Armchair Musher Challenge: February 2020

Blair posted the following challenge to Twitter on February 4, 2020:

Your task is to arrange these dogs into **two 8-dog teams** (2 lead dogs, 4 team dogs, and 2 wheel dogs on each team). You have 48 hours to decide. The winner(s) will get an awesome prize related to the sled dog of their choosing.

### Hints

1. Each team needs at least one command leader and one other leader.
2. When in doubt, avoid running two non-neutered males or two non-spayed females together.
3. The wind is coming from the team's left side.
4. Wheel dogs are often among the biggest and strongest.
5. We are also assuming that no females are in heat, that the terrain is pretty simple, etc. That said, when in doubt, I always like to run males and females next to each other.
6. Flame and Jenga are both assertive.
7. If you avoid running yearlings next to each other, you’ll have fewer tangles.
8. Jeff Sharlet and Boo don’t like Jules.
9. Jenga gets impatient with yearlings.

### Dogs

1. Hari, male, neutered. Hari is gentle to everyone, but he'll get stressed if he's next to an assertive female. He runs best in the middle of the team.
2. Zagat, male, yearling. Fluffy, assertive, and energetic. Not yet a command leader, but he will be soon. Excellent leader in training. Big, smart, cuddly.
3. Flame, female, spayed. Short furred, runs best in team, crabby with girls, loves fashion.
4. Spike, male, neutered. Huge, fluffy, gentle, exceptional athlete. Friends with Colbert. Can run in lead or anywhere else.
5. Dora, female, yearling. Bossy, enthusiastic, chaos incarnate! Fluffy and strong. Smart but needs to tire herself out before she can really think.
6. Refried, female, spayed. Is great at motivating the team in tough sections! Refried can be timid with other females. Runs best in team.
7. Donut, female, spayed. Donut is a force of nature! Unstoppable and assertive. She runs best in team. She is very short and strong.
8. Colbert, male. Runs with anyone except yearling males. Thick fur, great appetite, always happy. Excellent in wheel.
9. Helli, female. Hyperactive, endlessly energetic, assertive with other dogs, shy with new people. If she has to wait too long, she might chew her harness.
10. Jeff Sharlet, male, neutered. Tender-hearted, runs well in the middle of the team. Big and gentle. Runs best with girls.
11. Pepé, female, spayed. A rockstar leader who doesn't suffer fools. Runs well with both males and females, and is happy in both single and double lead.
12. Jules, male, yearling. Energetic! Should be brought to the gang-line last so he doesn't tangle himself. Runs particularly well with assertive females.
13. Boo, male. Boo can run forever; he never wants to stop. Can run anywhere in the team (including lead). Very short fur.
14. Jenga, female, spayed. Command leader and boss bitch. Dislikes nonsense. Runs well anywhere in the team, but she has short fur, so does best on the downwind side.
15. Biggie, male, yearling. Huge and affectionate, runs best with girls. Thick, fluffy fur, and a great appetite. Playful!
16. Grinch, male, neutered. Very strong! Must be brought to the gang-line last, or he'll single-handedly pull hard enough to break ropes. Runs best in the middle or back of the team.

### Playing

Responses could be submitted as a reply to a specific tweet. 'Worst' teams could also be submitted as a reply to this tweet for an honorary red lantern.

### Prize

Per Blair: "The prize will include, but is not limited to, a pawprint 'signed' photo of your sled dog of choice, which is something I’ve never tried before so it might be a disaster but we’ll see how it goes!"

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/BlairBraverman/status/1224752630364352517