Lucky Dog: Back Country Etiquette with your Dog

Some people and some dogs are just plain lucky. Take my friend, Phil, and his dog, Alice, for instance.

Phil is the seasonal fire lookout guy on Hillsboro Peak in the Gila National Forest. My wife Chris and I recently spent the weekend at the lookout with Phil and Alice.

The view from Hillsboro peak is incredible. To the north lies the Aldo Leopold Wilderness where the great Apache Chief Victorio sought refuge from his tormentors in the US Calvary. To the south you can see all the way to the Mexican border and to the east you see the Rio Grande valley and the town of Truth or Consequences. To the west lies the great Gila Wilderness and it's two highest peaks Whitewater and Mogollon Baldy both topping out near eleven thousand feet. 

The hike into Hillsboro peak starts on Emory Pass at around eight thousand feet and climbs five and a half miles to the lookout at ten thousand feet.The hike itself is incredibly beautiful. Phil and Alice spend ten days on the job and four days off from April until late August or early September depending on the severity of the fire season. This year we were blessed with good rain and the fire season was relatively mild affording Phil and Alice lots of time to write and scratch and sniff respectively.

They also spend lots of time on the trail together. And that brings me to the main point of this post; proper hiking, camping and back country etiquette with your dog.

First of all there are some places where dogs and camping don't really mix well. National Parks come to mind. While dogs are allowed in the parks, they must be kept on a leash at all times and they are not allowed on trails at all in most parks even it you have them on the leash. Not much fun.

National Forests are much more accommodating to dogs and their owners. Even so, good doggie/ owner manners are important. The basic commands of come, sit, stay and heel are very important. Stay is key in the campground and heel is de riguer on the trail. It's either heel or leash because it's not cool to have your pooch chasing deer, other wildlife or wreaking havoc with horses and riders.

One thing to consider when you take your pet back packing is that you may not see as much wildlife as you would if you were alone. Dogs barking and marking with their scent is easy for other animals to pick up and they will avoid you.

Bears (Grizzly in particular), mountain lions and wolves may even be drawn to the scent of dogs as potential food, so keep that in mind when you are in their territory. And leaving dog food out is an invitation not only to bears and wolves, but to other critters you want to avoid as well, like skunks. Again, we learned this lesson the hard way as Darcie got nailed once by a skunk in an altercation over a bowl of Pro Plan dog food.

Oh, and by the way, using tomato juice on a dog that has been on the losing side in a battle with a skunk doesn't really work all that well. It kind of makes them smell like a mixture of pizza and skunk stench. Not much of an improvement. Unfortunately, I learned this lesson from experience too. That Skunk Off stuff works better, but time is the only real cure.

Keeping your dog controlled in your campsite is really important too. I'll never forget walking around the campground one evening with Darcie and overhearing the kid in the campsite next to us say to his dad,"Isn't that the dog that stole your sandwich?" How embarrassing!

First aid is something to consider too. Campers and back packers should always have a first aid kit available for themselves and their pets. A role of gauze, some good tape, over the counter antibiotic ointment, and some disinfectant swabs should do the trick for most back country injuries until you can get treatment at a Veterinary clinic.

For me it's always been worth the aggravation to have Darcie with us on family back packing trips. She is part of the family after all. Unfortunately her hiking days appear to be over. The last time we took her we had to carry her back to the car. At 16, she can't really hack it anymore.

Oh well, at least we're seeing more wildlife since Darcie retired.

Comments

[Betty Connors]

Since Alice is my "grandchild" and lives more than a 1000 miles away, it was a pleasant surprise to see her so grown and beautiful. Thank you for the glimpse :-)