Dog Bonding  – Illustrated!
Taking the dogs for a RUN!

(Don't try this at home.  Get some professionals to help you!) 

By Les Porter

(All images by Les Porter.)
The real question is can you do this near your home?
 

Originally, I was thinking of posting this or a similar posting for the Summer Fun "contest" Xomba held.  I had taken the Dogs for the Run in these pictures, I just had to get them on to Xomba.  Well, that became problematical even after the contest with the site behavior.  Now! I know how to get all the images I want to use to illustrate some postings, that I went overboard a little, but this is near where I take the dogs for a "run."  And yes, we do have a large fenced dog area when the dogs can't go with us.   

Since I retired from federal science, I live on a small ranch.

The ranch is big enough for our dogs running and it is fenced.  The ranch has both cropland and pasture, and we have livestock. There are 3 water wells all with some degree of  artesian flow and water  warm enough for some geothermal applications.  We have surface water rights [Rio Grande water via water rights in a ditch] and therefore seasonal surface irrigation water and ditches.  Our dogs love to irrigate with us.  You should think of this as a rather unconstrained large dog-run area.  The dogs think of it that way. . .

There are rabbits to chase, and lots of interesting smells from " wildlife" that also episodically reside in our pastures around the property. 

But now and then, they get "antsy."  And when we can take the time, we conspire to "Take The Dogs For A RUN!"   So when we load water and food and a picnic kind of lunch and grub for them, all it takes to get the dogs into full action is the  phrase “Lets Go!”    For them, this means “Dogs Day Out.”

If you are not prepared, you will practically get "dog-mauled" with them trying to scramble into to the back of what used to be my father's old 4-wd pickup.

So, we load them into the pickup and drive a couple of dozen miles to an area I am familiar with, near my childhood home and take the dogs for a "Run."

I do not know if I can find a leash. We used to have one; I'll find it if we have to take one of the dogs to the vet.  But we are not going to where we will even see another person all day. 

Heck, here I don't need a leash. . .

This is a road.  It is on the map and it gets traveled 3 or 4 times a year.  It was more than 40 years ago that I last traveled it.  It is not easy to find unless you are able to get to the point it begins or have a map. It is not easy to stay on, because you keep losing it.  But the Dogs love this kind of road.

I like it for these “Dog Bonding” experiences, where we can pretty well keep track of the dogs since it is open country and you can see quite a distance.

These are what we call “foot hills” and there is more vertical relief than you might first think from the apparent flatness in this image.  It is flat on a long slope.  

 I got out to look this over.  It is actually a "good" road for a 4-wheel drive.  And it is on the map! It  might eventually need a little work. 

Really. There is a "road" here.  I can see it, having driven it, but I admit, I got out to look at it.  I did not want to scrape a hole in the oil pan. The "road" for the right tire is the light colored open ground passing to the left of that yellowed dying yucca, and the left tire passes through the low point between rocks.  When you get across, you bear to the right a little.  The dogs love this!

Granted, it is slow going, and time consuming to run the dogs here!  But heck!  What's time to a dog?
 
This is volcanic rock covered with a few million years of soil building life, and you can’t drive a vehicle over this road at even 10 miles an hour. [1 to 5 mph is likely]  I could do it easily on a dirt bike with suspension, probably drive faster than I could locate the road. 20-30 mph. But I'd wear protection; Alpine Stars leather boots, Iron Jaw on the helmet, shin and knee steel, shoulder and chest kevlar. . . If I were younger. . .  I still could do it on my old pre-historic 500-Yamaha thumper. . . but my protection would have to be . . .enlarged . . . to fit me.

There is some Strong Dog-Bonding going on!  These dogs will eventually make a good pack!

My wife is leading the pack, actually walking on the road.  The dogs are seeing and smelling their way along.  This is what these animals were domesticated for!  Now, this road junctions with another road between here and the canyon ahead.  You can’t see them ahead from where I am taking the picture, but there are two small rocky rough drainages between where the pack is and the distant canyon.  Yes, this is ideal Dog-Bonding Country!

On the left, I don't know what species those are. Botany was not my strong area. If I say they are the color of Indian Paintbrush, they are but. . .anyway.   That is Yucca on the right.  The dogs don't even notice these!  They are busy bonding.  It's like team-building!  But I notice these "pretties."  This is virtually high alpine desert. The only water to fall until winter will be a few rare showers, and they are scattered showers.  In the Western US water is life, and dessication is the alernative. Many plants are just squeaking by.

The dogs are strung out behind us for half-a-mile, on the road we "joined up with" -- and this knob is our next Dog Bonding Goal.  To the Top is where we are going. To the left of that knob is is a place I can park and the dogs can have grub if they want, and definitely a lot of water.  They have all overheated a little, so the whole pack has slowed a bit.  We always take plenty of water.  If we run out of water we have to find some or leave.  

This knob is actually an old volcanic uplift and the entire terrain was built from several million years of life converting the rock-resources to soil.  The trees you see are in a "crack" in the rock, and you can see where that crack comes a point at the knob.  Xomba can't show the google or yahoo image directly, but may be I can post a link. . . 

