Hiking Preferences

[Gharrissc]

For those of you who hike with your dogs,do you find that it 'hinders' you or at least less enjoyable if the dog has to be on a leash? I don't do much hiking,but luckily the trail close to me allows dogs to be off leash. I only unleash the ones who have a great recall,and use a long line for the rest.

[angierose]

Sometimes. I trust my female off leash, but we don't really have many places where that's allowed. Most of our trails are hilly and rocky, and often steep, so a leash can be annoying. The dog usually handles this terrain faster than I do, so I often drop the leash, and she knows to wait when I say too. Even then, I use a minimum ten foot leash while hiking, usually twenty.

[RowdyDogs]

I prefer to hike in areas where I can let them off, because I'm hiking with multiple dogs usually. If I take the whole pack, even with well-behaved dogs 5 leashes are a PITA.

It doesn't really matter that much to me though. If I want to take them all, I make sure to pick an area where I can let them off leash. If I want to hike a particular area where I need to keep them leashed, then I just take 1 or 2 and they're all trained for loose leash walking so it really doesn't have much of an effect. I'm lucky to have plenty of on- and off-leash hiking opportunities in my area so I really don't care either way.

[MilesNY]

I find hiking much less enjoyable if my dogs have to be leashed. My dogs have solid recalls, downs and I do have E-collars on them as back up. If they have to be leashed the whole time I usually just bring one with me, and pre run them to knock some of the energy level down. Like you though, I am lucky in that I have several places we can hike off leash.

[Carriesue]

I prefer off leash so the dogs can really run and work those muscles and of course I don't have to deal with hanging on to the leash.

There's not many places nearby where they can be off leash though and even if they could I wouldn't allow it because of rattlesnakes.

[Gharrissc]

Do any of you use those waist leashes? I've tried them,but don't really like them that much.

[Kyleigh]

I only bring Kyleigh to places where she can be off leash ... thankfully, I have TONS of places to go, otherwise, if it's on leash, it's a walk around the neighbourhood ... which in MY opinion is way too boring (for me LOL)

[Cassidy's Mom]

The place where I go hiking has a paved path next to the lake where dogs have to be on leash, and about 20 miles of dirt trails, mostly fire roads, but also some singletrack. The park is part of the East Bay Regional Park system, and other than developed areas such as parking lots, picnic areas, marinas, campgrounds, and paved walking paths, it's all off leash under voice control.

I take one dog at a time, and I keep them on leash even when we're in an area where they don't have to be because there's a LOT of poison oak, and the lake is an emergency backup water supply for the Bay Area, so there's no swimming or body contact allowed, although they do allow boating and fishing. My husband tried taking Keefer off leash once and he was in the lake in a hot second, lol! Well, duh. Tom had the video camera with him and was carrying it in his hand. He thought it was turned off, but it was actually on, so he got a great audio blooper of much yelling and swearing at the Keef, who was wearing his backpack at the time, so everything got wet.

We take the dogs to off leash parks where they can run around together, chase balls, and go swimming, but hikes at the lake are actually how and where I trained both dogs to walk nicely on leash. Here are some pictures of our hiking area:

[Bear L]

Offleash!

[Gretchen]

I'm used to walking on-leash. Molly had some serious prey drive and protective instincts when she was younger, she's much better now, but still feel more comfortable with leash on. We use the 26' flexi leash so it's not too bad. There's a park in Carmel Valley that is off-leash and not very populated, I took Molly off leash there and she seemed confused!

I recently joined a GSD activity group. The few hikes we've done I let Molly off-leash with the other GSD's, she does very well with them and the owners are always on the look out for a jogger, bicycle or whatever so we have time to leash up.