What dogs like best

The other day a friend of mine called and said, "You won't believe what my dogs like to do BEST!  They like to do this better than agility, trick training, or working sheep."  I said, "I know the answer."  He said, "No, you will never guess."  I replied, "They like to HIKE best of all."  "Awwww, how did you know that?" "Easy, because I do it all of the time with my dogs."
My take on it is that there is little to no stress.  Sheep, agility, trick training, etc. all have a certain variance of mental and physical stress involved.  When the dogs are hiking they have a sense of freedom, a "Call of the Wild" sense about them.  No one is asking anything of them.  They get to run, play, and sniff to their heart's delight.   I feel the same way.  I get to exercise, meditate, and take in all of the beauty around me.  I'm one with nature.
Today, we took a hike on the old "Mine" trail.  I packed my hammerless snub nosed 38 in my fanny pack, some jerky treats for the dogs, and my whistle.  Why the gun, you ask?  Because we live rural enough to have cougar and bear.  I don't worry about bears, but I do worry about cats.  Once you have seen mountain lion tracks or a mountain lion up close and personal, guaranteed, you'd carry a gun, too.

The Anaya five going up the Mine trail

 
Today was cool enough for Trouble to wear a coat.   I like to think if some wild animal grabs her when I'm not looking they would spit her out because of her cordura jacket.  haha   Normally, Trouble is velcroed to me.  Rarely does she ever venture off on her own.  I can never find her, because she is always directly behind me under foot just out of my peripheral vision.  It's a joke around here.  "Where's Trouble?" "She's right by your feet." :0)

Trouble in her cordura coat

Yoko smiling and thinking...Ooooo those smells!

The Bean....so very happy to be able to hike.  But, I'm thinking I need a ramp for the truck for her and Jet.

Xena is 12 and Jet is going on 11...both need me to help them in the truck "after" hiking.

We live off to the left.  Bear Mountain and 3 Sisters in the distance, Jupiter Mountain on the right.  The town of Green Valley is nestled in the middle on the far side of Jupiter.

Path up to an old mine /bear den.  I walked up there, but got spooked by Trouble.  I had gun in hand, left the dogs on a stay, but Trouble came looking for me.

Dogs left on a stay.  Trouble with ear up worrying about me.

This is Vince.  Vince is a raven that follows me on my hikes.  There is a long story about how Vince got his name.  I will tell it one of these days.  It was on one of my hikes to Grass Mountain with Wayne.

The three stooges.  Where there is Jet;  the other two shall follow.

Good buddies...Trouble and Yoko :0)

Jupiter Mountain.  This is a nice hike, but there are ticks on Jupiter :0(  We can look down on our house from the top of Jupiter.  It's a fairly strenuous hike.  Thankfully, there no ticks on "our" mountain where we live.  We very seldom find ticks on the dogs.  I have never seen a flea in 25 years.  Knock on wood.