A month ago there was a debate here about how dogs shouldn't run free around the hills. In principle I agree, but on my last ascent to Kamniško sedlo I had a very sympathetic adventure that shows that a dog in the mountains, even if unleashed, isn't necessarily something bad. No thing is just black or white, but there are many shades of gray in between. Since this is more of a dog section, I'll describe my adventure here, but if the moderator thinks my writing fits better in another section, he can move my comment.
It was like this. Two days ago I started early in the morning, still dark, from the parking lot in front of the Dom in KB and I wasn't far when I saw another car arrive at that parking lot. I went on, turned into the hill, ascended slowly and soon heard panting behind me. I got a bit startled and at that moment a dog similar to a German shepherd ran past me and calmly continued its way. I thought it was the dog of that mountaineer who came after me, and the dog in its impatience went a bit ahead. So I continued my path slowly, the four-legger was never far from me either. Somewhere before the lower station of the cable car on KS the mentioned mountaineer caught up with me, we exchanged a few words, and it turned out the dog wasn't his. We went together for a few minutes, then the mountaineer hurried ahead, and the dog disappeared from my sight. I thought: "Aha, sold soul, you go with the first one that comes by." I continued alone for a while, then a bit above the path coming from Jermance, the four-legger suddenly joined me again. I admit I was glad to see him. Then he went ahead again, more or less on his own, but never far from me. At the junction for Repov kot he waited for me and when he saw where my path led, he also headed up. Again he mostly ran on his own, a bit left, a bit right, waited for me in between so I could put on crampons, then flew a bit on his own again and finally waited for me at Pastirci. There he was panting quite hard, the poor guy's tongue was hanging out of his mouth and I saw he was thirsty. I offered him tea, as it was the only liquid I had, but he wasn't interested. But he managed on his own and ate some snow. I gave him a piece of sandwich which he devoured with pleasure, and a bite of nut-bar which he first sniffed cautiously, then ate it anyway. The continuation of the ascent then went according to the seen scenario: me behind, dog in front, in between he even climbed a big rock and looked around a bit. Slowly we finally reached the hut and since I'm not healthy if I don't go to the end, I did those few meters to the edge of the saddle. Actually I went to see where the footprints lead to Brana, then walked along the edge to the flag and then descended back to the hut. The dog faithfully followed me all the time, a few times I even had to chase him away from the edge so he wouldn't accidentally fall over. At the hut we then brotherly shared the sandwich, meanwhile other mountaineers slowly arrived. The four-legger's share of the sandwich obviously didn't satisfy him, so he begged a bit from the other mountaineers, then it was time for descent and somehow I felt obliged to bring down my companion too. He was still sniffing around other mountaineers, but responded obediently to my call and headed down. This time too he was much faster than me and soon I lost sight of him. I thought he joined the mountaineer who started down a bit before me, and I didn't see him until KB. Since I was a bit worried if he returned safely to the valley, I asked at the first house past the Dom in KB if they perhaps have a German shepherd. It turned out the dog was theirs and that he often joins mountaineers along the path when they let him a bit, but they were very surprised when I told them he accompanied me all the way to the top. And that he hadn't returned yet. At home the worry didn't let me rest anyway, so the next day I asked them via SMS if the dog returned. I was very happy when they replied he returned completely OK, but then lay all afternoon because he was so exhausted. Which is not surprising at all, since the poor guy did the entire ascent and some extra kilometers running back and forth like that.
The described adventure has no intention of giving some lesson, except that a dog is a perfectly suitable companion in the mountains and, if well brought up, also non-disruptive to other mountain visitors (unless someone has excessive fear of dogs). It's more about an unusual and fun story. Of course, based on my description, every dog lover can conclude that the ascent to the hut on KS is a perfectly suitable trip for a four-legger.