Hiking for Likes

Hiking for Likes

by Anya Varrone

Your dog definitely wants to go for a hike with you. I’m sure of it. Don’t believe me? Go open your front door and see what the dog does. Go ahead. I’ll wait right here and you come back and tell me what the dog did. In fact, you don’t even have to open the front door, you can probably just go near the front door, or even just touch the dog’s leash. Or just say the word “walk”. Did your dog get excited? Freak out? Start spinning in those adorable excited circles or stand by the door doing tippy-taps? Any dog in reasonably good health, big or small, young or old, wants to hike. So do you, even if you don't think you do.

Your body and the dogs are both designed to move, and they will thank you for the opportunity to do so. Movement is what we do, its what we’re built for, and its the basis of our thirty thousand year relationship with dogs. I imagine the first dog/human pairing began with one of the two species asking the other, “Going my way?” Okay, maybe it started with “Are you gonna eat that?” But then the next thing they did was go for a hike.

So what happened when you opened the door? If your dogs are like mine, they got right up and ran out. In fact it probably took you a bit to get back here to read this because once they were out there was all the whole world to sniff and pee on and gross things to eat and roll in. I would bet they didn’t come back quickly. They tricked you into taking a hike with them. Even if it was a brief one. Taking a hike with your dogs, I mean a purposeful one, might seem like a lot of effort at first, but it will reward you in many ways.

1. And most importantly in this digital age, is that if you have a camera or cell phone, you’ll get a lot of adorable photos of your very happy, very outside, dog that you can post on social media, and you can get a lot of likes for those. Totally worth the mud and the sweat and the mosquito bites, or freezing your butt off, depending on the season.

2. You will see the world and have new experiences that you simply can not have if you are sitting home on the couch watching nature videos. Your dog does not care about nature videos. They smell of nothing. Fooey.

3. Hiking with your dog may not become evident until you get home, but folks with hyperactive dogs, dogs that are loud, or are destructive, or have any of the other myriad of behavioral issues that can make living with Fido less fun than it looked in that one movie you saw, may notice that at least for a while after that hike, the dog is settled. Calm. Fun to have around. Willing to chill. That is because “a tired dog is a well behaved dog”. From the dogs point of view, they have for the moment fulfilled their purpose: they have covered ground and patrolled a territory of sorts, and they can rest. They have moved, been stimulated mentally and physically, and now they can be still.

4. Your hike with your dog gives you all sorts of opportunities to practice your basic manners and obedience skills, such as walking nicely on a leash(yes, on a leash. Unless you are hiking on your own property or on private property where you have permission to run your dogs without, it is both good etiquette and the law in most places to have your dog on a leash. More on that in another article.). Your dog has opportunities to learn to stay calm around unfamiliar dogs or people and in novel situations. Your dog will bond more strongly with you and learn to accept your leadership with better and better results every time you encounter a situation and guide your dog through with consistent expectations for their behavior. Bonus, you encounter these situations with a dog that has had some exercise and is maybe a bit tired and a little more willing to listen.

5. the health benefits both mental and physical for you and your dog are numerous and well documented. It all boils down to that aforementioned phrase, “A tired dog is a well behaved dog”, and it applies to people too. When you have exercised, your body and brain say “thank you” by feeling good and happy and ready to rest.

Hiking isn’t the only way to get the benefits listed above for your and your dog, but it certainly is one of the least expensive and easiest to access. You don't need any special skills or equipment besides a leash and maybe a water bottle, and you can go anytime and for as long as your schedule allows, which I hope for both you and your dog is often and long. But most importantly, remember, if you hike for no other reason #getoutside to get the dog-pics to post, the stories to tell, and to get the likes on your social media page with your #dogsthathike . Nobody hashtags #dogsthatdont.