Our first road trip with the travel trailer has started well.  As we cruised for about five and a half ours to the Smokies, Pearl would occasionally stretch her head over my shoulder requesting a scratch.  She often does this as I drive.  Not the safest thing in the world, but she’s not too pushy about it.  She just gently reminds me she is there and could use some petting.  Jennifer’s explanation that I was driving and could not pet Great Danes at that particular moment fell on deaf ears.

Today, we hit the trails.  Pearl hiked about 7 miles with us on 2 different trails (Pete’s Branch Falls Trail and Margarette Falls Trail, both in Cherokee National Forest North).  We have confirmed something that we had suspected for some time.  Pearl is a water dog!  In fact, water crossings will often give Pearl a case of the “Zoombies” which can be a problem when you are attached to her at the waist.  A few times, she laid down in the creek to cool her belly, as we all need to do from time to time.

If hiking with your dog, I HIGHLY recommend going handsfree.  This requires some other way to hold the leash.  We picked up a Spindrift Daisy Runner running belt, specifically made to attach a dog leash, from thedogoutdoors.com.  We also got a Surfs Up dog leash which has been great.  It was suggested by the website and they have a great video available to demonstrate.  It’s basically like a big curly phone cord but will extend to 6 feet.  Because it “retracts” when she comes closer, she never gets her feet tangled (or ours either).  The company is a “Mom and Pop” operation that’s serious about customer service.  I emailed them a question about a dog bed before we bought anything from them.  He answered my question promptly and was honest, even though it cost him a sale.

I recently read a post that said try not to let your dog drink from the stream or a puddle.  Good luck with that.  With that said, the pooch also needs hydration.  We have packed a couple of collapsable bowls and took Pearl some bottled water.  The next step will be to get Pearl her own backpack so she can pack it in herself, but I thought we should ease into that one.