Buck is a natural in his role as lead dog. He's big, strong, hard-working, and brave. With the jealous Spitz now on his way to the big kennel in the sky, there are no more serious rivals to Buck's crown as undisputed Alpha Dog. Sol-leks is pretty good but he's no match for Buck and soon gets put in his place. With no more distractions Buck can get on with what he does best: pulling sleds. And if anything he's now even better at his job than he was before. As well as his natural strength and bravery, he also shows himself to be a born leader, maintaining a tight, disciplined team and driving them on through the hardest terrain and the toughest conditions.

Basically, Buck was an amazingly good lead dog after he killed Spitz and then forced the men to put him in as the lead dog.

It was with Buck as the lead dog in the pack that the men were able to set records for the quickest runs.  Much of that was due to the fact that Buck was a really great lead dog.

With Buck as lead dog, the team managed to make forty miles every day for a whole two weeks.  This was impressive enough to make everyone in Skaguay make a big deal of Perrault and Francois.