[Headhardhat]

I am putting together a post on geocachers and their geo-pets. I know when I take my geopuppy Emily with me it does add a bit of extra work to my geocaching adventures. I mean not only is there the extra food, water and potty breaks to contend with but other factors as well like having a 9 month old poochoid drag me through the trails. When I hook her up to a tree so I can attempt for the find and afterwards the signing of the log, trading swag, etc. Geopuppy would rather do the walking rather than the waiting and whimpers a lot.

What type of situations do you run into while geocaching with your pet. Are there geocachers out there with other animals besides dogs? If so what?

What can you do to help make the geocaching experience for both you and your pet more enjoyable?

Any comments and advice would be greatly appreciated and most likely end up in my blog post.

Thanks again,

-HHH

[ao318]

The most important thing I do is to make sure they are current on their flea and tick meds. Also check them after going on the trails for ticks and most importantly burrs in their paws, groin, leg pits, neck, ears, eyes, and nose. Those are the most common place to find them. It is easier to lay them down and clean them before it's too late and costs a lot of money to have it removed.

[smstext]

our dog seems to suffer a lot from thorns in between his paws causing him lots of pain and discomfort. been to the vets a couple of times and paid out their handsome fee and tried to remove them ourselves that he doesnt like us doing.

[Appaloosa Gal]

I've gotten about half my caches with my horse, J.J. He loves it when I get off to look, as it means he gets to eat and rest. We do a lot of trail riding, and he's starting to anticipate where caches are, and will pull off the trail when he thinks its a good place to look or hide a cache. My friends find this hilarious!

I also cache with my dog, Sammy. Sammy is excellent at finding caches! I am careful not to take him into areas where there may be snakes or other dangerous places, and in the fall, he wears a hunting vest if not on leash because he looks a little like a coyote.

Happy trails!

[NYPaddleCacher]

Headhardhat, on Nov 6 2009, 02:19 PM, said:

I am putting together a post on geocachers and their geo-pets. I know when I take my geopuppy Emily with me it does add a bit of extra work to my geocaching adventures. I mean not only is there the extra food, water and potty breaks to contend with but other factors as well like having a 9 month old poochoid drag me through the trails. When I hook her up to a tree so I can attempt for the find and afterwards the signing of the log, trading swag, etc. Geopuppy would rather do the walking rather than the waiting and whimpers a lot.

What type of situations do you run into while geocaching with your pet. Are there geocachers out there with other animals besides dogs? If so what?

What can you do to help make the geocaching experience for both you and your pet more enjoyable?

Any comments and advice would be greatly appreciated and most likely end up in my blog post.

Thanks again,

-HHH

Take a look at the profile for Geodog Riley

Riley (who I have met a couple of times) is the dog own by a rather prolific geacher a bit north of me. She logs every cache for Riley when he has been in attendance on the find. He currently has just over a 1000 finds. In these parts, those with a 1000 finds are often honored with a "Golden Ammo Can" hide to recognize the achievement. 1000 may not seem like much to those in cache rich areas
where one can get that many after a few months, but it typically take much longer here. In any case, here is
Geodog Riley's Golden Ammo Can cache.

[wildernesswanda]

Oreo T. Dog decided to chase a porcupine the other day.... Didn't end well... a mile back to the trail head, and another mile or so down to the parking lot. Thirty five minute drive to the vet, and a $450 bill. I don't know what we could have done differently, except for keep her leased. Usually she's pretty good at listening, I don't know what got into her this time. Vet says they never learn.

[HouseOfDragons]

Compared to caching with my children, caching with my 4 month old puppy is a breeze. He doesn't squabble about whose turn it is to hold the GPSr, he doesn't whine that his knees hurt, he doesn't complain that he's thirsty every 45 seconds, he doesn't bicker over who gets first pick of the trade items and he doesn't he draw attention to us by screeching "I'VE FOUND IT!".

I wait til the kids are in school and cache with the dog these days.

[bramasoleiowa]

When I'm home and plotting a cache run my cat snuggles up next to me and the GPS. And when I get back with swag or trackables- he has to investigate.

[savyiscute]

Well, I have a geolabrador called Denver and we take him caching when we go to places that are avaible to dogs. He is very annoying! He lies down halfway walking there and we have to get out some food to encorage him! (He LOVES food!)

[The Leprechauns]

No video would be complete unless it covered the exciting sub-hobby of leaving animals as trade items.

The person who posted about the horse ought not try this.

[BBI Dragon]

ao318, on Nov 6 2009, 02:15 PM, said:

The most important thing I do is to make sure they are current on their flea and tick meds.

