Five years ago today Dahlia woke up at her foster home, ate a stick of butter, and then was transported to meet up with us. I still remember her foster Mom telling us the stick of butter story (she hopped up on the table and ate it while she was out) and that she was a “little bit farty.” She did not lie.
We fell in love with her anyway.
I cannot believe it’s been five years already.
Today, Dahlia presents to you, 10 things that she will never ever learn. Continue reading
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” - John Muir
Weverton Cliffs, MD
I love hiking. I am nomadic. I will go into snow or rain to hike. The hottest days. Days so cold that my sinuses freeze solid inside my head. I seek waterfalls with a passion, feel calm walking alongside of wild rivers, and I climb straight up rocky mountains until I am panting at the top and looking out over the land below. Over and over and over again. I will go anywhere, and do so with great joy. Yes, I am passionate about hiking to a fault. Being in nature centers me. It gives me time to think, to breathe. In a chaotic world, I treasure my times on the trail the most. One foot in front of the other, it’s just that simple.
And of course, by my side has always been my little corgi, Ein. Ein was with me when I became rabidly interested in hiking. We conquered the local county park together, and proceeded on to the secluded river trails in the area. We climbed mountains together and ate snacks on top of them and let the wind blow over us. Pure silence, pure peace. Just a girl and her dog. Perfect.
What this post is about is backpacking with dogs. Much like hiking, I am entirely in love with backpacking. And why? Backpacking is a sleepover with hiking. You hike all day, sleep in the woods, and then hike more the next day. Hey, it’s not for everybody. But it is for me. And I love to have a dog or two along with me.
Double ended leashes loop easily around my hip belt for hands-free leashing.
Leashes. I am a big fan of off leash hikes for dogs. A solid recall and leashing up when other hikers are in sight is a given, however. Other hikers or not, when I am in it for the long haul, I like to keep my dogs leashed. My Molly, for example, tends to run circles around me until she is dragging and exhausted. My most recent trip was 31 miles, and keeping Molly leashed is a way to “help” her conserve her energy. Keeping my dogs leashed also keeps them from finding things to roll in. There are no showers in the woods, and if my dog rolls in a dead possum…that dog and all of her disgusting aromas will be coming in my tent with me at night. No way.
Perri is tethered to a tree with the Ultimate Leash while I set up my tent.
My leash of choice is The Ultimate Leash. The leash is adjustable to three different lengths. I can have my dog at one, three or six feet. There are clips on both ends of the leash, so I can either hook the leash to both the harness and collar at once, or I can hook one leash to two dogs.
After a day of hiking, when camp needs to be set up, I like to tether my dogs to a tree. Again, I do love to let my dogs be off of their leashes when the situation is appropriate. But in respect to other hikers, it is best to have my dogs under control – and while I am concentrating on putting up my tent and getting dinner cooked, I cannot keep a close eye on my dogs.
Water. Water is the lifeblood of backpacking. It is necessary for staying hydrated, cooking food, making coffee…all of those human essentials. Whenever I go out backpacking, I plan my campsite for the night around a reliable water source.
Water is heavy. Water weighs roughly eight pounds per gallon, and carrying enough to stay hydrated can add up fast. Adding thirsty dogs to the equation means one simple thing: MORE water must be carried and therefore your pack will weigh MORE.
Ein Soaking in a Stream
When I plan a backpacking trip, I find a trail guide for the area that I will be hiking in. This trail guide will let me know every spring, river, lake or stream that I will pass along the way – as well as how many miles will come between those water sources. The greater the amount of miles, the more water I will have to carry. If my dogs drink up at a great stream and the next water source is only a few miles down the trail, then I will not carry a large amount of water for them – I know that they will be able to drink at the next water source.
To maximize the enjoyment of backpacking with dogs, it is best to plan ahead and find a hike with plentiful water sources. You will keep your pack weight down and your trail dog will stay hydrated and maybe enjoy a good swim all at the same time.
Doggie Pack? Absolutely! I have walked and hiked Molly with a pack on since she was old enough to safely carry the weight. It is good exercise and whittles down her energy. So when the time came for our first backpacking trip, Molly was more than able to carry her own food and bowl.
Molly rests easy with her pack on her back.
