# Dave — The Call of the Wild character guide

> Dave in The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0003-ii-the-law-of-club-and-fang

## Snapshot

A wheeler dog so devoted to the traces that he would rather pull himself to death than be left behind.

## Who they are

Dave is one of the veteran sled dogs Buck joins on the mail run, a creature utterly transformed by harness—alert, irritable at delay, and happiest when the toil of the traces is going well. He pulls as wheeler just ahead of Buck, embodying the trail's strange religion of work for its own sake. His fate becomes one of the book's quietest devastations: a dog who cannot conceive of a life without the sled, and whose body finally refuses what his will will not surrender.

## Relationships

### [Buck](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/characters/buck)

_professional_

Dave is a stoic, hardworking sled dog who shares a professional respect with Buck as fellow team members.

## In the story

### [Into the Primitive](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/chapters/i-into-the-primitive)

A gloomy, morose dog on the Narwhal who keeps to himself and shows no interest in the other dogs or the ship's motion.

### [II: The Law of Club and Fang](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/chapters/ii-the-law-of-club-and-fang)

Experienced wheeler who helps train Buck by nipping him when he errs.

### [III: The Dominant Primordial Beast](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/chapters/iii-the-dominant-primordial-beast)

Team dog that fights bravely alongside Sol-leks during the husky attack.

### [Who Has Won to Mastership](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/chapters/iv-who-has-won-to-mastership)

Suffers from an internal injury, is removed from the team, but refuses to be replaced and eventually collapses.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/characters/dave
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_call_of_the_wild_se/characters