Geocaching with a dog

If you like going on treks with your fuzzy friends, geocaching is something precisely for you. This way, you will liven up your trips and maybe you even discover places that you wouldn’t have found otherwise. I and my pack can’t get enough of it.

Geocaching is worldwide the biggest game focused on treasure hunt that combines hiking with the adventure  of searching hidden cases – caches. It is based on the use of GPS, when according to coordinates, you are looking for a hidden “cache”. The treasure is usually hidden in a container of various sizes, from micro ones that are barely few centimetres large, up to the size of, for instance, lunch boxes. The same way, the ingenuity of the hidings differs. You will discover some immediately and spend searching another ones even for several hours, or you won’t find them at all. In some, you know the precise coordinates immediately, in others, you have to solve a number of puzzles on the way. The case contains also a notebook to enter visits – a logbook and objects designed to be exchanged between the participants.

Many caches are hidden in nature, so in the connection with the search, you can plan a great trip with your dog. There are caches directly for dog owners. Those are hidden in places that have such road leading up to them where a dog can have a good free run, or in places directly related to dogs, such as an agility playground. With each cache, you will find information, whether it is suitable to set off to it with a dog, so that you don’t have to be afraid that you would get into a terrain that your buddy wouldn’t manage.

To us, “dog-caching” proved well. I enjoy that I am not just walking about, that I have some kind of a goal in front of me. Besides, I don’t have to always ponder over new destinations. There’s really a lot of caches, so wherever you are, you will find enough of them in your surroundings, so that you could always visit a new place, which your dog will surely welcome as well.

You can even buy  a geo-collar or geotag for your dog from Log my Dog. You register the dog, that is, the tag, on the website, similarly like any other trackable object. So you can log it in at every found cache and this way track the journey of your dog after caches. The tag has its specific code and if you meet another geocacher with a dog on your walk or chase after a cache, it can log the dog in as found, similarly as in classical caches.

In the geocaching community, you can also find buddies with dogs and take trips after caches together. This way, you will organise joint walking, during which the dogs will enjoy themselves even more than when you’re looking for a cache by yourself. I and my pack have found many new friends this way, both the two-legged and four-legged ones. We organise joint events and trips, so there’s always fun and pleasant company at hand. And what about you, have you got any experience with “dog-caching”? Has your dog, for instance, managed to find a cache or to dig it out?

If this game has caught your attention, you will learn more on its official website www.geocaching.com. And perhaps we will meet on at a cache or on a joint trip :).

Related articles

History of the domestic cat I.

Did you know that the domestic cat which is now kept as a pet all over the world, is probably a domesticated form of the wild cat, specifically of its subspecies the African wildcat, European wildcat and Asiatic wildcat?

What do cats have under their fur or cat's anatomy

Cat is a perfect tool for hunting. It owes it to the dozens of years of evolution. While in dogs, their physical signs have been emphasised or suppressed, cats got to keep, apart from several exceptions, their main anatomical features unchanged. In...

How to behave at dog playgrounds

It's no longer a strange thing when a municipality sets up a dog park or a dog playground. Due to frequent regulation of off-leash movement of dogs, this should, however, often be obligatory. Do you know how to behave in such places so that you...

How to travel safely with a dog in the car

Vacation time is finally here and many of us are planning where they will be headed this year. If you decide to go for an adventure by car and to take your dog friend with you as well, a bit of advice might come in handy on how to provide safety for...

How to teach a dog to swim

Of course that we won’t talk about how to teach a dog the swimming technique. We want to talk about how to teach the dog to get used to water and how to make swimming a positive experience for it. Since not every one of them trusts water and some are...

How to choose the right equipment for a cat

If you’re planning to bring a new addition home and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a kitten or an adult cat, it is necessary to prepare the flat for it as well. Do you know what will the animal need and what you shouldn’t forget about or how to choose...

First aid for poisoning - Pesticides

No matter how thorough we are with the prevention, a situation might come up when a dog or a cat will get to a poisonous thing, whether it’s by our inattention or it's somebody else’s fault. That’s why it’s not off-topic to prepare yourself for the...