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Me and Patch!
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About Me
- Sophie Easterbrook
- Originally from Kent but lived in Wales for 20 years. I have 2 dogs and 4 horses (mainly rescued). I love backpacking and hillwalking with my dogs.
11 comments:
Great photo! Congratulations again :)
Fantastic!
Well Done Sophie and Patch!
Shalini, Dave,
Bullet and Millie (woof!)
Again well done.
Well done (again) and hope to meet up in the coming months.
Martin and Sue
Hi all - good to know your still there, and thanks (again) for the congrats (again)!!
Nice one Sophie - and once again, well done!
John
Hi Sophie!
My name is Andy and in april along with my Dog Alfie we will be starting our own lejog, just wondering if you have any pooch related hints for this distance of walk?
(http://theaaaway.blogspot.com/)
Paws wise he should be fine being a border terrier, (which are renowned for having thick pads) what i'm looking for is just how Patch managed with the distances? and how he got on with the cold and wet?.
sorry just thought of another question! as you shared a tent with patch did you have any problem with damp dog?.
Sorry if i'm asking too many question! just so much planning going on in my mind !
Look forward to any response.
Andy and Alfie! :)
Hi Andy, so sorry for the late reply!
Glad to hear from another doggy lejoger! The only big problem with Patch was her noise phobia - hopefully you'll be ok there!
She did struggle at first with her paws - but she's always had problems there. We tried the Ruffwear boots but they rubbed too. One thing I would DEFINITELY suggest to avoid the damp dog syndrome inside the tent is to get a Ruffwear Cloudchaser Jacket - it goes right under the belly - it's great to be able to strip this off after a days walking in the wet / mud and have a clean dog underneath (except for feet!). I took an extra lightweight towel (MSR ultralight) for Patch, but rarely needed it when she wore the Cloudchaser...I used the towel for drying the tent more than anything.
When we first set off from JOG we had some cold nights so I bundled Patch into my sleeping bag with me (I was frozen!), but otherwise she was fine except for one day on the Pennines in gale force wind and rain...
I did do some long days with Patch (18 to 23 miles on several occasions) but really it was asking too much from her - she was pooped! 11 to 14 miles a day seemed about right - but that said what was stopping Patch more than anything was her nervousness. A confident dog may cover more miles happily. It's definitely worth allowing time for extra rest days - Patch needed plenty of those! She had a few niggles and limps but a rest day and a couple of shorter days soon sorted them out.
Don't forget the Frontline if you go on the West Highland Way - and a tick remover! Patch had LOADS of ticks every single day on the WHW...not nice! A thorough inspection before she entered the tent was always a good idea!
I would love to do it again now - but after sorting Patch's noise phobias...I have 3 days booked with Mic Martin from Dog Borstal at the end of March!
Feel free to email me...so much I could talk about! I'll be watching with interest!
Sophie
Just wandering when you are planning to do your evaluation of your jogle and if you had any other major walks planned. Hope you and patch are both well.
Hi Sophie!
sorry to have taken sooo long replying!
busy busy busy! (as you can imagine!)
have taken your advice about the jacket (well sort of) I bought Alfie a ruff ware "sun shower" waterproof jacket, and in an attempt to keep my (oops!) our! tent clean I've cut down a snugpac softie sleeping bag for Alfie this will keep him warm and the tent dry! as its so little I'll be able to hang it from my rucksack as we walk to dry it each day, a nice solution all round I think (will put a photo on my blog when I get the chance!).
its exactly one month till we drive down to the start, that's gonna fly!
Cant wait
Andy and Alfie
Hi Ramblerman and Andie (and Alfie!)
The evaluation is coming soon - I want will do a kit review but two pieces of kit failed and I'm waiting for the manufacturer of one piece to get back to me, and the return of a repaired piece of kit from another manufacturer so I can give a true report. Not long now hopefully.
Andy - well done for sorting a sleeping bag for Alfie - good plan! I originally took a piece of kip mat for Patch but she wasn't interested and slept either in my bad when it was cold, or on my coat when it was warmer!
Good luck with it.
Sophie
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