Tillys BIG Hike!

[Emma Warbuton]

These are a few shots taken last weekend of Tilly on her first proper hike, we did about 9 miles, phew! and she was soooo good, she was off lead all the way (her recall was 100%,YeY!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0033a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0060.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0072.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0036.jpg

[Emma Warbuton]

ooh just a few more..sorry I'm getting carried away!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0069.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0064.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/1emma/PICT0063.jpg

[Grace Erick]

Nice pics Emma! I go hiking with my 3-1/2 pound chihuahua. She loves to hike the trails. I go on flatter ones since I got her and pick her up when we go over what looks like tiny pointy gravel or rocks, and I do limit her walking and pick her up on occasion to give her a break depending how long the hike is.

I have a front pouch to carry her in if the hike requires me to use my hands to reach up for holding branches while going uphill or going over rough terrain where I may need my hands to steady myself.

She love my down sleeping bad and sleeps in the bottom. She's my tiny little nature lover and a great trail dog.

[Emma Warbuton]

Hey Grace, thats so nice to here that you take your little dog on hikes too, I have a neighbour that has a little yorkshire Terrier and the only time it gets out is in the basket of her bike and she cycles everywhere with him in it!! Im longing to tell her to just let him have a run and a sniff about..just cos he got little legs, don't mean he can't use 'em!

[Hee Yung Lee]

Gorgeous pictures and Tilly is really adorable! Where were you guys hiking?

[babyblue]

What pretty pictures....The scenery looks really beautiful. Do you carry a backpack with all the water and stuff?

[Grace Erick]

Emma, I have a yard, but my dog chihuahua loves to be in her harness for some reason. She loves to be walked in the park and roll around in the grass like a snake, and everyone stops to look at her and I just shake my head, like, "I don't know" (why she does that). It's the cutest, funniest thing.

The thing with hiking with a dog or with your friend doing more physical activities with her dog, they have to work up to them just like people. I told a story here about my husband and his friend doing an urban hike up and down the hilly streets in WA state where we live and the guy took his medium sized dog that doesn't get too much excersize. My dog stayed at home. Well the next day, this dog was getting out of bed like he had a hangover. He was all stiff and couldn't move right. His wife wanted to kill him:)

I think I read someone once that chihuahuas are good for walking 3 miles, but I pick her up anyway to give her a break, then put her back on the ground. Three miles non stop seems like a long walk for those tiny legs. I know I'm the proud mama, but it's amazing to watch her walk. She has this nice stance and her feet move so fast for every step we take, she's an eye catcher. I get so many compliments on her where I thought I wouldn't because some people have negative feelings about chihuahuas. Also, she is a tri color coated dog, so she is unusual looking like a mini siberian husky is what people always tell me. Some people don't realize she is a chi, because they think they only come in tan like Paris Hilton's dog.

I hate to say it, but another celebrity bought a chi. It's Hillary Duff. She had him on that daytime show called The View. I'm just concerned they are becoming fads, and they are such emotional dogs, where you can't bring the dog home and then decide to discard him or her when you are tired of the dog. They get very emotionally attached to their owners.

[Emma Warbuton]

We were hiking in a national park in the North Yorkshire Moors, in the UK, yes it is really pretty...
We had backpacks for dog water, (and our water!) and had lots of stops on the way round, its funny cos on a normal walk through the week she usually takes her self off into a field and runs like crazy but on the hike she stayed by us and kinda walked and sniffed her way round, she must have known it was a big'en!

Grace - your baby sounds adorable (I love it when they roll around!) and what I meant by my neighbours dog is that she NEVER walks him, as we are surrounded by open farmland that is heaven for dogs and I think her little guy has only ever seen it from the basket of her bike!

[Jesse Cruz]

hi emma,
those pics are beautiful, your baby could do some modeling! i love it! dogs are such amazing committed partners.

grace, your chi is awesome. i can't believe that little one is a big hiker, that is so cool!

[Jill Ramsey]

Emma,
Tilly is beautiful!!!

[Andre Mendizabal]

Those are some nice pictures Emma... what a great dog you have... I do some hiking with Nala, but beign a beagle I can't let her loose... she would wonder off following a smell!!!! So I got one of those training leashes that are super long to giver her some space!!!! Molly won't go hiking, she's such a lady, she likes to walk around but just doesn't feel too fond about exercise, for her a mile is the limit!!! :D

[Cecile Vargo]

Tilly is absolutely beautiful! I love the one where she's on her back! I don't have it on the computer, but my favorite picture of my late dog Jessie is of her lying on her back at the edge of a large meadow, muddy and completely exhausted. We were camping by the meadow and there was a cabin across it of historical significance. Everyone in our group wanted to go over and see the cabin, but they went over individually instead of together. Jessie took her "tour guide dog" job seriously and ran across the meadow with each small group of people as they went to check out that cabin. By the time she took the last group over, she just collapsed on her back with her feet in the air, muddy as can be, but very content. A few minutes after the picture was taken, there was one last couple who had not crossed the meadow to see the cabin, and they finally decided to go. I didn't think she had it in her, but Jessie quickly jumped up and ran across the meadow one more time.

It's a good thing my dogs Jake, Sadie, & Maggie can't see Tilly having all this fun on my computer this morning. We're going out to the desert this weekend, and logistics in the motel, and group dinner we've arranged, make it difficult to take them. I know they are itching to get out there and have a good romp in the desert or mountains as much as I am.

[Cecile Vargo]

I just remembered, I do have pictures of the dogs running in that same meadow last year. This was Maggie's (black dog, lab. rott mx) first romp in a meadow, & second camping trip. She would have been about 7 months old. Sadie, is the blonde dog - she's my chow/golden mix.
http://trips.explorehistori calif.com/monache04/images/035dogsrun1.jpg

And here's portly Jake at 12 years old running to catch up with "Uncle Marty". Jake's is a shepherd/lab and normally has lab type ears - but this picture caught his ears just as they were flying up.
http://trips.explorehistori calif.com/monache04/images/036dogsrun2.jpg

[Emma Warbuton]

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments, and Cecile thanks for sharing your babies too, they look like they love that meadow!

[Cecile Vargo]

Yes, my dogs love that meadow. We go up there every August. It's at 8,000 feet in the Southern Sierra Nevadas here in California. Lucky the meadow is still there - a couple of years ago a serious forest fire destroyed much of the acreage in that area. The little historical sheepherders cabin that dog Jessie led everyone to was fortunate it didn't burn down!

Anyway, thanks for sharing your pictures & reminding me of good times with my own. Hope to take at least my 14 month old pup Maggie with me in May. She's just the greatest trail dog!