This is very necessary , because young dogs often get the trace between their hind legs , where it cuts to the bone . And they one and all WILL go visiting their friends as they run , jumping in and out among the traces . Then they fight , and the result is more mixed than a wet fishing-line next morning . A great deal of trouble can be avoided by scientific use of the whip . Every Inuit boy prides himself as being a master of the long lash ; but it is easy to flick at a mark on the ground , and difficult to lean forward and catch a shirking dog just behind the shoulders when the sleigh is going at full speed . If you call one dog 's name for `` visiting , '' and accidentally lash another , the two will fight it out at once , and stop all the others . Again , if you travel with a companion and begin to talk , or by yourself and sing , the dogs will halt , turn round , and sit down to hear what you have to say . Kotuko was run away from once or twice through forgetting to block the sleigh when he stopped ; and he broke many lashings , and ruined a few thongs before he could be trusted with a full team of eight and the light sleigh . Then he felt himself a person of consequence , and on smooth , black ice , with a bold heart and a quick elbow , he smoked along over the levels as fast as a pack in full cry . He would go ten miles to the seal-holes , and when he was on the hunting-grounds he would twitch a trace loose from the pitu , and free the big black leader , who was the cleverest dog in the team . As soon as the dog had scented a breathing-hole , Kotuko would reverse the sleigh , driving a couple of sawed-off antlers , that stuck up like perambulator-handles from the back-rest , deep into the snow , so that the team could not get away . Then he would crawl forward inch by inch , and wait till the seal came up to breathe . Then he would stab down swiftly with his spear and running-line , and presently would haul his seal up to the lip of the ice , while the black leader came up and helped to pull the carcass across the ice to the sleigh . That was the time when the harnessed dogs yelled and foamed with excitement , and Kotuko laid the long lash like a red-hot bar across all their faces , till the carcass froze stiff . Going home was the heavy work . The loaded sleigh had to be humoured among the rough ice , and the dogs sat down and looked hungrily at the seal instead of pulling . At last they would strike the well-worn sleigh-road to the village , and toodle-kiyi along the ringing ice , heads down and tails up , while Kotuko struck up the `` An-gutivaun tai-na tau-na-ne taina '' -LRB- The Song of the Returning Hunter -RRB- , and voices hailed him from house to house under all that dim , star-littern sky . When Kotuko the dog came to his full growth he enjoyed himself too . He fought his way up the team steadily , fight after fight , till one fine evening , over their food , he tackled the big , black leader -LRB- Kotuko the boy saw fair play -RRB- , and made second dog of him , as they say . So he was promoted to the long thong of the leading dog , running five feet in advance of all the others : it was his bounden duty to stop all fighting , in harness or out of it , and he wore a collar of copper wire , very thick and heavy .
On special occasions he was fed with cooked food inside the house , and sometimes was allowed to sleep on the bench with XXXXX .
Kotuko antlers back-rest hunting-grounds perambulator-handles pitu running-line seal-holes taina toodle-kiyi