Gunner, my first Greyhound, and I put in a lot of miles together. Only once did he ditch me on a hike.

We did lots and lots of long walks in the neighborhoods we lived in. We did a ton of hiking in State Parks, National Parks, and any other places we could find trails to hike.

I was young and single and had more time and energy back then! Greyhounds are not long distance running dogs. They are bred for short bursts of speed in order to catch rabbits (or run around a race track). So we built up his endurance over time.

Gunner and I did a lot of hiking in the foothills and mountains in Colorado. He enjoyed it as much as I did.

We would take off a long weekend twice a year and stay in a cabin or dog-friendly hotel or such and get away from everything else. We would do a lot of hiking and a lot of relaxing away from home and in the peace and quiet of the outdoors.

One spring, we were staying at a place in Colorado close to lots of hiking trails in the mountains. By this point, we had done a lot of hiking and Gunner was very good at sticking with me.

When there were not other people around, I would sometimes allow him to hike off leash. He always stuck close and never ran off. If I would tell him to wait, he would stop and wait for me to catch up. (If other people were around, I would leash him up.)

This one spring day, we were enjoying our hike. Since no one else seemed to be on the trails we were on, I let him off leash.

When he would approach a bend in the trail, I would ask him to wait and he would.

At one such bend in the trail, I asked him to wait. I assumed he was just around the corner. When I got there, he was not.

I figured he must have kept going and was just up around the next corner. No big deal.

Not at the next bend either. I called. No response. Called again. Nothing.

Now I was starting to worry just a bit since he always stuck close and responded to me.

Now I am walking a bit faster and calling him. Not sure where he is at this point.

Then I hear someone say “He's down here!” Not sure where “down here” was, but I tried to head in the direction I thought I heard the voice.

Sure enough, I find an opening and a couple of people standing there with Gunner next to them. He was just hanging out with his new friends.

They told me they had seen him come out of the trees and were frightened at first, not sure what was coming at them.

Gunner was never a shy guy, but he was very stoic. So if he came running up to you, you didn't really know if he was going to be friendly or not. He would approach you looking very regal and then stand in front of you as if to say “You may pet me now.”

Gunner made some new friends that day. He also caused me to panic a bit when he didn't respond. But once I knew where he was, I understood. He figured if he was hanging out with someone (even if it wasn't me) things were good.

We worked on leash again for a while after that so we could make sure that would not happen again. And it never did.

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