Darby's Vacation Adventures (by Lisa Stine)

Another Type of Puppy Test.....this time at 20 months!

Darby Crash has always been an brave and outgoing dog, he is the fastest learning and most adaptive dog I've ever had. Recently he was truly put to the test. Art the Husband and I took the Jeeps and the dogs into the high Sierra for a huge gathering of off-road enthusiasts. It was a weekend of trail runs with the Jeeps and camping in the mountains. Darby has been camping before, but he's never run a trail with me. My Jeep has been modified specifically for my dogs; the passenger seat has been removed and a dog bed takes it's place. A leash is always attached to the front dash, always attached to the dog and the doors are always on the vehicle when we are on any paved road.




Off-road the doors come off so I can see where my tires are on the trail. For Darby's safety I got some tubular steel, mesh covered trail doors. We don't move over 2 or 3 miles per hour on a trail, tops, so combined with the low center of gravity dog bed in the deep well where the passenger seat used to be and the dash leash it's a pretty safe, scenic and cushy ride.



The trail was fun, but dry and dusty.




And if it wasn't dusty and dirty enough, Darby fixed things to his satisfaction. He was so dirty at one point I couldn't see his stripes.







Thank you Donna for the portable waterbottle, it was filled and emptied several times on this trip. It didn't leak and it fit wherever there was room! Perfect!!



Darby Crash was the best behaved dog on the trail, and made himself the center of attention at every rest stop. The best place to be the center of attention is pooped out in the middle of everyone's conversation circle. And why get up to be petted, when they'll come to you? Smart dog.



Each day the trail run would last around 6 hours. There were lots of stops to rest. There was a creek that needed exploring, with kids to play with and lots of sticks to retrieve. What nobody told him is that it got real deep in spots, but that didn't matter when it came to getting the sticks. Lyric loves to chase sticks as well, I think he got that from her.






There was plenty of grass to bounce through and leaves that needed to be taken off trees.






And plenty of shady spots to relax and soak up as much dirt as his fur would safely hold. For the record, I think that must be somewhere around 20lb., approximately.



It was a fun weekend. It was, as I explained to folks who asked, what show dogs do on the weekends they aren't at dog shows. They go out and get dirty!