Willie Nelson Jr

Sponsored by Ellie, Gwen and Yosemite

Everybody loves Willie Nelson Jr. All the big young boys play with him, all the girls love being next to him in the team, he’s the only dog other than Ariel that Aurora truly loves to lead with. And, of course, Willie loves everyone. If Willie Jr was a person, he’d be the class president.

Willie rose to lead immediately as a yearling, head down and working hard. By two years old he was stepping up and taking commands, and if given permission is a leader who will bring them team up in speed. Willie really does get along with everyone—scrolling through the camera roll, I’m not surprised he’s next to a diversity of personalities from fierce Gemma to easy going Riptide. Willie is the only dog who can tolerate and hold his own as a neighbor to Bruce Springsteen, and after almost 10 months, Willie’s gentler social interactions seems to have rubbed off.

One of the smaller dogs, Willie has the largest voice in the yard, somewhere between a baby Wookie and an actual human-like noise. Visitors to the dogyard inevitably ask, ‘who on earth is making that noise’ and are always surprised to see tiny Willie looking back at them. That wookie noise and insane work ethic comes from his dad (and namesake) Willie Nelson, from my friend Chase Tingle, and his smooth lope comes from his mom Meadow with Dinah Patten.

Willie can usually be spotted in the team with his bright pink harness and his head down working hard, or in the dogyard quietly and patiently still continuing to teach his neighbor Bruce Springsteen to behave like an adult. While Willie doesn’t play with or chew on toys, he does find joy in quietly taking all of his neighbors toys into his circle. I then redistribute them to his neighbors Riptide and Bruce, and the cycle starts again.

Willie leads a lot of training runs, and races in the front end of the team. Willie’s one weakness is hills, he is less excited about hills than his peers which is why I don’t use him in lead in races as much. After years of tricking Willie into drinking, I found that he loves stinky fish in his baited water when I got a few blocks of alewives from another musher. Alewives are super stinky fish, and the way to Willie’s stomach.

Willie Nelson Jr is named after his dad, Willie Nelson, partly because I found it hilarious but also because of the family resemblance and because I was so dang excited to have one of Big Willie’s babies.

Born: 2017

Parents: Willie Nelson (Tingle) x Meadow (Turner)

Race Experience:

2022:
Wilderness 35: 6th place, lead
Laconia open class: 8th place
Can Am 100: 1st place

2020:
Blue Mtn 30 mile (1st place)
Can Am 100 (1st place)

Can Am 250 2019