[pct-l] About Siberian Husky on PCT

[Edward Anderson]

Hi Oz,

Siberian Husky's are wonderful and especially intelligent and lovable dogs. But, they are very different from most other breeds. They are closer to the wolves. Historically, when they were - sort of - domesticated by the Siberian people, they remained partially wild. If food was scarce for the people in winter, when they faced possible starvation, they sometimes had to eat their dogs. That was rare. More often the dogs would be set free and just leave the people's camp to fend for themselves by hunting. In the spring they would often return to the people. So, the hunting-for-food instinct was never really bred out of them.


I have had two Siberian Husky's, at different times. The first was Torum ( we got him as a pup and named him after a Finno-Ugric God). He was beautiful. A Rockstar when we walked him, on a leash, in town. Jereen and I took Tor on several backpacking trips during the 1970's . None were longer than 5 to 7 days.
 
We went into the Marbles and Trinity's and also into several Sierra Wilderness areas. Tor would always like to walk in front of us and would be on "voice control" - only so long as he didn't see something to hunt. He always carried a pack with his own kibble food. He rarely ate any of his kibble. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy being on the trail. The problem is that he really wanted to hunt his own meat. He was fast enough to catch rodents and squirrels. If he saw one he would sprint forward, pack and all, and catch it for lunch. Sometimes he would just take off from camp and not return for hours, and retu Once, when he didn't return for about 12 hours and we finally had to leave - thinking that we would never get him back, we left for home, driving down the dirt road, I looked in the rear-view mirror he was there, following us. We were so glad that he came back. Sometimes he would manage to get out of our fenced yard and go hunting in the neighborhood.
 He might be gone for a day or two. Once, when he was gone for that long, we advertised on the local radio station (In the Mendocino/Fort Bragg area where we lived on the Mendocino Coast). After three days we got a call from a policeman, who knew us, and had put Tor in "jail" (in his dark garage) without food for two days - "to teach him a lesson to not run off - to give him a very negative experience". I didn't work. Tor loved our chickens. He would, patiently, dig a large enough hole under the chicken fence for a chicken to eventually get out. He would then kill and eat as much as he wanted and bury the rest for later. Of course, when we discovered this, I would fill the escape hole with rocks and put more at other areas along the fence. When he was ready, he would manage to dig another. Tor finally met his end when a visitor to our home left the gate open. Tor got out and went hunting on a neighbors property and killed a lamb. The neighbor shot him
 and we paid him for the lamb.

The other Husky just ran off one day from our ranch in Comptche. There were stories of her hunting livestock. We could never track her down. Eventually, we heard no more stories. Someone probably shot her.

What Eric, and others, wrote is good advice for hiking with any dog. If you try it for a Section or two and the surfaces are sharp and rough, be sure to have dog boots along for his feet. Tor sometimes needed them. In some areas, the lack of water will be a major problem.

I suggest that you contact the Sweetwater Veterinarian Clinic in
 Agua Dulce (where I live). They have treated many dogs that PCT hikers have brought in. 

Please take good care of your Husky.

MendoRider-Hiker


________________________________
 From: Oz <trailtickles at gmail.com>
To: 
Cc: pct-l <pct-l at backcountry.net> 
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Siberian Husky on PCT
 

Yes I agree. Eric hit the nail on the head. 

You're also right, there is something very special about hiking with a dog that likes to hike. It's new to me, but it really does have an entirely different feel sometimes and I'm growing very attached to it. Hence the questions I asked today. 

Thanks 



On 2013-05-20, at 3:36 PM, Hollywood <100marathonsorg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well said, Eric.
> 
> I hiked over 1,000 miles with another hiker who had a dog and it was a wonderful experience.  My takeaway is that
 you can hike with a dog.  But you
 can't thru-hike with a dog.  You will miss sections, your town stops will be wholly different than everyone elses, and you will have to stop when other hikers go.  You will have to hike all night in the desert.  And you will have to carry the dog's water on long stretches where it's already uncomfortable to carry your own.  You will have to skip sections. And you will have to turn around at the canadian border instead of continuing to celebrations in Manning.
> 
> If you can wholeheartedly say this is what you want, you should give it a try.  Hiking with a dog is a wholly different experience and I found it was very tribal helped me understand the long relationship the domestic dog has with man.  But if you're the type of person who must walk every step, don't do it.  Hiking with a dog should be looked at as a long journey (not a thru-hike) with a great companion where BOTH of your needs are met.  If
 that's not happening on either end, you should be prepared to take the dog home with no reservation.  Some people can think that way just fine and the experience is fantastic for them.  But their measure of success is different than a typical thru-hiker.
> 
> Hollywood
> 
> 
> On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:15 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
>> 
>> 
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