I feel that it is kind to get a dog used to wearing a pack before asking her to walk long distances with any amount of weight. I started Molly off on a few walks with an entirely empty pack. Add a few more walks with a small bottle of water on either side of the pack. Weight can be increased from there – with respect to the dog’s size, stamina and age. It can be a juggling act to keep each side of the pack at equal weight – if the pack is lopsided then it can be uncomfortable for the dog.
Heading out to the trail with pack on back is simple enough. I measure out enough food with two extra servings and divide the amount into ziploc bags. Molly handles her pack well. I always have an extra carabiner clipped to my pack, so that if Molly is struggling up a steep hill or seems tired, I can clip her pack onto mine. My golden rule is that my dog did not ask to go backpacking, I took her along with me. She may enjoy it, but it is my job to keep her as happy and comfortable as possible. (and sometimes that may mean carrying her pack as well as my own.)
All The Comforts of Home.
A dog bowl goes without saying – I prefer a collapsible fabric bowl because it is small and
Pro Sleeping Bag Thief
lightweight. (I stash this in Molly’s pack.) It is much easier to pour water into a bowl than to have a dog drink out of a water bottle. This goes the same for when it is dinner time for your dog. A dog bowl is not a deal breaker for a comfortable hike-with-dogs, but it certainly makes everything go more smoothly.
Bed Time. My tent weighs an absurd eight pounds and is easily the heaviest single item that I carry with me on overnight hikes. I specifically selected my four man tent from REI so that there would be plenty of room for myself, my husband and any dogs that we may bring along with us. I also wanted a tent that was sturdy and able to stand up to dog paws and claws.
I am admittedly clueless when it comes to Dog Comfort in the tent at night. Molly and I have sleeping bag wars since I am not willing to carry and extra bed for her. Ein and Perri are willing to just lay on the tent floor. You learn something new every time you backpack, and I am still learning when it comes to bed time.
Deanna being doctored trailside after slicing her carpal pad.
Be Prepared. A first aid kit is an absolute must for human and dog alike. I will refer back to Kelsey’s post on creating a first aid kit for dogs, Be Prepared. Kelsey absolutely covers all items that I consider a must when backpacking with dogs.
The photo to the left is my sister’s beagle, Deanna. This photo was taken on my last hike without a first aid kid. Deanna somehow sliced her carpal pad and it was bleeding, badly. I had absolutely nothing in the way of supplies. Thankfully my husband had a knife with him. He took his sock off and cut it into strips. We rinsed her paw with water and wrapped the wrist tight in order to stop the bleeding. Everything would have been easier with a first aid kit (and my husband would have one more sock to his name!)
It’s Not For Everybody. Being a good overnight “trail dog” is a talent that I do not feel that all dogs are blessed with. Many good dogs are just not suited for roughing it out in nature – and that is not a bad thing.
My corgi, Ein, is eight years old. He is fast becoming too old for the long miles. But in his day, he was a hell of a trail dog. Ein conserves his energy at a steady trot out ahead of me. He drinks liberally whenever opportunity presents and cools off by laying down in streams. Ein’s shaggy fur cools him in the heat, and keeps him warm when temps drop. Ein will lay down on rocks, dirt, leaves, or dirty socks in the corner of a tent. He is not picky. He will alert bark when he hears something or sees somebody approach. Ein knows how to “go with the flow” when he is out in nature.
My pitbull Molly, is not such a good trail dog. Molly’s short fur leaves her shivering at the slightest chill. Molly despises being tethered and screams and digs if she is left unattended for any period of time. Molly does not drink up at every water source, she may only take a few laps at a time. And at night in the tent, Molly WILL muscle me off of my sleeping pad and monopolize my sleeping bag. No hard feelings, a girl’s got to be comfortable. Molly is best suited for a great day hike, with her cozy couch waiting for her at the end of the day.
Hiking twenty to thirty miles at a stretch can be fun for a dog. On the other hand, at the end of the day when it is time to sleep out in nature, it can be confusing and strange. Many dogs are creatures of routine, and backpacking will certainly turn their schedule upside down. Some dogs are more resilient than others, some dogs find it difficult to adapt when their predictable routine is altered. This is an important consideration.
