The Treasure Valley now has the neatest dog walking service- or should I say dog hiking service! We discovered Idahound Adventure Dogs recently, and have loved adding the option to our mix of services to help socialize and keep our dog Nyx active in Meridian.
Nyx has only been on a few hikes so far, mostly in the Boise foothills, but she’s loved every minute!
Aside from the epic hikes Nyx gets to go on with her friends, one of the coolest things is the dog bus! She gets to go on a car ride with her buddies on the bus, which adds a few hours to the adventure as they go to pick up and drop off all the dogs.
The staff pick up your dog at your home (you can even leave a key behind and not be home for pick up) or another location. Some days we have Nyx stay at the clinic for the day, so we love that after the hike she can be dropped off at Pawspital tired and happy and more likely to be well behaved.
Here she is after a hike, tuckered!
Another thing we love is that the Idahound staff train her to have good recall! They are dog trainers at heart, and at this time they still keep her on a long lead and are working on getting her to the point where she has a reliable recall so that she can be off leash with her friends. It will be an awesome skill for her to have when we go on our own adventures, so it’s neat that the dog training is an aspect of the service as well.
Nyx is still at an age where she can’t be trusted to roam the house while we are at work during the day, and when I considered dog walking services, I decided they were not worth the cost. Most of them were charging about the same rate as Idahound but for a short walk around the neighborhood. Idahound seemed more worth the cost considering it’s a half day out of the house, including socialization and training pieces. At the time of writing this, 10 hikes were $350, or $35 each. We do one hike per week to break up the week for Nyx, so that lasts us several months of weekly rides and hikes.
It’s also pretty easy to get her scheduled on the Idahound website. After completing registration where we got her vaccines entered and gave instructions for pick up and drop off, she passed a temperament test to make sure she was not aggressive with other dogs, and then we requested the dates and times we wanted the hikes to be. Once approved we were set!
We also appreciate that Idahound requires vaccines to be up to date so we know the exposure to other dogs and dog-friendly trails is safe for her.
One thing to note is also safety considerations for traveling rugged trails. Making sure your pup is up to date on flea and tick prevention and inspecting them for cheatgrass after the trip is key for pups going on epic adventures. Read more about flea and tick prevention and cheatgrass on our posts about the topics.