Canine Agility

...in which Maia demonstrates the Alaska sled dog mentality. First, our subject in repose... one lean hound crouched low and smiling.

(Incidentally she has a puppy-origins page here.) Maia weighs 32.5 pounds, is the runt of her litter and happily has an extremely calm personality. Her mother Charcoal originally belonged to Martin Buser who was known to breed hounds into his husky line.  Hence Maia looks like she is part hound. In the next photo she continues to show her calm demeanor.

In Farley Mowat's book Never Cry Wolf the narrative observes Arctic wolves jumping straight up as if pouncing on nothing. Then they instantly freeze when they land; and they repeat this behavior indefinitely. They are trying to spook ground squirrels so that they can then catch and eat them.  Maia has  instinctually done this since she was old enough to pounce.

Of course sometimes the hunter becomes the prey.

Incidentally Maia has a sister name Suka who is bigger, stronger, and faster than she is.  Unfortunately Suka lives in Juneau.