The adventures of Rollo the Shikoku

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  • Yes, I'm up in alberta working in the oil patch as an emissions specialist. It's pretty interesting work. I like it up here, I'm originally from Nova Scotia so it's quite a lot different from the little quaint fishing villages.

    Here's the trail system we have in the middle of the residential part of town. I'm right across the street from a trailhead so it's such a great spot to escape into. There are two ravines in here, with 26k of well maintained trail.

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    His off leash isn't exactly great. We have been working with him on a 50' long line lead and rewarding with lots of treats when he responds to his name. The second we unclip him though he makes a 90 degree turn and bolts into the woods. We'll work on him, but the Kootenay national park requires dogs to be leashed at all times anyway, so we'll make sure he is hooked up to us all the time. We may get a halti to keep him from jarring us when we are wearing our big packs.
  • edited May 2015
    Right on. I'm a welder and was looking into going up to Alberta, but, from what it seems, there's a lot of red tape for going US to CA, whereas CA to US is easier. Even with my dual citizen papers (process should be done by the end of the year, I hope) there's a lot of craft requirements that are different. Emissions Specialist is a lot less dirty I'd imagine ;)

    That's a really awesome trail system to be living near! I have family over there and will be visiting at some point this year. Maybe the pups can all go on a hike together. Ren is really good offleash and Genko is sticky, but we definitely need to work on recall some more.

    The halter system sounds like a very solid way to avoid too many yanks. Does he bolt into the woods just to run around or is he going off on his own adventure? I train recall in the fenced backyard and start with a 30' lead, but I've been lucky with Ren. The real experience will be training Genko, so if something ends up working better than something else we can definitely compare notes
  • I'm in Fort McMurray so if you are ever up this far, let me know and we'll get the pups together for a hike!

    Yesterday Rollo wasn't walked until around 9, then he ran his first 5k. We did half on the paved trail, and half on gravel/ mud up and down one of the steep valleys. This guy can really motor.

    Before I got him out, he was like a Tasmanian devil, doing laps of the living room at top speed and running from one bedroom to the other and jumping up onto each bed. Here is the face of mischief:

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  • Handsome Rollo! He is such a good looking dog. Seriously one of my favorites. If you do decide not to fix him, I bet he'd make some good looking pups with my Shoko... ;)

    In other news, I loved your pictures of Kootenay so much that I think we are going to try to work a stop in to our summer road trip. So, expect a pm in the next couple months (we're going in August) asking for insights/suggestions/experiences, if you're willing to share. :)
  • Definitely! Fire away, I'd be glad to help. The Kootenay/Banff/Lake Louise/Canmore area is amazing. If you have lots of time and a big gas budget you could go up the icfields parkway to Jasper, which is pretty much my favourite place I've ever been.

    There are loads of great day hikes, and many multi-day treks in the area. Hot springs and great food too. We make a pilgrimage from our neck of the woods a couple of times a summer. It's worth the drive and then some.
  • Last night on our walk, Ducks! He loves ducks, but hates water. He wanted in there pretty badly.

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  • Last week we were in Edmonton for a few days. We went to a big dog park and our dog who is terrified of water jumped right in the river!

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    Here's a video of the game of chase that he played with a few others. He loved his time at this park! It's such a great area for dogs to get their zoomies out.



    Here he is after his run around the park, pretty tired!

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    Unfortunately I think he drank a bunch of river water and was violently sick a couple of days after we got home (it was pretty scary, poor guy). We had an emergency vet appointment to have him looked at. He's doing better with medications and 'easy digest' soft food. We were concerned it was parvo or another serious condition, but our vet thinks it was probably giardia or some other parasite or bacteria. He's back to himself, but boy was that a crazy couple of days!
  • Hey next time you're in Edmonton let me know, I would love to meet your furry baby.
  • I love seeing Rollo updates :) He looks so comfortable in that last
  • Rollo's turn for the cone of shame now. He doesn't seem to mind it actually. Note the hockey tape around the edge of the cone. It helps for when he smashes into the back of your legs. It doesn't hurt quite so much with the hockey tape on.