PLEASE use a repellent, they do make them for companion pets. Don't use those spot-on pesticides.

smstext, on Nov 6 2009, 02:29 PM, said:

our dog seems to suffer a lot from thorns in between his paws causing him lots of pain and discomfort.

They make shoes, or sock like covers for dog's feet now. Check your local independent Pet supply store.

wildernesswanda, on Nov 6 2009, 05:01 PM, said:

Oreo T. Dog decided to chase a porcupine the other day.... Didn't end well...

I recommend keeping your dog on lead.


I do take a dog from time to time. It's good companionship, they help to make you look more "natural" walking around while hunting but I find they do take a little eatra time to get hooked up, out of the vehicle, pick up after them, and they do sometimes have their own ideas about what they want to do. I have terriers and if we see a squirrel, watch out!

[Piglit9]

Headhardhat, on Nov 6 2009, 01:19 PM, said:

I am putting together a post on geocachers and their geo-pets. I know when I take my geopuppy Emily with me it does add a bit of extra work to my geocaching adventures. I mean not only is there the extra food, water and potty breaks to contend with but other factors as well like having a 9 month old poochoid drag me through the trails. When I hook her up to a tree so I can attempt for the find and afterwards the signing of the log, trading swag, etc. Geopuppy would rather do the walking rather than the waiting and whimpers a lot.

What type of situations do you run into while geocaching with your pet. Are there geocachers out there with other animals besides dogs? If so what?

What can you do to help make the geocaching experience for both you and your pet more enjoyable?

Any comments and advice would be greatly appreciated and most likely end up in my blog post.

Thanks again,

-HHH

I sometimes take this human with me and geeshh are they a bother to cache with on the trail! If it's not answering that phone attached to his body, it is always yelling for me as if I am lost. I'm not the one that needs that handheld thing-a-bod to find my way around in the woods.

I find with my human it is normally a better trip if I bring one of those cheap lasers with me to keep his attention "ohh look, a shiny object". Now if I could just get him to smell out those ammo cans and lock-n-locks a little quicker!

[sweetpea3]

HouseOfDragons, on Nov 7 2009, 06:07 PM, said:

Compared to caching with my children, caching with my 4 month old puppy is a breeze. He doesn't squabble about whose turn it is to hold the GPSr, he doesn't whine that his knees hurt, he doesn't complain that he's thirsty every 45 seconds, he doesn't bicker over who gets first pick of the trade items and he doesn't he draw attention to us by screeching "I'VE FOUND IT!".

I wait til the kids are in school and cache with the dog these days.

I hear ya! We've gone with our 4 kids and heard it all, too.

Today I took GeoDog, Cinnamon, along. One thing I've found that makes it a bit easier is that we have the mindset ahead of time that it will go more slowly when she's with us. Cinnamon doesn't want to stand around while I look for a cache, so when I get near GZ I take her for a short walk in the area. She's so excited to be on a car ride and adventure that she doesn't want to get out of the car and just stand around right away. Another thing that helps is to have a 2nd person along. One person to walk GeoDog around the cache area, while kind of looking for it, and the other person can really hone in on the cache. So far Cinnamon hasn't been too helpful in actually locating any caches, but she sure does have a good time sniffing out new places.

[SkellyCA]

My dog is probably the easiest dog to travel with. I take her to kispy kreme or in n out burger and she wats by the door while I go in and order. Then we eat outside. So up in the hills, she stops when I stop, usually stays withing 20-30 feet of me.

[aultk]

Today - for the first time my Golden Retriever found a cache for me. She always gets very excited when we approach ground zero and I start doing the "Geocachers' Dance". Today I noticed that she was sniffing with great interest in some rocks a ways away from where I was looking. I went over there and there it was! When I pulled it out she sniffed it with great interest - a cache must have lots of interesting smells!. I honestly think she is understanding the game! She is becoming a Geo-Dog! I always geo-cache with our two Goldens and never tie them up - they just run around while I do the dance - they think it is great fun.

Headhardhat, on Nov 6 2009, 01:19 PM, said:

I am putting together a post on geocachers and their geo-pets. I know when I take my geopuppy Emily with me it does add a bit of extra work to my geocaching adventures. I mean not only is there the extra food, water and potty breaks to contend with but other factors as well like having a 9 month old poochoid drag me through the trails. When I hook her up to a tree so I can attempt for the find and afterwards the signing of the log, trading swag, etc. Geopuppy would rather do the walking rather than the waiting and whimpers a lot.

What type of situations do you run into while geocaching with your pet. Are there geocachers out there with other animals besides dogs? If so what?

What can you do to help make the geocaching experience for both you and your pet more enjoyable?

Any comments and advice would be greatly appreciated and most likely end up in my blog post.

Thanks again,

-HHH

[Ed_S]

I take my dog caching with me, and she has her own account, too.

