Desert Hash

I took the dogs to the hash yesterday. It's been a few months since we last went. The hashes are usually off camp and I struggle with finding someone willing to take me and the dogs. On top of that, I kind of feel like I am held hostage--I can't pick up and leave when I want. But I ran into one of the regular hashers at a party last weekend and she chided me for not coming to the hash anymore. Ah, the guilt card. So I sucked it up and arranged a ride.

It was quite hot, about 115F when we left Dhahran at 4:30pm. The hashers like to head out into the remote desert and it is often a little cooler there.

I took a ton of water for the dogs--a couple of liters to wet them down before we started, another 2 liters for them to drink and to wet them during the run, and then a small ice chest filled with ice water to wet them again when we returned to the cars.

Evaporative cooling doesn't work for the dogs unless you wet them to their skin. That isn't too hard with the smooth foxes but you can't just toss water on them and call it good. I usually make sure their groin areas are very wet--those large femoral arteries can move a lot of heat around.

Mimi drinks plenty on her own but I have to work to make sure Harry drinks enough.

Still, he's quite the tough little guy. Well over 100F by the time we started and he's bopping around, peeing on bushes, checking out camel poop, sticking his nose in lizard holes (hopefully those were lizard holes and not camel spider holes--eek). We were out for more than an hour, jogging up and down dunes. Both of the dogs were enthusiastic to the end.

Afterward, everyone sat around in a giant circle drinking beer and passing potato chips around. Harry kept the group entertained as he followed the course of the chip bag around from person to person! Boy, he knows how to work a crowd! The non-dog-savvy folks quickly learned not to casually drop their hand full of chips right in front of his face. He has no shame!

Mimi was of course tied to me on a leash but she managed to get a fair share of "dropped" chips from the folks on either side of me.

A tired dog is a good dog! Sadly, all that time and effort will only keep them down for a couple of days before they are bouncing off the walls again.