard to Newfound