Best places to take your dog hiking
April 8th, 2008
at REI.com
Hikers in the San Francisco Bay Area are crazy about their dogs, but many parks in the region (especially state parks) are not so crazy about dogs on trails (how could they be worse than horses? Go figure). These are some of the most useful links I’ve found:
- Jane Huber covers dog-friendly parks in some detail at bahiker.com
- Here’s a dog trainer’s page of off-leash parks in Silicon Valley.
- Many great dog-related links at this page, peppered with info on a few local parks.
- More general Bay Area dog-related info, centered more on San Francisco.
Go buy the book
- Maria Goodavage’s Dog Lovers Companion to the Bay Area
gets good reviews at Amazon.com.
- Thom Gabrukiewicz’s Best Hikes With Dogs Bay Area
April 8th, 2008 at 11:21 am
MROSD has a nice page for dog owners:
http://openspace.org/activities/ideas_for_dogs.asp
Thanks for the pointers. Our family will be getting a service dog for my son from Canine Companions for Independence (www.cci.org), so I’m collecting dog/hiking info.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Everyone thinks their dog is friendly. And most are friendly. I have had problems with dogs in the past.
I have found that if I stop using my poles as a dog approaches it will be more friendly. Also removing sunglasses helps. Dogs are protective of their owners. Bearded people beating large sticks into the ground with covered eyes rapidly approaching its owner can and usually will make dogs aggressive.
Walter service dogs are allowed in all parks. Even parks with dog restrictions.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Chef: funny you should mention that… I’ve had the same experience w/shades/poles and dogs.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I swear on a stack of bibles that Burley is the most friendly dog you will encounter on the trail – even to bearded hikers with sunglasses and hiking poles. I wouldn’t bring him otherwise. He does think it’s a state law that everyone has to stop to pet him. Sometimes when someone uses a stick instead of hiking pole, he thinks a game of fetch is about to break out.
I do leash him when we break for lunch to keep him from bothering other people.
I recognize not everyone loves dogs as much as I do. But he has a decent sense of who they are. And I do my best to keep him away from them.
And he barely notices wildlife. He’s the only lab mix that doesn’t chase squirrels. I pretty much ruined his hunting instincts. I’m kind of worried about him running into moose. But I think their size will scare the bejeebus out of him. He doesn’t like to get near horses.
It’s a positive experience for all when Burley hikes with me. He loves the mountains. And most hikers love him. He doesn’t harass or scare the others.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Shenandoah National Park is a great place to take dogs hiking. It’s one of the most pet friendly parks in the nation. There’s several really good places dogs are allowed along the AT also.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Here in Montana I take my dog almost every place that I go and that includes hiking.
I carry her leash but don’t keep her on it.
I’ve trained my dog to ignore game animals and farm animals, as chasing them is not only bad manners but your dog can be legally shot for doing it (I support this).
She likes everyone but doesn’t force herself on people.
Her only bad habit on the trail, and one that I haven’t been able to break her of, is that she wants to meet any other dog she might find.
She’ll ignore my commands until she greets the other dog.
Unfortunately here in the Bitterroot Mountains this might also get her killed.
We have wolves.
Wolves aren’t only killing sheep, calves, and llama around here.
They also actively stalk and kill any dogs they might come across.
The wolves do this as they see dogs as competition.
They are coming into people’s yards to do this.
Almost everywhere that I normally go to hike or even just to walk has had a dog killed nearby.
I DON’T LIKE WOLVES.
We didn’t need to spend 5 million tax dollars to import them her.
They aren’t needed to balance the ecosystem.
Their reintroduction was and is a badly thought out plan, implemented and supported by people it didn’t effect.
Sorry for rant.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
There are two really good books about hiking with your dogs published by Mountaineers Books I use sometimes when hiking with my dog Duffy. Lots of great trails, & lots of tips on etiquette for the various regions. Worth taking a look at I think,
-BEST HIKES W/ DOGS: Bay Area
http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=612
-BEST HIKES W/ DOGS: Central CA http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=837
August 17th, 2008 at 8:08 am
As a dog owner, I am always looking for trails to run with my dog– when I’m writing up trails on my blog, I make a point of covering the trail’s “dog friendliness” (i.e., is it possible? leashes? etc.)
