[at-l] Dogs on the Trail (was Puppy Question ON TOPIC)

[Carol Donaldson]

Listen to Mara if you're thinking of hiking with a dog.  

Remember that if you take a dog, you have to make arrangements for boarding while you're hiking the Smokies and in Baxter St Park (I think most people leave dogs in Monson, ME, don't they?)   And this is another co$t to consider. 

One issue that most people don't consider is that you have to hike your DOG'S hike and not your own.   Remember that your dog loves you and will do anything you ask.  Even to the point of hiking until it drops . . . dead.  When it's hot, you have to consider how hot the dog is . . . in his fur coat.  When it's wet and cold, your dog can get hypothermia just like you can if exposed to rain/sleet and blustery winds.  Even sled dogs get a mid-day break (and some mushers feed them rice - carbohydrate?).  When your dog is thirsty, he, too, can get giardiasis, so the water he drinks should (in a perfect world) be treated.   If you are a trained hiking-dog owner, you won't allow your dog to slime up a spring or a stream.   You need to know how to treat your dog's paws when they get cut on rocks or when a stick gets poked into the soft area between pads or when a burr gets embedded in a foot or anywhere in your dog's fur.  Ideally, your hiking-dog should be spayed or neutered so that issue doesn't affect your hike (or the dog's hike). 

In the rocks/boulders from PA to ME, you may have to let your dog loose to find his own way up or down the trail (nearly straight up or down), so you HAVE to have that dog well trained and well behaved (or I guess you can pray a lot) so that you both end up at the same place further up or down the trail.   AND as Mara alludes, you might have to put your dog down if he falls and breaks his back or his neck while you're on the trail.  Are you ready for that?  Can you risk that?  Are you prepared to splint your dog's broken leg?  It happens.  How will you get your dog off the trail and to a vet in case of emergency?  And Deer Ticks can give Dogs Lime Disease, too.

I have a dog, I love my dog.  I know that dogs in the wild do not hike 2175 miles in three or four or five or six months.  I wouldn't expect my dog to be able to do something that a wild dog wouldn't do.

I have hiked with Casey the WonderDog.  She'd do just about anything for me.  Except, if it's hot and she's already hiked a day or two, she's not moving the next morning.  That "look" (which all dog owners will immediately know) says "not today" -- and so I just have to accept that a weekend backpacking trip with Casey is all I can hope for if I take her with me.  She's NOT coming on my Thru Hike.  There's a kennel here in North Georgia which keeps dogs (and cats, now that I have one) and both Casey and Chester have boarded there and will board there for the time it takes me to Thru Hike.  Yes, it's expensive, but not nearly as emotionally expensive as having Casey get hurt or killed or have to be put down.  I've thought that proposition through, and I am making the best decision for Casey and me.  (Chester won't even wear a "cat-pack" so he's a total washout as far as backpacking goes.)

Coosa
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mara Factor 

  If you're familiar with the 80-20 rule (Pareto's Principle), much of that 
  applies to dogs on the trail.  For example, 80% of dog owners on the trail 
  think their dogs are well behaved.  20% of dogs on the trail are well 
  behaved.  (I think the reality is worse than that, though.)  All dog owners 
  think their dogs want to be on the trail but many dogs were clearly not 
  enjoying themselves.  Etc.

  Other difficult questions dog owners should aske themselves: Can I perform 
  first aid on my dog or euthanize my dog if necessary?

  I eventually added a write-up to my web site about dogs on the trail:

  http://friends.backcountry.net/m_factor/dogs.html