Dave

Dave is a sled dog in The Call of the Wild by Jack London, a gloomy, morose animal who joins Buck aboard the ship north and takes interest in nothing, eating and sleeping and yawning between times. He makes no advances and asks for none, showing plainly that all he wants is to be left alone, and there will be trouble for any dog who does not grant it.

In harness, however, Dave is utterly changed. As wheeler, the dog pulling nearest the sled, he is experienced, alert, and fiercely irritable with any delay, and he becomes one of Buck's first teachers, nipping the newcomer whenever he errs but never without cause. Fair and very wise, he pulls under the drivers Perrault and François beside Sol-leks, the other quiet veteran whose ambition matches his own, along with Spitz, Pike, Dub, Billee, and the rest of the team.

The pride of trace and trail runs deep in Dave; the toil of the harness is the supreme expression of his being, and he serves his place with a devotion that defines him through the hard runs of the Northland.