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Originally Posted by SaraJB  I just adopted my 6 year old Yorkie and I like to hike quite a bit. I would really like to take her on a 3-4 mile hike with me. I am thinking I will probably end up carrying her some of the time when she becomes tired. Does anyone have experience with taking their little one on hikes? I'm going to bring a water bowl but can you think of anything else I should do for her? Am I setting myself to carry her in my arms the entire hike if she gets tired quickly? She's only 8 lbs so I can do this if I need to.
Thanks in advance for your advice! |
Since you just adopted her, keep her on a leash for sure. Take her for a walk, evaluate her, see what her limits are and work to improve those. Hot(direct sunlight) or cold outdoor temps seem to be the biggest issue with my old guy. Take her on lots of walks and keep an eye on her. Dogs are pretty good at letting you know how they feel.
Gucci, 5 pounds, 11-13 yo, walks 3 miles 3-5 days a week now. We take about an hour and a half to cover those 3 miles, I stop here and there for him to smell the roses. A year and a half ago, when we first got him, 100 yards was a challenge since he was in such poor condition. Some days, usually hot days, I do carry him part of the way. Most days, there is no need to carry him. One day, I had to jog about half the 3 miles to keep up with him, one day we did six miles. Seems that if I made the time, six mile walks would occur more often.
His legs went from these itty bitty tooth pics to Popeye legs! I'm sure if I had him 10 years ago, we would have gone backpacking 10-12 miles a day no problem.