Honey's first off-leash hike

View Larger Map
Honey has been here for almost two months now. Today, I decided it was time to see exactly how bad she would be off-leash on a hike. I had been warned not to let her off leash because she would bolt and wouldn't come back. I've been working on recalls with her in the yard, in the house and on a 40 ft. long line on hikes and she'd been doing pretty well. With the pack along, and the relative success I had observed on the long line, I decided the only way to truly test her progress was to unsnap the lead.

We hit what I call the Lucky Irishman section of the CD trail here in NM. Its a short section just south of Jack's peak that parallels NM 90 along the SE face of the Big Burro mtns. It's a pretty easy section that goes up and down arroyos and along some interesting terrain with lots of neat rock formations and a variety of vegetation. The terrain isn't too strenuous and the trails have recently been revamped by summer work crews.

Honey did really well! She ranged out pretty far, but she also checked in regularly and came in when I called her. I was happy with that. She stayed close to the pack, if not exactly right in the middle of them. She ran and explored and played, but she also made sure that she knew where I was.

I play hide and seek with my guys on hikes to encourage them to keep an eye on me. If they get too far out of sight, I look for a good hiding spot and wait for them to find me. Usually Ceilidh always finds me first, because she's my tracking dog and she also tends to stay a lot closer to me than the younger dogs. This was still the case on this trip. Ceilidh found me first, then Ranger, then Honey and last of all Bronco Sue. I was happy with the result. I didn't have to go searching for any dogs and at the end of the hike I didn't have to chase anyone. I tolerate quite a bit of ranging and independence with my dogs. The distances I let them range might make others a little nervous.