Buddy and the Hiking Pack



Buddy is our food-obsessed dog.  He loves a good snack, of any variety.  He's never rejected a dog treat and eats most people food, when given the chance.  So it was very surprising that he spit out a big cookie--I think he surprised even himself. 

Chief's older brother and his wife were visiting (quite a few years back, pre-children) when we decided to go on a hike, taking the dogs with us.  Since we were going a bit longer we decided to have Buddy (he had the sturdier build of the 2 dogs at the time) wear the pack.  However, that's not the only reason he was chosen.  Buddy and Trigger are fairly big dogs and would need quite a bit of water and we had to pack a collapsible bowl, treats and poop bags with us, along with our own stuff.  --Don't worry, we carried our own stuff!  It was the first time we tried a pack on either of the dogs.  These packs had bells on them, which infuriated Trigger (the first Christmas we had the dogs, Trigger pulled a Santa hat off of Buddy after scratching his off, because he hated the sound of the bell jingling around him--he practically stomped on the poor hat he was so annoyed) so we had to take the pack off and decided to outfit Buddy with it instead.  Trigger was usually the more cooperative of the two.  Now that Trigger has died, Buddy is a lot more cooperative.  At any rate, Buddy was bent out of shape that we strapped this thing on him.  He stood there looking at us with a disgusted look on his face and his ears back.  We kept oohing and awing over how cute he was with his pack and then offered him a treat because we managed to wrangle the darn thing on him.  He took it and then spit it out!  Can you believe that?  He quickly regretted his decision--remember Trigger is watching this all go down in the background--and scooped it back up, but he still wasn't any happier.  That is, until we arrived at the park. 
Pack off, in car, arrive at trail.  Start the wrangling process all over--again, not very happy, but he submitted.  I think he pretty much knew it was a losing battle as there were many hands to assist with the straps.  Trigger was pleased as punch, almost taunting Buddy that he was pack-free.  I think that dog had an extra spring in his step.  Buddy dawdled behind, at first.  But, as soon as we crossed other hikers' paths and he was showered with, "How cute!" and "Look at the good dog!" and loads of attention he was suddenly pleased that he "chose" to wear his pack.  Fortunes reversed, Buddy was now the one with the spring in his step.  Fickle dog!

Here they are back in 2005, captivated by someone holding food, I'm sure.