Failed Training

I did some things ordinary dog owners would do when training a puppy. I didn't realize it then, but I regret them now. All of my family dogs growing up, when they peed or pooped in the house, you would smack their butt, not hard, more so like hey, don't do that, and then take them outside. All of them were okay, but Stud didn't operate this way. Stud cried and did not listen to me or want anything to do with me for the next three months. A few months later, he pooped inside my exes dad's house when I was at work, so I tried to crate train him.

I feel bad putting a puppy or a dog in a crate, but I couldn't have him poop inside. Omg, I have never seen a little thing lose his mind so badly. I walked back 15 seconds later, opened the crate, and said, "Fine, don't shit in the house again." Since he was so young when they stuck him in a crate, I thought he wouldn't remember, but damn, he remembered like it was yesterday. He didn't want anything to do with me for another three months. However, he didn't shit in the house after that. I learned that power and dominance are hard to control, especially when someone pushes back. Humans have a tendency to abuse it frequently.

Proper Training

It was important to treat him how I would like to be treated. Everything was great as long as I communicated clearly with him about what I wanted or didn't want him to do. He was smart enough to understand without yelling, force, or constant repetition. I had not experienced this before with other dogs, maybe one which was also mixed with wolf. If I wanted something, I just had to explain it and show him. Forcing dominance was the extreme opposite of how he operated. He was incredibly stubborn, but it dawned on me. Doesn't that make sense? It was a mutual friendship. There was very little to no dominance after that, ever. And he turned out to be exceptionally well-behaved. It was a friendship based on love and communication. I stopped all conventional training methods around five months. Thinking about it now, he trained me not to be a bag of di(*s.

We did everything together, and he still did not trust me from the training techniques I tried when he was a puppy to 6 months old. I was saving up for a house, then purchased a home. I was keeping him at the top of my search for something with a big fenced-in backyard. I regret that I should have bought a van and a camera instead of starting a career. I had no money, and the first job opportunity was hard to refuse. I missed him so much every time I left for work. I felt at ease since my ex, his mom, would watch him during the day, but I still regretted going to work. After work, I would spend all my time with him. Every time I would get home, he would be outside waiting in the front yard.

To this day, it is bizarre that I still do not understand why he did some things. One of these was always staying in the front yard without guidance. He just stayed in the property line with no fence. Dogs would walk by, barking, rabbits and squirrels running around, and people would call him. Nothing made him step over. He loved sitting in the front yard watching everything. I would be so excited to see him when pulling into the driveway. Being frustrated with traffic, I usually showed up in a pissed off mood, but most of my anger dissolved when I saw him. I would get out of the car, and he would run up to me in a low profile, shaking his tail and body. He looked like a happy wolf. He would grab my arm, and we would run around with my arm in his mouth. We went somewhere almost every day. The colder, the better for Stud. Minus temps were his paradise. I learned to like cold rain, snow, and freezing temps. I was locked into never moving somewhere warm.

Until he was about 3, we traveled to Florida, Northern Michigan, and Chicago several times. We also hit Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Every road trip was a dream. Looking back, they were the best. No worries, we were young, girl friend and my best friend. I cherish those moments and always will. This is about when I started having nightmares every so often about when he would leave me and go to heaven. When we weren't traveling, we explored every inch within a 30-mile radius. There were a ton of parks by us, and Stud loved to run and explore. When Stud had just turned 4, we took a road trip to Colorado; when he turned 5, we took a massive road trip to California. We were always on the move exploring.

Grim Reaper #3

I take fault for this one. There was a stunning blue lake in Washington, which was not easy to get to. It was around a 20-mile hike, and the last part was the most difficult. It was a rather challenging hike in the summer. I wanted to see it with snow. I could picture the turquoise blue water with the white snow around it and the mountains in the background. It was the last week in October, and I had never winter camped before. The plan was to get there in one day. Take it all in, take a picture or two, and turn around. Sounds simple enough. I bought a zero-degree bag and had a thick blanket for Stud.

I did not have a lot of things, but my pack was about 35-40 lbs. Let's also start by saying the road to the trailhead is not for the faint. It is a fire road. It's about 20 miles long and takes 1.5 hours. You have to cross water at several points, including the deepest river crossing 3 miles from the trailhead, and I was in a car. I wasn't about to hike another 6 miles. To add icing on the cake, you lose service 20 miles before the fire road, with zero people. If you are lucky, maybe one or two at that time of the year. I was smart enough to buy chains, but there wasn't any snow.

The river crossing was very rough. My car can attest to that by looking at the skid plates. The last thing I wanted was to get stuck and walk 37 miles with wet boots to get a tow truck. Not the smartest decision I have made. I didn't come all this way to turn around. Plowing threw the water, hearing rocks scrape the skid plates, we made it across. The water level depends on the amount of runoff in the mountains. The water level was over the bottom of my door, not springtime but not summer either. So here we are at the trailhead, starting to adventure. The trail starts flat for 3.5 miles then the incline begins. As soon as we start the incline, I see pockets of snow, but it doesn't register because Stud is running along, and I'm hot from carrying the weight.