Backpacking is not easy, you have to work hard for your food, drink and rest – having dogs along increases that work. For me, a little bit of extra planning and pack weight is completely worth having my dogs along with me on my “vacation” out in the woods. Exploring the beauty and peace of nature on foot is one of my greatest joys, and having my best friends by my side makes that experience all the more priceless.
First, I want to thank the rest of Team Unruly and those readers who left comments on Bex’s amazing tribute post. She was more eloquent and thoughtful than I could ever be, and I don’t want to overshadow her by any means. I’d just like to say my own piece, with a selection of pictures from the last three years.
I got Kane from the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. I wasn’t familiar with pit bulls, beyond the realization they were portrayed badly by the media. I had absolutely nothing set up for a puppy; no vet, no food or toys, no crate or collar or leash. When I went with my ex-boyfriend to pick out his pit bull puppy from his “friend of a friend’s uncle’s girlfriend’s”, we had to wait outside because the mother and father were too aggressive to let us around the puppies.
And yet when I picked Kane up from the squirming pile of puppies, drawn to the arrow-shaped blaze on the back of his head, I knew he was mine. Much like Lindsay and Howie, the connection was there, and it was instantaneous and deep.
The last three years were a roller coaster, to put it lightly.
From abusive training practices in the name of “dominance” when he was a puppy to more recently using the Relaxation Protocol, mat work, and LAT with the help of an amazing trainer to successfully begin working on his fear-aggression.
Then, in the summer of 2011, he almost died from heat stroke because I didn’t realize how true it was when I jokingly suggested he’d fetch until he dropped. I learned not to trust his ability to limit himself, despite how many downs he threw at me; it clearly didn’t matter to him if he was suffering with a temperature of 107.5 degrees F (at which point my vet was concerned enough about potential brain damage that she brought him out after she’d cooled him down a few degrees to see if he recognized me)—it didn’t matter as long as there was a chance to fetch his ball.
A few days later, he killed another of my pets in a horrific meeting of triggered prey drive and lack of judgment and responsible dog ownership on my part.
Three months later, his off-and-on lameness was discovered to be a partially torn cruciate ligament in his right rear knee. As I was working a minimum wage job at the time, my mom was gracious enough to put the $3100 TPLO (Tibial-Plateau-Leveling Osteology) surgery on her Care Credit. It was just this past December that he came up lame again between one step and the next—this time on his left rear knee and a full cruciate ligament tear. I was looking down the barrel of another $3100 TPLO and in the process of saving up for that one.
Not to mention the personal, family crises I suffered throughout the last three years.
And yet, through it all, he was no more and no less than the dog he was, and I loved every bit of it. He grounded me through the troubling times and often brought a smile to my face over his goofy antics, when nothing else could. He taught me about honesty, forgiveness, and love. Most of all, he taught me about the power of TRYING. There was nothing he wouldn’t try at least once, he clearly didn’t think there were any limits to his enjoyment of life, and he wanted so badly to Get It Right when we worked on his fear-aggression.
We were just starting on our journey through life, and I suppose that made his death from what turned out to be a massive brain aneurysm a little more than a week ago all the more shocking. I will never forget what happened to my poor puppers that day, nor the fact he still tried to greet me when I came home in the middle of the episode, nor the fact I had taken an extra 20 minutes getting home because I’d stopped at the store on the way. I still catch myself thinking the house is too quiet, so Kane must be getting into something. My bed is too large now that I’m not relegated to the furthest edge, and the ducks swim without fear in the annual spring lake in my backyard, free from Kane’s exaggerated and effusive splashing about.
It will be a long time before the open wound of his death is healed over, but I’ll treasure the scar, the reminder of a dog who embraced the possibilities of life (as long as there was a lap to sit on, a face to smother in dog slobber, and a ball or five to nom).
I am a member/participant in a few different Groups on Facebook and a few random message boards. Some of them focus on certain topics, others cover a variety of topics, and some are just general discussion boards. Some boards contain people just compete in Rally, others are mainly made up of conformation people…you get the idea.
Everyone has their own idea on how dogs should be trained, whatever they’re trained in. You have your Positive Trainer camp, you have your “Balanced Methods” trainer camp, you have the “I’ll just wing it” trainer camp, among others. And everyone thinks their way is the only way to do things. My whole philosophy on dog training is to “Take what works, throw away what doesn’t.” This has allowed me to grow and evolve as a trainer and handler, this allows me to adjust to each dog I work with.
