Prevention Magazine interviewed me earlier in the year for an article titled “7 Tips For Safer Hiking With Your Dog“.  I believe it appeared in the August 2014 issue, but here's an excerpt from the online version:

“When Steve Goodrich's 3-year-old dog, Boone, sees him get out the backpack, the black Lab leaps for joy. “He goes crazy,” says Goodrich, 46, a sales consultant and the author of Best Hikes with Dogs—Georgia. “He loves the trail.” But then, Boone has never experienced the outdoor mishaps that befell Goodrich's hiking buddy on the Appalachian Trail.

Several years ago, the pooch got sprayed by three skunks and spiked by two porcupines. “Imagine being in the middle of nowhere with a stinking dog or one who's got a bunch of quills in his face,” Goodrich says.

Fortunately, his friend had packed pliers, along with antiseptic wipes and the antihistamine Benadryl, which helped. The stink, however, he had to endure.”

In the spirit of disclosure, this was during my 1994 thru-hike and I wasn't actually present for the “quilling”.  Here's a link to the PDF version.

Above is the Boone Dawg geared up for some hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  We had a surprise 8″ snow storm this day and the weather man totally missed it when a cold front pushed in from the Northwest and clashed with some rain moving up from the South.  You can read more about this western North Carolina mis-adventure here.