Teaching Force Free Off Leash Heeling

Another essential skill for Adventure dogs to master is Off Leash Heeling! While I always obey leash laws where required, there are so many times while hiking where they are not required that I find it far more comfortable for us both to take the leash off and use our training to create a dog equally under control whether on or off a leash. 

Emily has two natural hiking positions and it depends on circumstances as to which she adopts. She is either in front of me about 10-15 feet in a scout position, or directly behind me at my heels. I actually rarely have to ask her to heel, after the years of asking her to come to heel position in circumstances that I prefer more control, these days she just puts herself there in these situations before I even ask. However I can ask at anytime she assume the heel position and remain there until released. It no longer requires any control or reward and is a habit that she happily accepts when prompted. 

ALL of her training has been done force free, hands off, using emotions, connection and reward. She has never worn anything beyond a regular buckle collar. And has never been corrected beyond a ever so soft "uh Em, where ya going" gentle verbal reminder, she would absolutely melt into a puddle if I were to ever even suggest she was anything but wonderful. She's never worn a training collar, gentle leader or any kind of training system. 

It may take longer to train a dog using hands off positive techniques, and it takes a lot more work for the handler to figure out how to hold the dogs desire and focus. But the reward is, once you create the skill, you don't need other things to make it happen and you have the same level of control and compliance whether on or off a leash since it's not the leash creating the behavior. 

So follow along as I demonstrate the steps to teach your pup to heel off leash! 

A few tips and pointers:

• I do all my training off leash, you need to have access to a safe area you can work, if you do not have a safe fenced in area to work on the beginning steps you can practice in a large park and put your dog on a long line, do not hold the line and use it like a leash, either let it drag so that if your dog starts to leave you can step on it, or have someone else hold the end for you, or secure it to something, if securing it to something- attach it to a harness on your dog rather than a collar so they do not hit the end of a long line running and wrench their neck! 
• For the first step the common mistakes I see people make are moving the treat too fast and losing connection between the dogs nose and the treat, so the dog doesn't pass far enough to end up behind you to line up straight, and they end up stopping short and sitting towards you instead of beside you. Or forgetting to step back and just trying to move the dog with their hand, again this doesn't bring the dog far enough behind your leg to get a straight line up in the heel position. 
• When you feed the treat to your dog always do so with the palm of your hand facing their nose, if you have your palm forward they will bend around trying to get it and this causes them to sit out in front of you again instead of at your side. If you watch the video you can see me switch my hand as I step back forward again so my palm faces the pup's nose and I am able to stop her exactly at my side. 
• Be happy! Folks have a tendency to get caught up in trying to be correct and often get so serious the pup just wants outta there, so relax, have fun and just play with the technique until you get it figured out. 

Stay tuned for the next steps in both the off leash heeling & teaching a great come command!

Be sure and follow Emily, The Hiker Pup on FB, Instagram and you can subscribe to her Youtube channel. We have so much to share with you all as we prepare for our epic adventure next year. 

Using play to train a dog to call off a chase

Emily & I have been spending a lot of time this season preparing for our thru hike next year by hiking and hanging out with thru hikers on the PCT this year, and one of the questions people always have when they find out I am a dog trainer is: Can you teach a dog to come when they are called even around wildlife? The answer is yes, and it depends. Below is a video of a demonstration of the training I have done with all of my dogs so that I can have dogs I can hike with even where wildlife abounds. I have successfully trained all of my dogs to perfect come command status, except one, and with him timing is everything, if I catch it and call right at the start he will come, if he is too far into the chase, nope. 

The secret of success is toys. Using toys you can put a dog into prey drive and chase mode, and the use the toys to shape and reward the desired response. You will never get as good of a come command off of a chase using food, you can get a decent response, but if they are in full chase many dogs will not even consider a treat as a profitable trade. Food drive & prey drive are two separate motivations so one does not always interrupt the other. 

You can see an example of the early steps of the training that I do with her on a leash, using two toys, the toy I am calling her off is always a lesser value toy than the one I present as the reward for responding in the early steps. That way she is built up believing I have the better toy if she listens and that creates a better immediate response. 

As my training progresses I build to using the thrown toy as the reward, and building what commands I can get a response to before releasing to the toy. And as you can see in the video for it to be a practical exercise for real life I need to constantly vary whether I call, or send without a call, call back or just release the mid run wait. If I am too predictable my dog will not actually listen to my words they will just start running the pattern and it won't be under my control. 

Emily is under voice control and it has been field tested with wildlife of all sorts: deer, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, etc. If you like the video subscribe to The Hiker Pup Youtube channel, I will be posting more videos breaking down the training process for this come command training as well as stays, and other trail helpful training. 

