Oh he does though, he in proportion to himself is what makes him seem more balanced. He is by far the longest dog in my kennel, he's just all around a large boy.

As far as his breeding goes, it was a brother to sister breeding that happened while his parent's original owner was moving her kennel to a different part of OR. She admits she had 2 oops breedings during that move and dealt with it appropriately. Even though it was an oops, the entire litter has proven to be outstanding leaders- so it was an oops that worked out OK.

Ah - see goes to show how difficult things can be to judge from photographs. While he may have the long legs and the long back, he is proportional, rather than looking like all legs and back like many of them tend to do - perhaps that would be a more accurate way to say it? Thanks for sharing, I was wondering if something like that might have been the case.

Can you post a picture of your "sled"? It looks so unbelievably cool!!!

This is our sled- it's a hand crafted wood sprint sled


And this is our dryland cart by Arctis Carts-

The dryland cart is so neat! I am sure it is great fun!

I didn't know that about Mason's past! Very interesting. Glad to see nothing genetically is wrong with him. Either way, he is such a stunner. His eyes have the most intense, focused look in them; even when he is being silly.

Oh no there is nothing genetically wrong with this boy It would have been a single generation line breeding had it not been an oopsie. There is enough genetic diversity in his line for it to have been ok, and the proof was in the litter. All of the Roper/Cooper pups have been proven outstanding in harness, solid lead dogs, plenty of speed.

http://pawvillage.com/pedigree/pedigree.asp?ID=63NHBEONBR

Ahhh I see. I thought line breeding was like, grandfather to granddaughter. Now I'm confused :/. Is it still considered inbreeding?? Or since they have enough diversity it's not inbreeding? Or is that just a human term LOL!!

Inbreeding is a human term-  Line breeding is taking two dogs of the same line it could be mother to son, daughter to father, less commonly brother to sister.  This is done to test the genetic health of your lines and should only be done at most every 5-6 generations and only after extensive lineage research. This is not to be confused with the careless breeding of BYBs that take a son and repeatedly breed back to the mother or sibling to generate profit and without any research behind the pros and cons of doing so.

Well, I learn something new everyday! I feel a little ridiculous now, but the more I thought about it the more the term didn't really make sense.

That's interesting, thanks for the info!! I do just love the look of the breeders lines. Very efficient and adorable at the same time.

Mason enjoyed being home as much as he does running lead on the team!