Carneval de Quebec - Dog Sledding

I always wondered what dog sledding was like - for the dogs. Did they like it? Were they happy to be pulling a sled? While I cannot answer that question for every dog sled team, I would like to report that we saw very happy dogs at Carneval de Quebec.

There were two teams - the old pros and les juvéniles. (We named the teams ourselves based on 1) observation and 2) overhearing the dog sled guy refer to the silly team as les juvéniles. I love cognates.) And, they were teams in the sense of dog sled teams - not in the sense of a race. The races were the weekend before - the day we were there the dogs were just giving free rides.

The old pros are here - they were dying to get running, and kept on pulling on the harness just in case they could start.

Les juveniles, in contrast, nuzzled each other, ate snow, and stared off into space. We don't have a close-up of them, for which I have no explanation as they were exceptionally slow and silly. In any case, here they are meandering through the snow.