My best friend is my 130 pound female Akita named Sasha.
I sleep out in my hammock under the porch in my back yard quite often and when I do my dog loves it. She likes it the best when I lay closer to the ground and she presses up against me in the hammock when she lays underneath me. She'll stay there all night and occasionally give me a nudge with her nose and take a few short raspy inhalations to make sure I'm still there. I'll give her a "hi baby girl" and she goes right back to sleep.
Well I decided it would be good for the two of us to get some 'wild time' out doors. So the two of us packed up and got ready. Dad dropped us off on his way to work in the morning. We hiked out from the main campgrounds into the 'back country' far away from people as we could get. I set up camp and put her on a twenty foot lead.
She spent most of the time smelling around the ground trying to find where that squirrel had been I suppose. Once I got the tarp up and she recognised it she started prancing around underneath it wagging her tail like "hey I know what this is!" With the tarp set up I went and filtered some water for her and I. Had to do some surgery on the pump even though it worked fine at home. Sasha watched me intently from the security of the tarp like an Egyptian princess "Peon, I am thirsty, hurry up and fetch me my water."
We did some exploring and played tag. I ran a few off-the-leash drills with her, which she didn't seem to interested in doing. Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon we made our way back to camp for lunch. I had brought along some dehydrated stew fixin's which I let simmer for a good while. By the time it was done cooking both of us were drooling. Mixed up her kibble with some stew and I had to eat mine right out of the bowl with no utensiles (I knew I forgot something when I was packing).
For being one of the three largest animals out there (here in Eastern Nebraska) she sure acted like she was one of the meekest when night started to fall. I was afraid she'd try to run off in the night so I leashed her up the first night. Then I was afraid she'd get startled and wrapped up and tangled. I didn't sleep too deeply and she was right there under me all night long and occasionally checked on me with her nose.
The second day was dreery and misty with light rain. So we pretty much agreed to stay under the tarp and relax all day. I kept her on her 20' lead and she took up residence at different corners under the tarp to keep a watchful eye. We played a game of 5 foot fetch until I sent the stick out into the rain, which caused me to get an evil glare as if to say "you go get it dummy"
The second night I let her loose off the leash and she stayed right with me. she got up to investigate something but she stayed under the tarp. I think a rabbit or possum came a bit too close for her comfort. She let out a muffled "woof" snorted a few times and then spent the next three minutes spinning circles and bumping into the hammock trying to get comfy again. Just when she found the right mix I chuckled and she started smelling me and poking me and wagging her tail since I was up. Took her another three minutes or so of spinning to lay back down
The following day dad was supposed to pick us up after work. So we spent the day wandering around in the touristy areas checking out the people and sights. We went back to camp and had a late lunch and relaxed, I read a book and she watched squirrels. All of a sudden her ears perked up. her eyes were fixated in the distance and she started spinning in circles whining and whimpering like a baby. Not five seconds later my cell phone starts ringing, "hi dad, sasha's whimpering to see you." "you're kidding I just pulled into the park"dang does this dog have good ears.
in all everything went great. My gear selection panned out (save for the lack of utensils), stood up to the elements just fine and everything seemed to do well. Sasha had a great time, but man oh man can you tell she's a city slicker pampered pooch.
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Originally Posted by swampfox
Rather I didn't have the batteries for. The only functioning camera I have is a Canon XTi, with a few $$$ lenses I'm not ready enough to put at risk camping.
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