If you are new here, my name is Martok and I’m a Great Dane. When I was 11 months old I was adopted by my two humans, we travel, explore and fly hot air balloons. Well they fly, I just follow along. I’m a ballooning dog.
Hot air ballooning might seem like an odd thing for dogs to do. They are big and loud and rather startling. During my two years with my humans, I’ve met lots of dog friends that also balloon with their humans.
The first time I saw a balloon I thought we were just going to explore a new field. Turns out my humans were helping some other humans set up a balloon. I didn’t want to get too close when the fire started belching from it so we stayed back and after a while it wasn’t so scary. But when I do get a bit scared, I can go sit in my truck where I feel safe.
My first summer ballooning
Two months after moving in with my new humans, we went on a really long drive to a place called Truckee. The next morning we met a bunch of young humans and inflated a few balloons at something called balloon camp. This is where I met Bandit the Balloon dog. Bandit has been ballooning for a long time and even flies in them! I’m not too sure about that for me, maybe someday. We got to hang out for a few days, he got a bit grumpy with me after a while, I was just a big puppy back then. We saw each other a few more times that summer and we get to see each other at balloon events throughout the year.
Great Dane paws I'm following
I’ve been told the story of another ballooning dog that lived with my humans who liked to fly the way Bandit does. She was a Great Dane named Varel. I don’t know if I will be ever as brave as her. There is a blog post about her flying.
There was also Selar who flew once and K’Ehleyr who never learned to deal with all the noise and preferred to stay in her truck.
Tips for humans wanting to take their dog hot air ballooning
If you do want to take your dog ballooning there are somethings that you should think about from our (the dog) perspective.
- They’re really big! Some dogs are scared by big things that roll and flop around, sometimes they even swallow up humans underneath them.
- It’s really loud! Even when the burner isn’t going off there is still a noise that dogs can hear and for some of us it is just too much to deal with.
- There are odd smells. I’m told it’s called propane.
- It’s busy. Lots of activity with humans and trucks moving around.
Don’t force a scared dog to get closer. For some of us we can learn to accept this weird activity, for other dogs it is just not something we want to do. It’s OK, we can do other activities with you and all be happy.
Tips for dogs that are around hot air balloons
- Don’t walk on the balloon. Big no-no! I don’t think my toenails are that sharp, I scratch with them all the time. Apparently they can damage the fabric of the balloon.
- Don’t pee on it! It isn’t appreciated, or even on the tarp that is put on the ground for the balloon. That goes for the basket too.
- Ropes are not toys. The ropes that are everywhere are not to be chewed on.
- Barking doesn’t help. You can bark at them but not too much, that just gets annoying for everyone. I’ve heard stories about Selar, who used to bark once for each balloon in the air. She impressed all the humans with her counting skills.
- Landing fields are fun places to play. Chasing balloons is fun but the landing is even better. They usually land in fields where I get to run around, but not across the balloon (see tip #1). I once found another critter that is black and white like me. It wasn’t at all friendly and smelled really weird, but that’s another story.
As you can see, I’m not as afraid of balloons anymore. Maybe I will fly in one someday.