Recently, a topic was introduced recently in one of the groups I participate in. The question was: “Do you train your conformation dogs in obedience?” It’s a common fear that if you train your dog in competition obedience, then that dog will sit in the conformation show ring – and this is a big no-no! (Actually, it’s not that big of a deal.) Then, as the discussion evolved, many people answered with, “Just train your dog to know the difference between collars – a show chain for conformation, a flat buckle for obedience. They will know the difference.”
This made my eye twitch a little. I am absolutely sure that dogs can become collar smart, I am absolutely sure that they will know what you’re going to ask of them when a certain collar is on their neck. They will learn that they can’t pull in a front-clip harness, but it’s “okay” to pull you down the street in a martingale collar. I have no doubts that dogs are that smart.
But, I also have faith (and the first-hand proof) that dogs are smart enough to know that sit means sit means sit no matter what collar he is wearing. I want my dog to know those commands and cues whether he’s wearing his show chain, a flat buckle, a martingale, or whether he’s naked. If I have a busy day on the show grounds, I want to be able to bounce between the show ring and the competition ring, no matter what collar he’s wearing – because conflicts are common when you’re doing multiple events.
Even so, I did have to work with my dog so that he knew the commands and cues no matter what he was wearing. We practiced obedience in his weigh pull harness. We practiced obedience in his show chain, and we practiced gaiting and stacking in his flat buckle. I want him to know what’s what, no matter what.
But I was curious what other competitors thought of the subject, so I posted the topic to our Facebook page. Here are some of the responses I got:
Rebecca (TU) with Cerb says: “Cerb wears a flat collar for everything. he has a couple of collars I choose from, but the collar he wears isn’t related to the type of work we do. It’s important to me to be consistent with Cerb, so “sit” has the same rules no matter if he’s in a flat collar, a show chain or nothing at all. His weight pull harness is different, I guess, because obviously that’s what he wears to pull, but even then he’s in a flat collar and I could take him through a rally course with no issues.”
Wendy says: ”Absolutely! When I put on the pull harness, even for walks, she pulls whereas she won’t pull in a martingale.”
Jennifer says: “Yes. The dogs know that when the slip leads come out, we are doing agility. I don’t know if it puts them in a frame of mind, but the excitement they exhibit when those leads are presented is encouraging to me!”
There is no right or wrong answer to the topic – if the trainer/handler wants their dog to know the difference, and they are aiming for the dog to know the difference, then that is right for them. I aimed for a goal with my dog that worked for us, and that is what works for us.
We would love to hear your input on the topic, too!
Life just isn’t fair. So much tragedy has befallen the members of Team Unruly in the last year, some of it dog-related and some of it not. The worst tragedies are those that involve our canine best friends. I think I can speak for all of TU when I say that, to a one, we would prefer to struggle ourselves than to have anything happen to our dogs. With the loss of Lindsay’s Howie still fresh in our minds, it seems we must muddle yet again through a fog of grief and sorrow.
Today, Team Unruly is mourning the passing of our best friend Kane. He passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon.
Kane was the co-pilot of TU member Caitlin. He was an American Pit Bull Terrier and embodied everything that is great about the breed. He loved with his entire heart, and his heart was huge. He would work until he quite literally dropped and yet he would still want to give more, and as hard as he worked, he played. Kane was ball crazy and loved nothing more than to fetch his ball, nom his ball, carry his ball around – as long as he had a ball, things were right in the world. He was patient, too. Some of my best memories of Kane are the “dog torture” pictures Cate would post of Kane balancing food and toys on his nose (something my dog has NEVER managed to do, I might note). He was smart, sweet and sporty, a perfect mix of the three, just what an APBT should be.
Beyond his stellar personality, he was a rock for Cate. He was always there for her when she needed him, and there have been times in the last year that she needed him a whole awful lot. His velvety ears, souful eyes and wibbly lips have been such a great source of comfort for her and all of us here at TU are so thankful to him for being there for her when we could not.
Today, there’s not a dry eye here at TU. We would like to take this time to tell Cate that we love her and we are so sorry for her loss. We know that there will be hard times ahead and we want her to know we will be here every step of the way to help however we can.
If you would like to leave your love and support in the comments, please do so.
