Tillamook State Forest,
Oregon
We drove 15 miles into the Tillamook
State Forest to find a site where we could have some privacy
and allow the dogs off-leash. It was an amazing experience to live
with them without the constraints of fences, leashes, or
doors. We make sure to enforce all the same rules that exist at
home, and the dogs began to treat the campsite as "inside" and
everything else as "outside". They never ran off, and the river
became "the yard" and the road became "the street". For a pack of
city dogs, they adjusted really well. The funniest thing about it
was that in the morning, they were wound up and excited until we
leashed them up and walked them up and down the road some. They had
to have their structured morning exercise or they weren't going
to be happy, just like at home. It didn't matter that we spent all
day for almost a week roaming the river and hiking around as a
group. They crave structure and leadership, and they aren't happy
unless they start their day with it.
This is what dogs that have received
adequate exercise look like. After a long day of climbing rocks and
wading in the river, all they want to do is make a shallow hole and
rest. This is the very best we can do for them: fulfill their needs
for exercise, structure, pack experience, play, and then quiet.
One tired
dog.
With enough exercise, even our high-strung
Border Collie can be calm and just lay around.
Glorious.
Our
home for the week.
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