Bella on hiking

I love to hike.  It's something I've always liked to do.  I also love taking my dogs hiking.  One summer, about 15 years ago, a friend and I were unemployed at the same time and we spent that summer hiking a whole lot of Oahu with our dogs. It was an awesome summer.  When we first got Axl and Lola I took them hiking a couple of times, but they pulled so much that it became impossible to walk with them.  I tend to not like hiking alone so after Lola and Axl didn't work out I stopped hiking for a while.  When we got Bella one of my thoughts was that I could take her hiking.  At the end of May I took her on her first hike and that did not work out so well. It was raining, the trail was steep and slippery, she pulled a lot, it was pretty miserable.  I haven't taken her again.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I read about the Hawaiian Humane Society Paws on the Path program. Once a month a volunteer takes a group of folks and their dogs hiking. Awesome.  Once I knew I had this Saturday off I decided to take Bella.  She is now 2 months older than she was the first time, she is much better trained at walking now, and the trail they were going on is much easier than the first one.  So at around 7:45 this morning we headed out to the trail.

I've said before that Bella is the dog of my dreams and she's proving that in more and more ways.  We got to the meeting spot and there were about 10 dogs already there. Bella was perfect. She sniffed other dogs and greeted other dogs, but she never tried to jump on or play with anyone.  It was almost like she knew this was not the time to get crazy.  We ended up with about 30 dogs there of all breeds and sizes and Bella was awesome with all of them. And the people.

We set off hiking and Bella walked very well, no pulling or trying to run up with the other dogs.  She had no desire to be in the lead and was quite happy to follow another dog.  When I told her to slow down and walk nice, she did.  It was perfect.  At one point part of the group took a wrong turn and ended up going up a pretty steep trail. Once we realized it was wrong we had to come back down.  I slipped and fell and Bella came over and sat down next to me.  Cute!!!  She sat there until I got back up, then the rest of the way down she stayed right next to me and kept looking at me, like she was checking to see I was okay.  It was awesome.  Bella, as it turns out, is a very slow hiker - just like me.  We ambled along stopping to look at things and smell things and let all those speed demons pass us by.  We were actually the last ones to return to the start, but we did not care.  We had a great hike and really enjoyed ourselves. We hiked for about an two hours and Bella was getting tired. Really. Tired.  But she's  a trooper and kept trudging back to the car.  Once we got home she collapsed and has been sleeping ever since.  Today was good fun and I will definitely take Bella hiking again.  It may become a regular thing.

Me and Bella at the turnaround point. She's saying Mom, give me more treats!!!!!