Hiking with your dog

There is a website I thought I would share where you can find places that allow dogs so that you can go hiking with your dog.

It is www.hikewithyourdog.com

Has anyone taken their dog anywhere that they just really loved? I may try one of the places on the Tennessee section. Supposedly it has waterfalls and good trails that they can go on with you. Liz may take Jenny with us too.

I just bought a book around a week and a half ago about hiking with your pups. I've never brought my girls camping or anything, but we hope to soon.

I got to go camping with Bronki one time...it was just the most fun. Jim took us, we had clear blue days and fires at night with thick (im so sorry cows) steaks and marshmallows to roast. It ws bronki's first fire. I will put some pics from our trip in the gallery. I wanted to go again, but Jim said if I took BRonki and Mary, he was going to take Garg and Annie as well. Since Garg hated Bronki and vise versa, there was no point in going. I hope when Hyia is old enough, I can take her and the dogs to someplace nice. We went in the late fall so there were no insects, or poison ivy to speak of, but it was great warm weather and cool nites. Bronki found a cave on his own in the dry creekbed. cool air just streamed out of there. It was a wonderful experience that i am glad we both had, and wish Jim had not been so stubborn (we could have taken alternating doggy years) and stopped the fun.

Smkie - that sounded like so much fun! You should do it again!

i wish Jim hadn't been so jealous of bronki. I will never understand it. I loved Mary's brother Garg, he was a great, wonderful big baby with no manners what so ever. Jim just never made him mind and a vacation in a rv with that big lout would not have been a vacation at all. Bronki didn't need a leash, you never had to worry about him wondering off..I'd never have attempted taking all of them the day that Garg bit Bronki putting 17 stiitches below his eye was the last time he saw him again. jim let his ego get in the way of some wonderful times. Now it is to late. going by myself (as a woman) seems a little risky. maybe one day i can talk someone big and human and male into going with me..or i will get the courage up to go myself. Who knows.i was just thinking i found the best old pic of two babies and their dogs that were the best dipection of me and Jim..i need to find that and post it.

Maverick and I both love swimming. He is a much stronger swimmer! And we would got to some mountain lakes. Do some walking/day hikes. Maverick and I were the only ones that would get in the lake below a waterfall that ran from the mountain. Now that was icy!

Maverick 'rescues' me all the time when I swim. If he thinks I go out too far he gets nervous and whines and swims out to me, circles me and I grab his tail and he pulls me home. It's kind of like grabbing a waterski! He's a strong swimmer!

(That park was listed on the site http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/besthikes.html)

He is such a sweet boy! I love him to pieces and I don't even know him!

He is wonderful the big do-do. LOL He's such a baby. Last night I was VERY GENTLY brushing him because he is shedding and he WOULD NOT tolerate it. He went and curled up (into a giant ball) in the corner as far from me as possible. He hates being brushed! And I was doing it so nicely. I get knots! I understand. LOL

LOL! Poor baby! Brady loves to be brushed, he has semi-long fur but for some reason he does not mind it. He will run right over to you and love all over you while he is being brushed. Now my cat hates it. She will complain and bite you over and over again. She has no tolerence for being brushed.

LOL My animals are the opposite. Maverick hates it. Mikey doesn't like it much although he doesn't really need to be brushed. I think I'll dig up a soft brush to run over him occasionally. The cats love it though. Especially the soft brushes.

I go to these riding trails to hike with my dogs in the summer to give them extra workouts that they miss out on due to weather. I also go to a couple nature conservations more often which the dogs absolutly love.

We used to go camping at a place just over the Virginia line called Cave Springs. It's one of the first national parks built under Roosevelt's program, and has the old bricked paths in some places, a beautiful trail up to a lookout and a manmade lake with a weyr dam. Bear, Gonzo and O'Reilly loved to go there. It was always so cool in the summertime, and it's not near any amusement parks or tourist attractions, so it is always quiet. It's so old that the trees have grown up between the camping sites and it's nice and private with a very clean and neat bath house.

I can't convince Charley that camping is a good way to relax though. Maybe the next time he wants to take a fly-down to Florida for a couple of days I'll just pack up the dogs and go there. He wanted to go back down to Treasure Island where he lived for a couple of years over Christmas when the store would be closed for three days but didn't know what to do with the dogs. I told him to go on by himself; I don't like Florida, hate dealing with the whole miasma of flying and would rather be somewhere with the dogs anyway. I think he felt guilty about it though, because he ended up not going.

Or maybe he thought he'd come back and the dogs and I would be long gone, lol!

Well, it is a beautiful day today as of 8:40 a.m. in Tennessee. I hope it will stay this way because I am going to try to talk Liz into a Brady/Jenny hike.

LOL! Now every time they let her in the front yard of their house she runs straight down to ours if my husband or I are outside because she knows we will let her in the house. She did it at 8:00 this morning when Liz's husband let her out for the bathroom. But my hubby kind of instigated that by saying Jenny's name. She runs so fast, like a greyhound. She ran full force to our house and Brady was in the backyard going nuts, because he always wants to play with her.

We are keeping her again in April. She is an easy houseguest.

Yes, I love hiking with my dogs. I wish I had a car so I could go to the mountains every weeked..yes even Vegas has mountains. Just pack my bag with food and water. Put the pack on Boomer, stuff the dogs in the car, and head off to the mountains. It would be great. Fresh air and serenity can do the world good.

-Jon

does anyone else worry about snake bites? i always wondered what i would do. A neighbordog died from a copperhead bite. i had a teacher in biology in jr college that showed us a photo of him unawares that he was standing in a area with over a dozen copperheads..he showed us on the slide where everyone was. We saw a cottonmouth once..it hooded up just like a cobra. what do you do if your dog is bit but grab and go?

i cant wait till its gets the right weaher to go camping here. my dogs love the woods may have to do with 2 have only lived there and walker is a coonhound lol. i might gun train him this summer because i like to go skeet shooting and i can take him with me and hed love it. and the competition is in nov. so ill have plenty of time. then i can take him to the hunting camp on thanksgiving with my dad.well have fun camping everyone

I am sooooo excited! Next weekend we are taking Sunny's very first backpacking trip. He has been hiking around with me almost since we've had him (well, the first few times ended 10 mins in with him sleepy, cuddled in my jacket but anyway) and he does so well staying with us off lead on trails(very convenient when one is trying to balance over muddy spots without having to worry about tangling a leash ) . I can't wait to see how he does away from the house overnight outside. It's still waaaayyy too soon for a doggy pack but according to the vet as long as we stay on not too rocky ground he should make it okay for a few miles. My only problem: I am not sure what his little claws are going to do to my tent floor. Any suggestions? He is still too small for doggy booties unless I want to get ones he will outgrow in a day or two might socks work? Anyway I can't wait . He is the best little trail partner I have ever had and I can't wait to see how much he enjoys eating around a campfire with his favorite people.

I wish there was more places i could hike with my pup. Any place with people is out of the question.

It'd be great to let him roam off-leash, but thats too dangerous to people / animals in vicinity =\