This is my hiking buddy Miss Bea who lives next door. For several months, we have been getting out into our local woods for a long hike once a week. This morning it was fairly hot here in South Carolina so we only did around 7 miles in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Miss Bea is a local expert on the woods and is the best hiking dog that I have ever had anything to do with. She has excellent eyesight and a good nose which comes in handy now since we have had coyotes move into our woods in the last few years. We have seen bear sign several times, but the bears appear to have moved on since we haven't seen any trace of their tracks for a couple of weeks now.

Miss Bea is very dignified and doesn't react to horseback riders or to other dogs. We ran into three people on horseback this morning, but didn't see any other hikers.

Miss Bea sets a fairly quick pace and doesn't want to stop and pee on everything like most male dogs will do. Most of our trails include small hills, so I get a pretty good workout. As the trainee, I get to carry the water for these adventures and we went through 2 quarts this morning.

And this, my friends is one of those things that us retired guys do to keep busy and stay out of trouble with our wives.

Miss_Bee_on_an_Adventure_w_Trainee_E-mail_(2).jpg (88 Kb, 5 downloads) Miss Bea The Hiker

I really envy you retired guys who get hang out with pretty females all day!! She's a beauty. My kids keep bugging the wife and me for one. None of us can agree on what kind to get. The kids want a Shiba-Inu, a Japanese hunting dog, I'm more for a German short haired, and my wife likes the small yappy type. I'm going to try and talk my wife into the Shiba Inu. It will only get to around 20-25 lbs. and it is good on the trail supposedly.

quote:

Originally posted by devilsplay:
I really envy you retired guys who get hang out with pretty females all day!! She's a beauty. My kids keep bugging the wife and me for one. None of us can agree on what kind to get. The kids want a Shiba-Inu, a Japanese hunting dog, I'm more for a German short haired, and my wife likes the small yappy type. I'm going to try and talk my wife into the Shiba Inu. It will only get to around 20-25 lbs. and it is good on the trail supposedly.

I am not familiar with a Shiba Inu, but for going into the woods and covering a distance, I would recommend a long legged dog. From time to time, I run into a guy with a short haired pointer, and his dog can handle rough terain pretty well. We have two small dogs weighing around 20 lbs, but I wouldn't expect them to handle the trail very well. They are, ... city park kinda girls.

A Shiba Inu is basically a smaller version of an Akita. They were breed for hunting in low lying brush in the mountains of Japan. Their realy pretty too.

quote:

Originally posted by devilsplay:
A Shiba Inu is basically a smaller version of an Akita. They were breed for hunting in low lying brush in the mountains of Japan. Their realy pretty too.

Now I think I remember the breed. Good looking dogs! Sturdy too.

I like them and so do the kids. Having a hard time talking the wife into getting one though.