Oregon Eclipse on a mountain top

Our original plan was to backpack into the Jefferson Park Wilderness in central Oregon, but when forest fires closed down the area we opted not to fight the traffic and crowds, instead staying local and summiting one of our favorite mountains, Mt McLoughlin, to watch the event. 

We headed up the mountain after work on Sunday which meant a night summit, in a dark moonless night. We've been to the peak of this mountain many times but only once before in the dark and never with a full backpacking load. The top of this mountain is all rock, which means the final mile is all bouldering, which was quite the adventure in the dark with a 20lb pack on our backs! 

We were blessed with perfect weather once we climbed up above the valley smoke, a clear night with just a easy occasional breeze which is a blessing on a mountain top! The downside to camping on the top of a volcano is there are not really any flat spots, so it was not exactly a comfortable nights sleep. Plus, the show the stars put on during the moonless dark night was spectacular! I saw so many shooting stars I could hardly close my eyes, so there was not much sleep happening. 

Hiker pup, Emily tucked in with us, snuggled in her dragon wing jacket and covered with the down blanket we packed in for her. There are few dogs I would trust like I do her, the space at our feet literally dropping away a few thousand feet off a sheer drop. But she is the most thoughtful careful dog I've ever owned and I never doubted her judgement. 

The fire smoke made for a dramatic sunrise and it has been on the list for a very long time to sleep on this mountain and watch the sunrise, it did not disappoint! It was lovely having an easy morning, drinking coffee, eating oatmeal and watching the sun climb it's way into the sky. Then of course was the amazing display nature put on with the eclipse! Our place on the path put us at 96%, a lovely experience well worth the climb and something we will cherish as an experience! 

Making some ultralight emergency dog booties.

Here's video showing how to use KT tape to fashion some dog booties. 

I always have KT tape in my backpack when I hike and it works remarkably well in a pinch to provide a pup with sore pads some relief and can be the difference between having your pup walk out on their own vs being carried. 

The real secret is found in understanding how to properly care for your pups feet and how to condition their feet so you rarely need to rely on boots. Just like our own feet handling long distances suddenly is a recipe for blisters and sore feet. The Hiker Pup's feet see many miles of trail every week and in all our years of ultra marathon training with her joining me for all my training runs she has well conditioned tough feet and rarely needs boots. So while I wouldn't use these boots for a long term solution, they work great in a pinch and all I need to carry that I don't already is some super lightweight foam. 

Field Testing Backpacking food for dogs

In preparing for a thru-hike with Emily one of my biggest concerns is properly keeping her fed and literally carrying the weight of that on my shoulders. This weekend we field tested a few different options and here are the (incredibly non-scientific) results.

First up, her regular kibble, which is Zignature Duck Formula. 

Weighing in at 4.5ozs per cup which provides her with 427 kcal. This amount is x2 her regular meal portion size which I anticipate will be what the demands of thru hiking will require, so that works out to 9ozs per day for 854kcal which works out to $1.24 per day.

The pro's

• Hands down the most affordable option at just a fraction of the cost!
• Easy, no prep needed, easy to pack and portion. 
• No extra water needed for re-hydrating.
• she likes it

The con's

• weight

Thoughts: Given the $ savings, it's hard for that not to be a major factor so it is in the running!

Next up, Honest Kitchen Force, a backpackers favorite.

Weighing in at 4.2oz for 446/kcal, so 8.4ozs per day for 892kcal at $4.26 per day when buying in bulk - 4 ten pound boxes. 

The pros

• space in pack 
• a bit less weight, though I was actually surprised that it was not more of a weight savings than her normal kibble!

The cons

• it's a bit more work, it is a bit messier to work with than kibble
• takes water to rehydrate 
• I'm not sure she's real keen on the texture of this food and does tire of it the quickest out of all the diets I've tested.

Thoughts: given her lack luster interest after a few meals and the extra cost for just a wee bit of weight savings I think this one will not be on our thru hiking menu. That being said it is a fantastic quality food and I will continue using it at home and on car camping trips as a meal mixer, and it may work great for many backpacking dogs. She is a bit more finicky than many dogs can be...

I was very excited to test out the Evangers Hi-Bio Chicken

Weighing in at 3.5oz for 309/kcal, so by my math that's about 9.6ozs for 850/kcal. I had to do a bit of guessing and figuring to try and sort out how many servings per bag, and the estimate of cost was based on retail so I'm not sure if I can find it cheaper with a frequent buyers program or such like the bulk savings Honest Kitchen offers, but initial sticker price seems to work out to $5.41 per day. 

