[pct-l] Siberian Husky on PCT

[Oz]

Eric - thank you very much. Exactly the info I needed to make a decision. 

I couldn't imagine anyone with a K9 hiking partner not wanting to experience such a great challenge together.  But I can feel that way all I want, and still have enough sense to take good advice.  Your advice makes a lot of sense and I appreciate that you took the time to write it out without making me feel like a dumbass for asking a question. 

He'll be home to keep my wife safe :) 

On 2013-05-20, at 3:15 PM, Eric Lee <saintgimp at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> 
>