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=99...eb-4138c853a742

I write her logs when I write mine. I find it fun to do, and I'm always amused when we meet another cacher somewhere who's heard of MollyPup. She has, on occasion, found caches before I did, but most of the time she would rather wander around sniffing and investigating. Once we're away from the street and into the woods, I let her off the leash. She listens pretty well, and stays near me. Plus, a dog on a leash going through the underbrush becomes an exercise in frustration very quickly. If I could offer advice to anyone considering bringing their dog on a caching trip, it would be to train the dog to obey your voice commands, especially "Stop" and "Come" so you can safely let the dog run in the woods.

If you're doing urban or suburban caches, having a second person along is a wise idea. One person is the dog-handler, and the other is the cacher. You can both look for the cache, but realize the dog is going to get bored with staying in the same spot for a long time, when there's so many interesting things to sniff and see and check out all around.

Dogs can be great 'cover' too - One man, alone, in a park full of little kids, attracts attention from paranoid mommies, and all it takes is one to panic and call the police about "the suspicious man lurking in the woods near all the children" to ruin a large portion of your day. But a man walking his dog in that same park? Nobody even sees you.

[LittleDogWithNoTail]

When caching with doggies, the cheeseburgers are VERY important!. Do not ever forget them!

[colliesoftheborder]

[/quote]

I sometimes take this human with me and geeshh are they a bother to cache with on the trail! If it's not answering that phone attached to his body, it is always yelling for me as if I am lost. I'm not the one that needs that handheld thing-a-bod to find my way around in the woods.

I find with my human it is normally a better trip if I bring one of those cheap lasers with me to keep his attention "ohh look, a shiny object"[u]. Now if I could just get him to smell out those ammo cans and lock-n-locks a little quicker!

[/quote]


Please please please DO NOT use laser pointers on any dog. Not only can it damage their eyes, but the game can and will usually transfer to other things such as shadows. Now one can take away a ball, tug or whatever, but light is ever present.

Humorous, for some. But dangerous, especially for high energy dogs, yes.

[MacArthure Rowe]

This is Puggy, our Geo-Pug.



Though we've been told by several other Pug owners that a pug is not into long hikes, Puggy is an exception! He's been on long 7-8 KM hikes with much bushwhacking mixed in and handles it famously! Definitely an all-terrain pug!

The one issue or fear we have for him is those BIG BULGING EYES which may get poked by a rouge twig or something. But he is learning to be cautious when he bushwhacks. One of the most important lessons is not to follow to closely behind another person because of branch snap-back. We've also learned that he must correct leash tangles by himself so he learns to be cautious. At first, we would just stop and untangle him only to have him dart back and forth and get tangled again. Now, when confronted with dense brush, he usually only takes a few steps at a time and then waits to see where his leash is going. Smart pug!

Puggy is happy to find his own treasures while we're out and spends much of his time sniffing around the leaves and bushes. Tying him off to a tree while we make our find is usually OK, as long as the find is within leash-reach. Once I left him about 20 meters back while hunting and he frightened a hiker who was passing by. So now he stays much closer!

We try to praise him after every find so he learns what we're doing out there and how the routine goes as we near GZ.

As far as gear goes, the only special thing we use is a harness instead of his usual collar - much easier on him and much less chance slipping out when he sees a scampering critter!

[geos of the jungle]

Otis is my caching buddy. If I mention the word "caching" or grab his "cacher" vest (he looks too much like a small deer to take any chances) he immediately goes into wiggle-mode! When we get near GZ I tell him to "find the cache". There have been a few occasions where he actually has found it for me. Also, when we're out for a non-caching walk we often walk past some of our caches. Without hesitation he'll just stroll over to where the cache is hidden and give it a sniff or two, ...almost to say "just checking to make sure it's still there!

Most of the trails around our way are safe for off-leash caching but I always have the leash with me just in case. I always keep a pocket full of treats as well, and usually one good-sized treat to keep him busy while I'm logging the cache.

[Appaloosa Gal]

I'm thinking that Otis and Sammy are of the same cloth! Where'd you get the vest that says "cacher"?

[geos of the jungle]

Appaloosa Gal, on Nov 10 2009, 05:48 PM, said:

I'm thinking that Otis and Sammy are of the same cloth! Where'd you get the vest that says "cacher"?

Definitely see some similarities between Sammy and Otis. Otis is from Virginia (rescued by SouthSide SPCA).

I ironed the "cacher" patch onto a standard blaze-orange dog vest. The patch came from thecachingplaceDOTcom.

[CanadaKate]

Our geo-pup is a help and a hindrance all at the same time. She's happy to hike as far as we want to go ... but she picks up every burr, leaf and mud particle in the entire forest.