It’s New Years day and it’s a big one. We are starting a new decade and that might be the perfect motivation for some to try something new. There are lots of new things you can try, but this post will focus on what you should consider for trying some new things with your dogs. I will follow this up by more detailed posts every two weeks on specific activities and my advice on getting into those activities in particular.
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I have seen a disturbing trend in the adventure dog world lately. I have seen trainers promoting the use of shock collars as a means to control a dog so that their client can hike with their dog off leash. Those trainers are selling these devices as “remote training” devices which do not hurt the dog. But the reality is, they are shock collars, and this is being promoted instead of using scientifically based methods which are proven to work and not harm a dog’s wellbeing. Seeing this trend, I felt I had to write something to try and provide more information about these collars.
So here we go, this is probably going to ruffle some feathers. In fact, I fully expect to get some messages or comments from folks after posting this. But I cannot keep quiet anymore. Continue reading
I recently read an article on Outside Online titled “Why the Correct Number of Dogs is Always N+1”. The article, advocated a number of reasons why adding another dog to your family is a good choice, and easier than you will think.
As a professional dog trainer, I cringed while reading the article. I support multi-dog households. I myself, have two amazing dogs. But adding another dog to the mix is not always the right decision and should not be described as “easier than it looks”. Continue reading
Buffy and my partner taking in the views on Abbott Ridge.
Glacier National Park (Canada) is located in between Yoho National Park and Revelstoke Mountain National Park, about an hour east of Revelstoke British Columbia. This park is known for being home of the Rogers Pass, a pass made famous for it’s big mountains and intense avalanche activity (sadly made famous when the rail was trying to build through the pass and a large avalanche in 1910 killed 62 men, eventually the rail was re-routed through a mountain via a tunnel). The park is a mecca for backcountry skiing and snowboarding in the winter and home to several camping sites and many amazing trails in the summer. The mountain range that runs through the park is the Selkirks, which run all the way down and into the states. The mountains in this park are big, steep and in the winter, covered in deep powder.
Cody, my reactive dog, taking in the view after scrambling to the summit of Grizzly Peak.
I love my dogs, I love mountains, and I especially love both together. I love taking my pooches on all kinds of outdoor adventures because they love it just as much as I do. I can see a switch go off in my dogs when we hit the trails; they are engaged, sniffing, exploring, stomping over everything, rubbing themselves on all kinds of surfaces (…sometimes poop) and just being dogs. They deserve this recreational time as much as any dog who is trapped in a city for most of the week.
My dogs both have very different personalities. Buffy is a happy go lucky dog. She is what people think of when they think of friendly dogs. She happily greets everyone she meets, she loves getting in for petting, she smiles, and will play fetch with anyone. Cody has a very different personality. I rescued Cody when he was roughly 6-8 months old. He had not been properly socialized and the world terrified him. We worked hard on changing that and today he can go for a walk on a busy city street and usually warms up to strangers within minutes. He is especially at home in the wild, hiking, camping or whatever activity I have taken him along for. For years we frequented dog parks at peak times for him to play and he was a pro at never getting into trouble. Then it all changed. Around 4 years of age, he started to show signs of reactivity towards other dogs and since then I’ve considered him a “reactive dog”. Continue reading
My dogs and I enjoying the view near our backcountry campsite.
I have been adventuring in the backcountry with my dogs for many years. From the moment I had Cody we were hitting the trails in the parks near Ottawa. Although we spent a lot of time on those trails, it was never a remote enough for me to bring around emergency supplies and I just thought if something happened, I would figure it out.
Fast forward a couple years and we found ourselves in the backcountry in Cape Scott Park at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Continue reading
Buffy and Cody take in the views on a water pumping break near our backcountry campsite in the Skoki area.
I like to adventure (scramble, climb, hike, sleep in the backcountry, splitboard, cross country ski, trail run, etc…) It keeps me fairly busy on my weekends and as much as possible, I like to bring my adventure mutts along with me. I own two rad adventure dogs: Cody and Buffy. Both have summited mountains, been on backcountry treks, skijored and been backcountry skiing with me.This article is all about some of my tips for having fun in the mountains with your dog safely. It goes without saying though, use your judgement to adapt these to your dog and your adventures. What’s right for us, is not going to work for everyone. Continue reading
The last few days we spent in the desert turned into sister adventure time. I love climbing with my sister. We both learned to climb indoors in our teens and when I moved back to Calgary in 2014 she had started outdoor climbing and immediately brought me out with her. She taught me all of the basics, how to climb on rock, how to clean an anchor, how to set up an anchor, how to lead, how to multi pitch. Climbing together is always fun. She never makes me feel like I’m not strong enough (even though she climbs so much harder than me) and she always encourages me to push my limits.
After my fall across sharp talus rocks on Mount Haystack, my stomach swelled up enough to be visible through my shirt and my leg hurt when I put weight on it, so I took it easy for a couple of days, only getting on a climb or two every day. I felt happy to have come out of that fall with only these injuries and nothing worse.
We woke up at 5:30am. My alarm was quiet to try and keep from waking up the others. I nudged Mike awake and we slowly got up and out of the tent. It was still dark out with just a little twilight of dawn behind the eastern cliffs. Mike and I packed our gear together for the day, brewed a quick coffee, threw the dogs in the back, and we pulled out, groggy but excited for our day.
Mountains and Mutts 