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The sky used to be bluer!  Of course, there were less than half as many people stirring up dust when I was a kid.

On the left is Dexter, who is named for the "damaged hero"  character of the Showtime Series, "Dexter" everybody's favorite serial killer of serial killers. 

Well, our Dexter is about 60 pounds of mostly Australian Shepherd we think, but don't really know if he has collie in him or whatever.  He was abused, and "damaged."  He likes me but doesn't trust anyone -- even my wife. He will come to me but not for petting. If I reach out, he will back away.  This takes a long time to fix, if ever.  I had to help catch him for the vet to fix.   ON the Right.   Susie is half-Lab and half-Newfoundland and she is 111 pounds of runt.  That tongue is even bigger than it looks.  As a retriever she is "delicate" when she takes your hand in her mouth to talk to you.  In that way, she likes to communicate with her mouth. After she gets to like you.
 

I was down on all fours, with them, trying to pick up "scent" here too; but I do not know what they smelled!

They were still into it by the time I got the camera.  So what ever it was, it smelled. . .interesting, I guess. 

While they had their noses and eyes to the ground, I explained that the reddish and darkish rock was "scoria," a volcanic rock froth and foam with all sorts of holes from gases expanding in the lava.  I told them to pay attention; that this was macrovesicular volcanic rock, which we called "cinder" when I was a kid.

After a brief rest the dogs were ready to scale the knob with noses fully operational, tails ready for balance as well as "excitement" and "interest" indicators.  Bonding dogs do a lot of "tail wagging."

From the left we have Libby, Prissy, Marcos and Susie.   Beyond these foothills, you start to get into mountains; more soil, more vegetation, more trees, more water.  West of here are the San Juan Mountains and all of what is visible in this image is in Colorado, even though this is looking southwest.  There are lots of orange and light green lichens growing on the rocks along with pinyon, [Pinon] sagebrush, some hardy grasses and although there is not one in this image, there are juniper in the area.  Those of you who have tasted Gin know what juniper berries taste like.  The area has plenty of juniper, I just was not focusing on them.

There are nine "Fourteeners" in the distant mountains in this wide angle image.  The distance is from 50 miles on the right to about 100 miles on the distant left. 

Marcos may be 100% Pit Bull and he is the dog NOBODY messes with. He is close to 100 lbs, no real fat. He is super gentle, simple-minded, puppy-loveable,  and Marcos "belongs" to My Dog "Spot."

When introducing Spot to other people, I have to say, This is my dog, Spot,  and this is Spot's dog, Marcos!" Marcos is never far from Spot, and spot is always on Marcos' mind.   One time  the two were separated on a run and Spot is with me and Marcos is in tall sage and finally he stops, stands enough to see where I am.  I am calling Marcos and Spot is 50 feet behind me, and I hold out my hands and arms to meet and greet Marcos, and Marcos blows right by me to check on Spot.

It gave me a new perspective.

Spot is the "boss" dog, or Top Dog, and everyone defers to him, even though he is aging and can't really run with the pack.  If we run the dogs on an open gravel road, Spot often gets to ride in the back with the topper shell glass door "up" and he yelps encouragement to the rest of the following pack.

That's the pickup down there from the top of the knob.  The dogs are exploring, so they are both sides, left and right.  These distant mountains have one "Fourteener" [14,000 ft +] but this image scale doesn't do it justice.  It is Culebra Peak.  I have been atop it, long ago.  It is the furthest south Fourteener in the US.  Mexico's Big Volcanoes are the next higher peaks South of here in North America.  The distance is about 50 miles, across the south end of the San Luis Valley, and across the Rio Grande.

This is "Spot," our old Top Dog, and he is a mostly English Short-Haired Pointer, so he "sees" real good.

I do not know what plant this is.

The Dogs are in there somewhere.  This is not a very high volcanic peak, one of the Los Mogotes.

Lightning has struck virtually every tree, and some more than once.  Obviously there is water in the rocks here.  But not a lot of water. 

They had all run probably 25 miles or more in small steps by the time we got ready to head back to the ranch.

Dogs love cattle guards and what's under them.  I do not know what it was, under there, but the dogs did not want to load up in the back of the pickup. However, they were all racked-out on the way home. I think the bonding went well! 

Now, if I can get them into a harness an do a sled . . .

 
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch . . . .

. . . Trojan.  Notice his markings?  He has socks;  right front, left  rear.  Cross-socks.  He is a Stallion.  I need to get rid of him.  He has never been haltered, or bridled, let alone ridden. He is three years old.  Hey, can you "break" horses?  [Write me.]  I haven't tried.  But he could be worked with.

One of the cows, "Holly" and her calf, "Heidi."

I had to run the dogs out of this next picture.  They didn't mind.

Image: (Copyright 2009) Les Porter,  "On the Way Home."

This image might make a postcard, or a calendar picture, or an illustration for a story about taking the dogs for a run . . .