<P> On an extremely cold winter day (− 75 ° F or − 59 ° C), an unnamed man and his native wolf - dog go on the Yukon Trail after being warned of the dangers of traveling alone in extreme weather conditions by an old man from Sulfur Creek . With nine hours of hiking ahead of him, the man is expecting to meet his associates ("the boys") at a camp in Henderson Creek by that evening . The man is accompanied only by his dog, whose instincts tell it that the weather is too cold for traveling . However, the weather does not deter the man, a relative newcomer to the Yukon, even though the water vapor in the man's exhaled breaths and the saliva from the tobacco he is chewing have frozen his mouth shut . As the man hikes along a creek, he takes care to avoid pockets of unfrozen water hidden beneath thin layers of ice . He stops and builds a fire to thaw out so he can eat his lunch, and soon after continues hiking . Shortly thereafter, he breaks through the ice and soaks his feet and lower legs up to his knees . </P> <P> More angry over the accident than concerned for his safety, the man builds a fire under a tree to dry his clothes as sensation begins to fade from his extremities . He pulls twigs from the nearby underbrush to feed the fire, but the resulting vibrations eventually cause the snow on the tree's loaded boughs to tumble down, extinguishing the flames and frightening the man for the first time . He gathers material for a new fire and lights it with great difficulty, burning himself with his matches in the process . However, while trying to remove a piece of moss, he inadvertently disturbs and extinguishes the flame . He seizes hold of the dog, planning to kill it and use the fresh carcass for warmth; however, he finds that he can neither draw his knife nor strangle the animal with his frozen hands . In a final desperate attempt to warm himself up, the man tries to run along the trail but repeatedly stumbles and falls . Finally understanding the truth of the old man's warnings about the cold, the man succumbs to hypothermia and sleeps his way into death, imagining himself to be with "the boys" as they find his body the next day . </P> <P> The dog does not understand the situation at first, but after it catches the smell of death, it howls for a while and then trots off toward the camp, where it knows it can get food and fire . </P> <P> Man vs. Nature is one of the themes present in this short story . The protagonist decides to face the brutal cold temperatures of the Yukon Territory, despite being warned by an older man . The short story depicts the protagonist's battle of life and death while highlighting the importance of the fire . </P>

What does the dog do after the man dies