NorthWapiti's Paxson (by Kim & Kelly Berg)

(Paxson as a pup)

In 2005 I visted Mark & Karen Ramstead and their dogs for the first time. At that time they had a litter of 8 wk old pups out of Olena, the "Copper Basin" litter. At the time Karen didn't know who the daddy was, but of all the pups my favorite was a gray bi-eyed boy named Paxson. He was one of the sweetest in the litter (not evil like some of his littermates). If there was one pup at the time I could have taken home it would have been him, I didn't care who his daddy was (although I did correctly guess Squeaky and won Karen's "Who's Your Daddy?" Contest). In 2007 I made a second visit to the kennel and fell in love with Paxson again, but this time he was an adult and running in the team. I LOVED the way he ran in harness and thought he would be a superstar on my team at home and asked Karen to sell him to me, but she said no. We didn't give up that easily at first and kept begging Karen for him. Eventually a year later we pretty much gave up nagging poor Karen until one day she offered him to us (of course we said YES!).

Paxson came to join our home in November of 2008 and fit in with the team instantly. As the season went on we had no doubt in our minds that he was going to be a mainstay team member on our A race team although he was not a leader. Paxson has many traits we look for in our dogs on the trail - hard working, focused, fast, tough feet, never injured, great stamina and awesome around trail distractions. At home he is a dream to live with - quiet, gets along great with other dogs, good eater and very sweet and affectionate (he's earned the nickname Mr. Needy because he wants so much attention) and he can dig a hole 3 feet deep by 4 feet wide faster than any dog we know... ok so that's not a trait we love about him, but we forgive him for it :) As a Siberian Husky we love his type, structure, coat - really everything about him. In our eyes he's pretty perfect!

When he first came to us he had never been in lead. The first year we had him he did some leading for us but not as a main leader. At times he would show us great potential, and other times he seemed confused and would just run straight off the trail into the bushes. He also seemed to be nervous at hookup and when you put him in lead he would try and run back to the truck or pout aboug having to line out. Our gut feeling was he needed another year with us, he just had some small things he needed to mature and get comfortable with. Well our gut feeling was right!! This past season he has done tons of leading and lead our team in all 3 races this season (one a race win). He was the best dog on my Greenville 30 mile team and a great leader in the Wonalancet race. He has totally blown us away becoming the fastest leader we own. At the end of this season we noticed he is totally confident in being a leader, now when we put him in lead he lines out, wagging his tail and slamming in harness to go. He's very good at doing 'wheelies' at take off.

(Paxson leading Kelly's team to a win in 2010)

We just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Mark & Karen for letting this wonderful dog live with us. He's one of our all time favorites and will hold a special place in our hearts. We know how much Karen adores his brother X, Squeaky/Olena was a special litter indeed! :)