You look at it, and you're like, no, it can't be snow. Now the snow progresses to get deeper as we constantly incline, which means the temps dropped. But some brave souls at this point had the same idea. We have traveled this trail three times, and with the help of the footprints, we could easily stay on track. There were several water crossings, and I tried to jump on rocks like a fairy for the first 5 to 10 to keep my feet semi-dry. There was one crossing in particular. Skipping across would put you with the ferries. If you slipped, you would be falling a thousand feet. And the rocks had ice on the top of them.

So my feet and legs got wet. After that, I just stomped across all of them like a child. Stud would stop to take a drink. He loved the fresh mountain water. The sun was starting to set when we got to the first lake. The first lake is far and hard. But the real challenge is the blue lake, where you must go through massive rocks and scramble up 1,500ft. The footprints stopped, and the two people camped at the first lake. I have been in this spot before on our first attempt back in the summer. I was determined not to stop. We continued. I'm sorry, Stud.

Truly it was my fault and pure stupidity due to my determination. I was initially scared I would fall through one of the bigger rocks and get wedged in since everything was snow-covered. We got past that and started climbing up the steep, narrow shoot. The tops of the rocks were covered with ice, and water was gushing down. He went in front of me using all four paws. He was normally very good at climbing. I also had to be on my hands and knees since it was so steep. If he lost grip, I could catch him. At any point, if I fell, I would be frozen there until next spring. The people were miles away and absolutely no service at this point. We lost that a very long time ago. We managed to make our way past the shoot. Then the snow was so deep I was post-holing every step.

Post-hole, it's when you step in deep snow, and your foot goes through the snow to the bottom. High knees and snow touching my crotch with every step. I would alternate and try to crawl my way up sometimes. My arms would go in deeper than my feet. It was a grind. He was okay sometimes staying on top, but I felt bad. We couldn't turn around and go down the chute in the dark, and I couldn't pitch a tent on a steep incline. We got to the top, and it was dark. It was freezing. I quickly set up the tent. I put his blanket on the ground and my sleeping pad. I took my boots off and changed out of my wet clothes to get in my bag. Stud used to sleep outside when it was minus 20 in Michigan.

I didn't think twice that he would be cold. I put the blanket over him, my extra clothes, and my heavy winter coat. I looked at the time, and it was around 7:30 pm. I thought to myself, this is going to be a very long night. Here is another bit of info I will share. So the zero-degree bag rating means you live at zero degrees but won't be comfortable. Another tidbit of information my sleeping pad wasn't insulated. And I had a three seasons tent. Sometimes I was more stubborn than him. Were we alike, yes. I was able to get some sleep. But woke up often to check on Stud and pet him. I dozed off for a while, realizing it had only been two hours. It was ONLY 9:30 pm.

When I was petting Stud, he was shivering every so often. I said alright, little guy, you have to get in this bag with me, or we are both not making it. Stud likes his space, but that night he stretched his paws like Superman, and we zipped ourselves in the mummy sleeping bag, barely fitting. He passed out right away, and so did I. Most of my body was warm, and he was hot. It didn't dawn on me since it's hard to tell, but his winter coat wasn't fully grown. I woke up to the sunshine, and I thanked God. I would have been frozen like an ice cube if he wasn't there to keep me warm.

It would have been impossible to get down at night with the cold temps and inability to see. There's no way we would have made it. It was still freezing, and I just wanted to get out of there and head back since I wasn't sure about the weather conditions. They change rapidly in the mountains. It is very early in the morning, and I'm still freezing. I went to put my boots on, but I could not get them on since they were 1000% frozen. Duh, they were soaking wet, and it's zero degrees out. I start to panic, thinking I will have to walk back in socks, get frost bit and lose my feet. I looked at Stud; he was calm, sniffing around the tent. So I took some deep breaths and calmed down. I returned to the tent with him and put my boots in the bag with me.

News to me first-time winter camping, you should put your boots in a plastic bag and sleep with them at night. Who would have thought? I was scared my feet would get cold after finally getting my boots on, so we moved quickly down the way we came. The blue lake was less than a quarter of a mile on flat ground, and I didn't want to take a chance. Looking back, we should have walked over there, but I didn't want my feet to freeze, and I already put him through a lot. After a long hike back, we are almost to the car, and I notice the zipper where I keep my car key is halfway open. I have a flashback of scrambling on all fours and, at some point, being inverted. Are you kidding me right now? I made sure it was zipped all of the way.

My head and body felt empty. I said please, god, please let them be in there. I looked in there, and my key was in the pocket. We crossed the river and returned home. Stud loved to hike, but I scared him. I went too far, and he knew it. He was smarter than me at making those decisions, and from that day on, if we were ever in a snowy sketchy situation, he would get behind me and stop. Looking at me like I'm not going. I yelled at him after this one time when he stopped, and I highly regretted what I did. I am sorry, Stud. I truly am. Looking back, his judgment was always right. I was stupid and was not a good friend for doing that.