[pct-l] Siberian Husky on PCT

[Eric Lee]

Oz wrote:
>
I was hoping I could get your opinions about dogs on the PCT.
>

Dogs on the trail is one of those perennial hot-button issues that usually
devolves to email flaming in short order.  Unfortunately a lot of the
responses you've already gotten are laden with that miserable history -
sorry about that.  You might try searching the archives for past dog threads
which would give you a lot of information.

In my experience of observing many years of people trying to thru-hike with
dogs, there are a few individual dogs who can do it without enormous
suffering.  Most of them cannot.  A lot of the visceral reaction you'll get
from this email list is due to the fact that many thru-hikers with dogs get
fixated on two goals: "I must thru-hike to Canada" and "my dog must do it
with me".  They become inattentive to comfort, happiness, and safety of
their pet and it's really hard for the rest of us to watch.  Sometimes it
ends up in a straight-up animal cruelty situation but the owners have such
tunnel vision that they can't see it.  When you use phrases like "I want it
badly", that rings alarm bells for many of us.

Not every dog thru-hike ends up like that but many of them do.  It's
impossible to tell on an online forum whether you're one of the fortunate
few or not.

These are the major problems you'll encounter with a dog on a thru-hike:

1.  There's a huge difference between hiking for a week and hiking for 5
months.  Most animals that enjoy a week-long hike won't enjoy a 5 month
hike.   A 5 month thru-hike is hugely punishing on anyone's body, whether
human or canine.  Roughly half of the human participants drop out before
finishing because of injury or because they're just sick of walking all day
every damn day and feeling all the pain that come with that.  Remember that
your dog will be feeling just as crappy as you, and probably more so, but
your dog can't talk and can't say, "You know, I think I've had enough.
Let's go home."  Most dogs won't stage an obvious mutiny.  Most dogs will
willingly walk themselves literally to death for their master.  You have to
be exceedingly attentive to the subtle signals your dog is giving you and
you have to be *willing* to abandon your hike if your dog isn't having fun.


3.  I don't know enough to say how huskies would handle extreme heat but the
heat on the PCT can be quite fierce.  The terrain is often rocky and exposed
and what registers as 100 degrees at head-height for you may be more like
120 degrees down where your dog is.  It's true that huskies are built for
hard work but any sensible animal would hole up during the day and not
travel in those conditions.  It's only us crazy humans that go running
around baking ourselves in the heat.

4.  Many stretches of the PCT are composed entirely of highly abrasive rock
and sand.  It's not all soft forest duff.  Your dog will have problems with
his pads and you'll need to have a plan for that.

5.  Having a dog makes hitchhiking and town-stay logistics a lot more
complicated, and sometimes impossible.  You'll need to account for that.

6.  As you noted, dogs are not allowed in national parks which complicates
logistics even further.

Probably the ideal dog thru-hike plan is to have a dedicated support person
who follows you from town to town in a car and can provide transportation,
supplies, and dog-sitting when your dog needs to get off the trail, all at a
moment's notice.  Most people don't have that luxury, though.

I think the idea of going on a long hike, even a multi-month hike, with your
dog is a great idea.  The horrible idea is trying to do a thru-hike - that
is, trying to set a hard do-or-die goal that you're pushing towards.  Don't
set out to do a thru-hike.  Set out to spend a few months on the trail with
your dog.  If everything happens to work well and you make lots of miles,
fine.  If you need to drastically alter your plans and strategy to sleep
through the heat of the day, or skip around certain sections, or get off
trail and rest for two weeks, or hike only 10 miles a day for a while,
that's fine too.  You probably won't make it to Canada in one year.  Resign
yourself to that right now.

If you have your dog with you, you don't get to "hike your own hike".  You
*must* have the mental flexibility to "hike your dog's hike".  Your dog
calls the shots.  It's not about Canada.  It's about the safety and
well-being of your dog.  If you can go out there and honestly have that
attitude all the way down to your toes then you and your dog will have a
great time.  If you don't, then you're likely to become a traveling
animal-cruelty case that the rest of us hate to watch.

Eric