Fur Trail: Duke: Frontier Dog

Long before Duke hiked a leg beside his first Douglas fir, dogs had left their mark on the annals of western settlement. Native Americans’ dogs hunted, guarded camps, and, if they misbehaved too often, provided meat for the cookpot. Further, when the Indians moved camp, the squaws would hitch long poles to either side of a dog, then stretch a skin across the poles, creating a platform called a “travois” on which the Indians placed gear for the dog to drag. White men also brought dogs into the Rockies. Meriwether Lewis (he of “and Clark” fame) brought a Newfoundland named “Seaman” along on the expedition, who assisted in hunting and retrieving. Various subsequent mountain men also kept dogs that hunted, retrieved, guarded, and provided warmth on cold nights.

Duke is not the first dog to assist in western exploration, but he is the best. By far. Duke is better, in fact, than all previous mountain dogs combined. To prove this point, I will present a purely objective point-by-point comparison of Duke to a composite of all other dogs of which we have a historical record.

The competition thus begins: Duke vs. Other Dogs.

Guarding
Warren Ferris, a trapper of the 1830s, recorded an occasion on which the barking of a mountain man’s dog alerted him to the proximity of hostile Indians, allowing him to escape. Now, Duke hardly ever barks. The only occasion in Duke’s life when I’ve ever heard him bark was when I left him in a kennel after we’d spent a few months traveling together. (It quickly became apparent why he barks so rarely – Duke’s bark is high-pitched and not very manly.) But he can guard. While Duke and I were camping in the Rockies and again in the Black Rock Desert, Duke alerted me to the presence of suspicious critters by growling into the darkness.

This may seem to give the advantage to Other Dogs, since a bark is louder than a growl. But not so fast: Ferris also recorded an occasion on which some trappers were hiding from hostile Indians, who were prowling about the forest looking for them, when the trappers’ dog’s barking betrayed their position. The trappers were nearly killed. So Duke’s growl is ideal – it’s loud enough for me to hear, but not so loud as to give away our location to enemies.

Advantage: Duke

Hunting
Indians used their dogs for catching various game – squirrels, rabbits, lynx and even sometimes deer. Meriwether Lewis’s journal reflects that Seaman supplied the party with fresh squirrels by catching and killing them.

On this point, Duke can’t compare. Maybe because he has not missed a meal since – well, he may never have missed a meal – Duke shows little concern for chasing animals more than a few yards. Which is just as well, because while Duke’s short legs aid him in slipping under barbed-wire fences, they do not make him fleet. So when it comes to capturing game independently, the scorecard reads . . .

Advantage: Other Dogs

Transport
Some tribes, particularly the Shoshone, used their dogs to transport gear over the Rockies. The dogs had to pull travois, which must have been difficult. But Duke has also hauled gear through the mountains. Although the modernity of Duke’s pack made things easier on him, he has one-upped the Other Dogs by hauling gear over not only one, but two mountain ranges – the Rockies and Sierras – in addition to the Black Rock Desert.

Advantage: tie

Warmth
When the nights got bitter cold and there wasn’t much fuel for the fire, the mountain men slept close to their dogs for warmth. In the coldest camping that I’ve done – camping in the Sierras in early November – I had plenty of clothes and a goose down sleeping bag, so I didn’t need to sleep too close to Duke. That would seem to give an advantage to Other Dogs. But when I slept outside the tent, as in the Black Rock Desert, Duke showed himself to be a first-rate cuddler. He will lie wherever you place him, doesn’t move much, and as long as you don’t make him sleep on his back, he does not snore. He also does not stink.

Advantage: tie

Retrieving
Seaman did some retrieving for the Lewis and Clark expedition. He retrieved beaver for the hunters and, on one occasion, retrieved a wounded deer that had bounded into a river.

Duke is not strong enough to pull a deer out of a river. But retrieving is Duke’s art. He can retrieve objects he detects by smell, like a grouse lying camouflaged in the brush, or objects that he sees, like a duck lying dead on the water. If there are several objects that he might retrieve, you can specify which one you want him to bring to you. If you want him to run in a certain direction before looking for something to retrieve, he can do that. Few dogs of any era can match him. Seaman may have been stronger than Duke, but when it comes to precision, Duke blows Seaman out of the water. And how often do you really need to fish a wounded deer out of a river? C’mon.

Advantage: Duke

Food
The Indians sometimes ate their dogs, and considered the meat a delicacy. When trappers visited native tribes and their hosts threw feasts in their honor, dog was often on the menu. Generally, the trappers found the meat pleasant.

I’m not going to eat Duke. This is a stupid question. Who comes up with these categories?

Advantage: not applicable

Companionship
Many of the Indians’ dogs were mean, at least to the white trappers who visited their camps. Both Warren Ferris and Francis Parkman noted that when visiting native camps, they had to beat back the mongrels who snarled and snapped at them. This may have been only because the dogs weren’t used to white men, but who said it’s okay for dogs to be racists?

We have no good record of Seaman’s disposition, but we do have some drawings of his likeness. And Seaman was just not as good-looking as Duke. Look at the picture below. Note the nondescript hair, featureless sides, and stubby nose – he looks like Grendel’s cousin. On the other hand, look at Duke. Finely-shaped head, gleaming coat, friendly expression, intelligent eyes. No contest.

Duke is not a racist, unlike the Native Americans’ dogs, and he’s much better looking than Seaman. Therefore . . .

Advantage: Duke

Embassary of Peace
Most frontier dogs have been aggressive, barking as newcomers approached and snarling at them after they arrived. But Duke is a peacemaker. I remember when Duke and I were hitchhiking along Gray’s River, where Wyoming law makes hitchhiking illegal and National Forest rules forbid Forest employees from giving rides. But a Forest biologist stopped for Duke and me. Or more precisely, she stopped for Duke. “I wouldn’t have picked you up if it weren’t for your dog,” she said.