[pct-l] Dogs on trail

[Gary Schenk]

On Tuesday 17 February 2009 19:12:52 Andrew Jones wrote:
> Fuzz, Gary, et al.-
>
> You asked about how we plan to do manage with the dog on trail. I'll give
> the brief rundown. First off, there is a lot of trail she's not allowed on.
> For the larger sections (National Parks) we have friends to pick her up and
> drop her off. For some places, it just involves a lot of road miles, which
> I don't like, but I accept the rules and get over it.
>
> She requires a lot of water, and we'll have the capacity to carry 8-10
> liters each (my wife and I), at least for the desert and more waterless
> stretches of trail (eg Hat Creek Rim). The dog gets priority on the water -
> we will go thirsty so she doesn't. She also will need high calorie food,
> and we'll be feeding her Blue Buffalo Wilderness - expensive but very
> dense, high protein high fat stuff. Plus she'll get a bit of our human food
> every night. We won't do as many miles per day as most through hikers, and
> we'll be starting in early April, way ahead of the pack, so we can get
> through the desert, hopefully, before temperatures get too unbearable. Most
> of our hiking in the warmer trail sections will be especially short days,
> mostly hiking in early morning and late evening. Our distance between
> resupplies will probably be lower than average, too, with a high number of
> zero days, especially when we're just starting out.
>
> Rattlesnakes concern us, and we've been doing some training with her using
> a the voice command "behind," where she then understands to hike behind one
> of us (whoever doesn't have her leash in hand). It's tricky, but so far, so
> good, and we'll be using that through much of the desert. Thanks, Patti,
> for letting us know about the rattlesnake training course - we just might
> have her do that.
>
> She will not carry her own pack - I don't really think she's built for it,
> and she really hates it. This probably isn't even all that true, but we
> tend to be overly cautious with her, and I can tell when my back hurts from
> extra weight and I'm overdoing it, but I can't always tell with the dog.
> The other main thing is her feet - the only reason I've ever seen her want
> to quit hiking was when she tore up her feet going over a pass in the
> Absarokas - on that trip we didn't put her boots on when we should have,
> but we won't be making that mistake again. For boots, we're using Ruffwear
> Grip Trex, and we also have their Cloud Chaser (warming) and Swamp Cooler
> (cooling) jackets. For the lead, it's a 20' retractable Flexi that is
> modified with two homemade shock absorbing sections. I hike with my pack
> waistband through a bungee cord attachment on the leash so my hands are
> free.
>
> As for breeds, Uffizi (ooo-FEET-see) is a red-bone coonhound mix - those
> hounds are bred for long-distance hunting such as bear and cougar. She has
> long legs and a strong, fluid gait and really can go long distances
> tirelessly. Our other dog is a rottweiler/lab, who is almost the same
> height, but has a choppier gait (and an old leg injury), and we would never
> consider trying to make him do the trail (even though he would follow us no
> matter how much it hurt). So he'll be staying with family for this summer.
>
> That's about all. Maybe I'll write a book....
>
> Andy

Wow, that's a lot of work. Best of luck to you.

Gary