[Dailydrool] nature challenged bassets

[lemalois at verizon.net]

i go camping each fall in the white mountains of new hampshire.  i take the boys hiking.  mr cooper the bassetter (as opposed to mr cooper, sir.) loves to hike.  he sniffs, checks things out, explores and is very social.  his only fault is looking at every woodland creature as lunchmeat.
 
last time i went was buster's first time camping.  he was rescued from the wilds of staten island, nyc, ny.  my boy is urban.  i never realized how much so until i took him into the woods.  
 
now normally buster is a wild man.  he hasn't met a table he hasn't stood on.  a chair he hasn't climbed (you get the picture).  he could be the poster dog for agility.  EXCEPT for when he is the woods.  then he was like a dead animal on a leash.  i was dragging him.  mr i am the king of the world was afdraid of everything.  
 
other hikers were stopping me and asking what was wrong with him...i said nothing...he's urban.  he needs buses, exhaust, sidewalks, noise, etc.  quiet, birds, big trees, big rocks etc freaked him out.  it was the funniest thing.  
 
by about the 3rd day he was okay but you could tell he was not at his best..and i won't even begin to tell you the looks he gave me when we went to bed and he wasn't in his queen sized bed in my room (okay we were sleeping in the queen sized bed in the conversion van...not a tent so it wasn't that bad).
 
coop just kept giving him looks like "you are so embarassing me" and "i really don't know who that fool is on the other leash!"  we are going again this fall and i've made an effort to get buster out into more woods and stuff so hopefully he won't be such an embarassment to all of us and the breed again.


 
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Bertrand Russell
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