The pros

• Taste, she loved this stuff! It was nice and chewy. 
• Convenient! Just as easy as kibble and she likes it way more.
• I love how the little bit sized pieces can be dual purpose using them as treats.
• Did I mention she loved it.

The cons

• price, unless I can find a frequent buyer program I just don't see how I justify the increased expense given the weight to kcal ratio comes in just about the same as her kibble. 

Thoughts:  For short weekend backpacking adventures I can see using this stuff a lot, but for a 5 month thru hike it's a bit cost prohibitive. It money were no option I would move this to the top of the list! The quality of this product is top notch.

My Tucker - Carnibar

The clear winner in the kcal to weight ratio, Just 3ozs gets her 500 kcal! So only 6oz's for 1000kcal, again I have a bit of work to do to see if a frequent buyer program is available as at $3/bar it would run me $6/day at full retail. 

The pros

• Power for the punch! That much energy packed in the least ozs puts it up at the top when it comes to weight savings.
• Super convenient! Takes up very little pack space, single serving packaging, while annoying for home feeding, on a thru-hike super handy! 
• She likes it.

The cons

• The super convenient only applies to feeding it as is, re-hydrating this stuff on the trail is not great. It doesn't tell you how much water to use, and at elevation I went 4 times the recommended rehydration time and it was still the same, in the end I added some Honest kitchen just to sop up the water. 
• Also, if going the rehydrating route extra water is needed. (this is no big deal camping, but when you are carrying all that water on your back for 20 miles a day it matters)
• It's dry, so she did best when I fed it to her as is, not as a meal but more like a power bar, broken up throughout the day instead of at once.
• Cost, $6 a day, so again unless I can find a deal...

Thoughts: Man it is hard to beat that weight savings, but the cost again is a huge jump to swing for 5 months. Emily is going to have to get a job;) But if money were no object this would top the list next to the Evangers. 

Summary:

If taste were the most important, Evangers was her clear favorite, the only one she licked the bowl and looked for more. If weight was the most important, and it almost is, than the Carnibar is the clear winner winner chicken dinner. If cost is the most important, and given the cost of a thru hike, it clearly matters a lot, than good old kibble rules the day. 

I'm guessing my plan is going to look a little bit like: Squirrel away as many Carnibars as my finances allow and feed them like a power bar cutting down how much kibble I carry which will be her main staple, then I'll supplement with as much Evangers as I can afford to ensure the quality of her nutrition is optimal and to make her happy.   

I still have a few more products to try, like the turbo pup bars and such. In the past I have already tried out most all of the freeze dried raw diets like Stella & Chewy's, Halo's freeze dried etc, and all of them were far too challenging to rehydrate at elevation and much too costly to even consider for this length of hike. 

Deadfall Lakes - Shasta/Trinity Forest

South Fork Lakes - Trinity Alps

wagner butte hike

DIY project - paracord collar

I've been meaning to make one of these for awhile, and had I known how easy it is I would have done so a long time ago!!! It's so easy you can actually just buy a little kit that has everything you need but I didn't go that route as I wanted to add a few features and use a lighter weight cord. 

I knew I wanted a few key features: a whistle, a compass and a built in leash. 

I had stopped in our local used gear store, as I was checking to see if they had any camping pads I could trim down to her size and as I passed by the counter I saw they had a used emergency paracord bracelet for people with exactly the whistle and compass I had been looking for. So for just a couple bucks I walked out with everything I needed except the paracord, which I picked up at the gear shop I knew that had the stuff I wanted by the foot. 

For around $8 I had all that I needed, except the know how, which a quick google search took care of immediately. There are so many how to videos and blogs that I am not even going to bother with that here, except to say, it is so easy so don't even hesitate to try it! 

To create the built in leash I just modified the design a little to have one of the ends longer than the other, I wove in a few extra rings so the leash can feed thru them to help keep the leash wrangled when not in use, and fixed a snap to the end. 

I'm going to test drive it like this and see how I like it, if I feel like I want the leash to be more easily accessible I will take out the extra rings and instead attach a tiny stuff bag to jam the leash into and have that just hang on the collar. But with Emily's off leash heeling skills I really only anticipate needing it when we come into towns so I went with a design that kept the leash as streamlined as possible. 

I'll let you know if I change that up after test driving it. 

I also attached the compass up away from the buckle so that it had more of a chance of staying dryer as the buckles tend to weigh the collar so it's also easier to read. They do make buckles that have a compass, whistle and flint built in, and maybe at some point I'll spring for that, but I was going for light and cheap :) 

I also picked up a used platypus bladder and made a travel bowl. So with just these two projects I took 5ozs off her gear weight!