    We try to limit the amount of cookies he gets because of his sensitive stomach. We gave him one today. We made it count!

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    He got a new toy and had a massive case of zoomies. He was panting with his mouth closed and tongue hanging out here.

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  • Rolloooo! So cute :D Good luck with the recovery. I really like his goofy face in the second photo haha
  • He and Yuki really do look alike. Yuki never quite figured out the cone dimensions; he smashed it into everything. Thankfully it was soft, so it limited the bruises on the backs of your legs
  • I'm wishing we could have gotten a soft cone! I have some drywall repair to do after we get this thing off of him...
  • He's free of the dreaded cone of shame! He seems so happy to have the bloody thing off. It wasn't too bad until the last couple of days, he would get bad anxiety when going into his crate, poor guy.

    He's doing great, no issues or setbacks during recovery. He just looks happy in this picture. His body language is different now that it's off, and he has been able to play with his best friend Molly the English sheepdog. I'm glad he has it off, now I can repaint the scuffs and dings in the wall, and the bruises on our shins can heal now. I swear he took great pleasure from plotting into our legs with that cone..

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  • edited July 2015
    Spam alert!

    Rollo had his first dayhike in the mountains last weekend. We were in Calgary to check out the stampede and took a day run into Banff. The weather was amazing. He slept in a tent for the first time and did great! We had him in daycare while we were at the stampede and he had a blast.

    Here are a few pictures of the dayhike.

    We hit up the tea house up on the plain of 6 glaciers at Lake Louise. The early going was swarming with tourists, but as the going got steep we lost almost everyone. He seemed to enjoy it!


    He wanted to get his feet wet in the glacial lake. He fell in once and was not happy about it.
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    Here's a shot of Chateau Lake Louise from across the lake.

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    We climbed to about 400m above the lake. He was darting around sniffing smells the whole way. He really seemed in his element and was bounding the entire way up the climb.

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    Th scenery here was amazing. What a great spot!

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    We made it to the tea house and had really tasty muffins. It was such a cool place. The staff pack in supplies in the morning and make runs down to the hotel through the day to resupply and bring out garbage. It's about a 6k hike from the parking lot.

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    The trail went on but we had to go back so we could get back to our campsite just outside of Calgary at a reasonable time.

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    We had water and food for Rollo in some collapseable bowls but there was a chipmunk. This made him very angry.

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    We headed back to the car and here I am with Rollo. There was an American Akita that wanted to wrestle so Rollo wasn't in a photo taking mood here either.

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    Here's one last shot of Lake Louise. It's one of those iconic Canadian landscapes. It was worth battling through the tourists to get to the trail at the other side of the lake.

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    All in all, it was a very successful trip of firsts for Rollo. First time left in a 'free play' doggy daycare place, first few days in a tent, and first time scaling a mountain.

    He settled into our campsite very easily in okotoks, just outside of Calgary. Lots of dogs and deer around!

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    He played hard and he slept hard this trip. He was one tired pooch at the end of it!

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  • I see an Impreza :D
  • I'm definitely a fan of my WRX. Great car for road trips, especially in the winter here.
  • Looks like an awesome place! I want to go~

    Rollo is looking super handsome!
  • Dope!!! I'm going camping in Banff with the girlfriend on the 24th. Wish I had a Shikoku with me. Next year!

    Awesome update!
  • Gearing up for our hike next week, I'm excited to bring Rollo along! My wife just got discharged from physio so I've had to find other hiking partners. My dad and brother jumped at the chance. It may be a tight squeeze into our 4-man tent, but luckily Rollo usually sleeps like this:

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    This ought to let us all squeeze into the tent!

    He has been carrying the whole weight that he'll need to carry on the hike for about a month now. He's pretty comfortable with the bag on. We're doing the Rockwall in 5 days, so it's about 10k/day. We've got him carrying all the food he'll need, treats, a couple of chews, and his collapseable bowls. We'll carry his water for him as we go as the terrain is fairly difficult. I think he'll do great as for the past two weeks I've hiked in the ravine beside us every day.

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    I'm really excited about bringing him along.

