I was really happy. I was walking down towards Dogtown HQ with Dakota, something I had been looking forward to ever since I first saw him. When we got to my car I opened the door for him and he jumped right in. Excellent! I got in the front and we went to Angel's Landing, just a few minutes down the road from Dogtown HQ. Dakota was happy to get out and explore all around Angel's Landing, sniffing every bush and bench up there. After some exploring, I took him on a short run. And when I say short, I mean I ran for maybe 30 seconds before having to stop. I'm really out of shape.

We ran out of Angel's Landing and onto the pathway above the parking lot, going towards the horse area next door. I had to stop, but Dakota loved running and he wanted to keep going. I got the feeling he would really enjoy a good run alongside somebody riding a bike or maybe pulling somebody on roller blades. I had to wheezingly apologize to Dakota for stopping long before he was ready to stop, as I tried to catch my breath. Have I mentioned that I'm out of shape?

Not to be deterred, we continued walking past the horses for a little bit then turned around and went back to the parking lot. I wanted to get some treats out of the trunk of my car to see if Dakota was food motivated or not, so we got back to my car and I opened the trunk. Apparently Dakota saw this as an invitation, because he took the opportunity to jump into the trunk and lie down behind the bags that were in there. I burst out laughing because it was funny in so many ways. For one thing, Dakota was almost as big as my trunk. He's huge and he filled the whole thing. For another, just the way he hopped in there as soon as I opened the trunk lid was hysterical. I have no idea why he did it. And then he was looking at me with a sort of "Well I'm here, now what?" expression on his face.

A trunk husky is way better than a car alarm

Thankfully I had my camera on me at the time and I got some pictures. It seemed like the kind of story that might not be immediately believable without photographic proof. And then Dakota calmly hopped out of the trunk and walked over to me, tail wagging. What a big lovable goofball. We went back up to Angel's Landing, and I sat down on a bench, treats in hand. I asked him to sit, and he did after a couple tries, once he got a whiff of the treats. I got him to lie down for treats a couple times also, and then he got bored and decided he wanted to explore some more.

I just went with it, and we walked around Angel's Landing for a little while longer. Then I thought it was probably time to get him back to his run for dinner before we took him for a sleepover, so I brought him back down to the car and loaded him up. We drove back to Dogtown HQ, and Dakota unloaded himself from the back seat. We got on the road that leads behind Dogtown HQ on our way back to Conrad's, when I saw three dogs off leash in front of me and heading my way. So I stopped and held Dakota next to me to avoid any potential problems, and then I saw who was watching the dogs.

It was dog trainer Ann Allums, who I recognized from her many appearances on the Dogtown TV show on National Geographic. "Sorry!" she yelled down to me. "I'll have them out of your way in a minute."

"No problem," I said as I watched two of the dogs run back to Ann while the third playfully avoided her.

"Thanks for waiting," she said, as she looked at Dakota. "Dakota's good, I'm not worried about him. It's these guys I'm worried about."

I smiled and looked down at Dakota who was completely calm, and rubbed his head. I figured it was probably Ann's job as a trainer to know the temperaments and personalities of the dogs in Dogtown, but it sure was awesome for me to hear her address Dakota by name and mention how good he was around other dogs. I was proud of him and he wasn't even my dog yet.

I knew I had met my best friend

Ann finished rounding up the wayward third dog and made her way to towards the back of the clinic with them. I smiled and began walking up towards Conrad's again, with Dakota happily sniffing everything along the way. I met up with Eileen at Conrad's, and I asked if I could pick him back up for the sleepover around 4, and she said that would be fine and it would give him a chance to eat first. I said goodbye to Eileen and Dakota, and went to look for Kief, who had been volunteering at Deja lodges all afternoon.

I met up with him as he was coming back down towards HQ, and we both went back into HQ to turn in our whistles for the day and to get an overnight kit for our sleepover with Dakota. We talked with the front desk people for a while, and I got some more info on Dakota as well as the photocopies of his records. I looked through them quickly and noticed that there were two evaluations; one from when he first arrived in January and one that was done just two weeks ago. I compared them and he showed impressive improvement in just about every area. It looked like simply being in a non-hoarding situation with caregivers to take care of and socialize with him was doing wonders for his rehabilitation.

We thanked everybody at the front desk for the help, and we left to go back up to Conrad's to get Dakota. He had eaten and was ready to go. Eileen picked out a nice soft (but strong) leash for us and said goodbye to Dakota. I took his leash, said goodbye to Eileen and we left Conrad's and went back to the parking lot in front of Dogtown HQ. Dakota hopped into the back seat when I opened the door and we headed back out to the highway and back to Kanab.

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“I was proud of him and he wasn’t even my dog yet.”