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
I am very frustrated with all these dog hiking website’s including this one that states (best places to hike with your dog) well everytime I go into the site all people do is take about there dogs. I want to find places where to take a dog not about other peopels dogs. I’m not trying to sound mean or be a pain but this wesite said the same thing. So can anyone tell me where in San Mateo County can you take a dog on a really good long hike? with out telling me about your dog. That would be great.
February 16th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Hello,
I know this is pretty far out regarding dates as a reply but I had to comment when I read the post by Dropkick. I found it to be alarmingly uninformed and so thought a little rebuttal was important.
First = you carry your dog on a leash but do not keep her on it. Huh? You carry her on it? As in you have her in your arms? Then why do you have her on a leash if you take her off of it at a later time?…I’m assuming when you put her down. That made no sense to me at all. Leashes are very important to keep most dogs out of trouble in the human world. Voice command is a human fantasy that comes true only in our world. Put a dog in a situation in which it feels compelled to react instinctively and your voice won’t mean squat. A great example of the truth of this is that you yourself say you can’t break your own dog from “greeting” any other dog she sees. Hmmm…….
Second – you support the human activity of shooting a dog for doing what it’s instincts tell it to do? Perhaps we should take a potshot at you the next time your instincts kick in. Shooting a dog for chasing farm animals is an over-reaction to say the least. If that dog killed a farm animal then we have a problem. That can be deterred prior to the slaying of an innocent dog through responsible pet ownership however. Any dog that kills a farm animal or game animal did that because the “owner” was not responsible enough to make sure their dog behaved properly. Perhaps the thing to do is shoot the owner and not the dog.
Third – I find your assessment of the ecological value of wolves to be woefully uninformed. Wolves are what are known as keystone predators. Basically things trickle down from them as far as the food chain goes. Keystone organisms, whether it be a wolf or a Lodgepole pine, are critical to the overall health of their particular ecosytems. That’s documented scientific fact that has been well studied and established. While the opinion that their reintroduction into the ecosystems they once inhabited was badly planned might resonate with some the reality is that the human slaughter of a naturally occurring population of predators is far more irresponsible. There is a reason the wolf evolved as it did and where it did and that reason was not so that humans would have something to make them feel big and brave when they killed it.
Americans can be such hypocrits when it comes to this kind of thing. Don’t kill the tigers, elephants, or bears. Leave the crocodiles alone, etc. It’s a “don’t do as we do but rather as we say” type of mentality. What about the Grizzly here in North America? Or those wolves you hate so much?
While it’s entirely up to you whether or not you like wolves I really recommend you take a look at the facts of ecology before you begin to rant about things like wolves killing dogs because they view them as competition. Of course they do. Wolves, like dogs, are territorial animals and to survive must defend that territory. Your dog, given the proper impetus, would do the exact same thing. The fact that he/she is so curious about other dogs is this instinct manifesting itself.
I certainly don’t mean to be rude but I find it so alarming that there are so many people running around that spout about this and that without any real knowledge of this issue(s) they are ranting about.
Dogs are not people. They never will be. They will never act like humans and they will never follow our societal/cultural values. The real problem here is that most humans just don’t seem to comprehend that. How many times have you heard someone say “my dog doesn’t bite” right before that dog bites someone? Me? A thousand times. Of course I work with dogs and cats every day of the week making my profession in their medical care. Being so closely exposed to humans and their “companion” animals gives me what I believe to be a more informed point of view as to what is actually happening between man and dog.
Take care. Happy hiking. Keep your dog on a leash anytime that dog is out in the human world. To do otherwise is to tempt trouble.
Mike
August 11th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
REALLY far out on dates but I am too strongly inclined to thank Mike for his logical and intelligent rebuttal in regards to wolf ecology.
Mess with people’s (ranchers) money (livestock) and they get emotional (hatred of necessary tertiary consumers in the food web).