    I'll post again after the trip with a whole bunch of pics!
  • Well we just got off the trail a couple of days ago. What a trip! Rollo did great. He was kind of the star of the show along the whole trail.

    He did great with his pack on, I was really impressed with how well the handle on the pack worked.it really came in handy when we had to pick his back end up over downed trees.

    Here was the first log river crossing we came across. He wasn't sure of this one so I nudged him across with little tugs of the handle. After this one he pulled me across the rest of the bridges. He had no issues after this one!

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    Here he is taking a drink on our first day. It was really hot so we kept him hydrated. Collapseable water bowls ftw!

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    No problems with this sketchy suspension bridge!
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    After we did the first day of hiking, my dad and brother were cooling off in the river, while I hung out with Rollo filtering water. Rollo was laying down on the other side of a big downed tree fast asleep. Next thing I know, he's in full on freakout mode. He ripped bark off of the log and was attacking a nub on the tree.

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    My brother was out in front in the alpine meadows to try and keep him focussed. There were many squirrels around which made it hard to keep him on the trail.

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    We all took the bags off after climbing 500m high to the first pass. Rollo did great!!

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    Hard to spot them, but these squirrel things were everywhere!

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    He really loves meadows! I took this at the end of day 2, a 13k day with two passes and a short 300m drop into our second campsite.

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    Day 3 had a short up and then a long 700m vertical descent into the next valley. It was brutal on our knees carrying the big packs. We also got stuck in a hail/thunderstorm just outside of camp. Rollo wasn't a fan of the hail so we ducked under a big tree for a bit of relief. We're looking over the trail snaking below us here.

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    We spent much of the next two days soaking wet which was no fun. Rollo was excited to get inside the tent every day. This was his favourite place to be!

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    Day 4 was a fun, 850m vertical climb up to Numa pass. Him on the way up. He did not look impressed here haha.

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    Nap time! He would crash and get rest whenever he could. Then he would be full of energy whenever he'd wake up.

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    At the pass. What a view!

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    Then we dropped down into camp at floe lake, got drenched, then made for the highway the next day. It was a cold hike, especially the last night.

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    This log was beside the trail, but he wanted to climb it anyway to get to the river.

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    We were at my car finally and he passed out while we packed up.

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    I was so impressed with him on this hike. He had so much more energy than the rest of us, always jumping around, and looking for squirrels. At camp he dug up two separate beef rib bones out of the ground. It was a good treat for him. We fed him his regular food plus I had some giant cookies for extra energy. He was an awesome trail buddy. I wouldn't hesitate to do this again with him. All in all, he was great!! He was a hit at every campsite. He really liked my dad, followed him around everywhere!

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  • that's awesome. Looks like a cool trip
  • Haha, he does the pretzel. He's so handsome!! Looks like you guys had a fun trip :) How much do you have in his pack? It looks like it thinned down a lot over the trip.
  • It definitely did. We kept it pretty light, he carried enough meals portioned out for 5 days, a couple of toys, some chicken liver treats, and four massive cookies. He ate pretty much everything so he was carrying garbage on the last two days. He had super high energy the whole trip except for when he went down for his power naps.
  • is he still a pup? he looks like a teenager... maybe just forever young looking?
  • That looks like a blast!! Where was this again?? I've been wanting to do some backpacking with one of my girls for a long time now, your trip looked like a lot of fun! :)
  • This was in Kootenay national park, right off of highway 93 just west of Banff. Started from the paint pots trailhead and hiked to the floe lake trailhead.

    Doing the trail is a bit of a logistical challenge, I dropped my brother, dad, Rollo and our gear off at our start point. Then I drove to where we would finish. I then hopped on my mountain bike and rode back to where the boys and the packs were. I locked up the bike and we set off.
  • @WrylyBrindle I think he's still a pup. If I remember correctly, Katsu's a few months older and Katsu just turned 1 on Aug 1.
  • I'd still call him a puppy, he was born on October 5. He's growing into a pretty awesome dog!
  • I want to do this!!! We should do it togethor with both our dogs next summer. Or somewhere like that.
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