Dogs on the Tanana River
oil 36x48
When the master calls out a command each dog responds different. I recall one wheel dog (one close to the sled) on my friend's team learned to pretend to work while not really leaning into the harness. The dog master would call him by name "Ralph" and he would pull for a few minutes then slack off again. So, we would stop the sled and Ralph would get a lesson from a willow switch while the master would jingle a little bell. The next time Ralph played his little game we would jingle the little bell and the whole team would lean into their harness to avoid the willow switch. I painted this painting with this memory in mind. Now you know what jingle bells are all about.
