Bark Trek

18/12/2025

Happy third birthday, Luna!

It has been so much fun watching you grow up and convert your parents into Aussie-maniacs. 🐾 You are such a goofball, and I wouldn’t change a thing about ya!

I’m glad the wind held off for us today. ❤️

18/12/2025

SLOW IS FAST. FAST IS SLOW.

Intrahousehold aggression cases are really near and dear to my heart. If your dogs are fighting, and really fighting, it can be really scary and heartbreaking.

Nigel & Riley here just completed their 10th working session in their program, it’s their first time sitting next to mom together in months, and their first time wearing their muzzles for longer than a conditioning session.

When I start an intrahousehold aggression program, there are usually two to three hours of discussion before I even come visit your dog and home and make a lesson plan. There are lots of things that influence your dog’s individual feelings, and getting to the bottom of what emotions and animalistic survival skills are being triggered where.

Then I ask what your ideal is. How much to do you want to repair these dogs’ relationship and rapport? How much time and energy do you have to get everything back to “where it was?” Do you want an action plan of management and skills and just have that be the way it goes? Safe crate and rotate?

When your dogs are having REAL fights that you have to put a lot of effort into breaking up and end up in vet bills, there’s a lot at stake.

For Jen, her remedial goal is the big one. She wants to be able to relax in her bedroom, all three dogs with her, be completely immersed in her crafts, phone or a book, and not have to worry about space guarding in or around the bed itself, food resource guarding, or “possession” of her.

So far, here’s what we’ve done:

• Made a management plan for in the house time
• Reading body language and assessing arousal/stress while preventing escalation
• Increased cue clarity for handler & dogs
• Muzzle conditioning
• 30ft stays
• Threshold stays
• Toy marker skills
• Recall, place work and polite greetings for visiting company
• Leash walking skills
• Recall and place drills with three different “stranger” dogs on property
• Safe shared food scatter skills
• Shared platform place/sit/stays
• Discussion about when adventures are decompressing versus an outlet for “muchness”
• Sitting next to mom and eating string cheese ❤️

Can’t wait to see them at the end of our program..

17/12/2025

I hate cancelling hikes.

I hate keeping the dogs from running, sniffing, and playing.

I hate the pent up energy and the extra management and training that happens as a result of having a group of 6-8 great dogs who are acting like the full moon was their biological father for reasons outside of their control. One missed hike, two missed hikes, three missed hikes…

But when I was an employee for someone else’s dog business and it wasn’t up to me to call the shots, or it was up to me and it carried the same guilt that “calling out” would, I hated that damaging wind, landslide conditions, air quality warnings, ice & excessive snow weren’t enough for the business owners to call it.

That ball is in my court now. I really didn’t want to cancel today. But inclement weather is inclement weather. It unfortunately doesn’t feel like a day I can or should pretend that the woods are safe.

NO HIKES 12/17.

There will be no hikes 12/22-12/26 for a pre-planned Christmas break. There are also no hikes New Years Eve or New Year’s Day.

16/12/2025

One road washout, kind of a bummer what spot it cuts off access to, but the landscape is pretty steep around it, so probably better that we avoid it for the next couple of weeks anyways.

As of today, most of the locations we hike are accessible with the van and hikes are on for the week. The only ones up in the air are the Thursday PM and Friday hike, but that’s just because of flood warning weather predictions.

PS: This happens when water doesn’t go where culverts were placed.

14/12/2025

Tomorrow, I plan on going out to survey three or four of our hiking spots to assess for safety this week.

I’ll be bringing chains, a chainsaw, packing a bag just in case for some reason I get stuck out there, and determining what is safe to visit Tuesday through Friday before holiday break.

If I had a hike planned for Monday it would be cancelled due to this predicted wind. Mother Nature is scary, y’all.

The wind forecast for Monday morning/afternoon still holds with this morning's model run. The reliable European forecast model has shown blustery to damaging wind gusts around much of Western Washington throughout the late morning time Monday either during or immediately after a Pineapple Express rain event. I'm a bit worried for those areas that have gotten non-stop rain or have seen severe flooding. A lot of the Puget Sound lowlands are looking to add at least an inch of rain on top of what we've already gotten...and that's during the wind. Also looks very windy Tuesday night too. Not good at all.

Updated post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/176C3u3dnW/

11/12/2025

This. This mudslide is on our regular route. A spot your dogs and I drive through upwards of 12 times a week.

I want you to imagine the logging roads that we drive on. The ones that have gentle streams of running water downhill on them when the ground is saturated and it is dumping buckets. You know, the streams that remind you of being in an Earth Science class or unit and learning about erosion? Especially when you see the pathways they leave carved when the land dries again…

Do you know what the soil systems are like on tree farms? They are NOT impressively held together by old growth root systems. Instead we hike among nutrient deficient, porous, and barely held together soil missing what is essentially natures glue, densely repopulated clear cuts with 100s on 100s of young, weak, skinny trees that regrew in clusters 6-12 inches from eachother from fell pinecones once the farmed trees were cleared 20-30 years ago.

The tree farms are prime conditions for mudslides. The maniac in me can’t wait to get out there and find what has been ruined, but the safety nerd in me is SO glad we aren’t stuck on a mountain pinging our emergency contact with our Garmin.

There will be times when I cancel for weather where it feels like overkill. On these days, I lose money, yes, but I keep the peace of mind of knowing we will all keep safe and healthy until conditions are good again.

ROAD HAZARD 12/11 at 10AM: Mountain Loop Highway (Granite Falls) near milepost 15 there is a mudslide partially blocking the roadway.

11/12/2025

Dear Thursday and Friday Bark Trek parents — this morning I took a few extra hours to monitor the flood conditions across Arlington and Granite Falls, and as expected between 8am and 12pm the conditions had greatly worsened.

With all the warnings of potential landslides due to saturated ground, the amount of bridges we cross on our regular routes, and risk of routes facing closures, I have decided to cancel Bark Trek for the rest of week out of an abundance of caution.

Everyone’s safety is my number one concern, and with warnings such as this being a “100 Year Flood,” I want to make sure that myself and the dogs don’t end up on a hike that we shouldn’t have gone on.

Thank you for your understanding, and we should hopefully be back in action next week, assuming a break in the rainfall.

07/12/2025

Mica seems like an amazing girl who deserves a chance.

26/11/2025

Wrapped up Winter Quarter yesterday with a few good dogs 🩷

26/11/2025

Accidentally took all my pictures at the creek instead of while we were actually hiking on Friday.