Should You Worry About Your Dog Falling Into Quicksand?

Going for a hike with your dog in the desert has its special challenges, but is quicksand one of them? The image is in all our heads from so many old Westerns. The bad guy takes a misstep in the desert and falls into a puddle of quivering quicksand. Just out of the reach of the nearby tree, the struggling outlaw is sucked slowly but surely to his doom in the merciless quagmire.

Could it happen to you – or your dog?

Quicksand is not really any special kind of sand, it is actually a condition that is happening to a patch of sand. Beneath the surface is a constant flow of water, typically an underground spring, that agitates the grains of sand, weakening them and lifting the grains apart. Each grain of sand is surrounded by a thin film of water and as the grains lose friction with each other, the solid mass breaks asunder. The water is not strong enough, however, to completely disperse the sand and the resultant soupy pool therefore can look like solid ground. Although the condition is most familiar in sand, any soil can become “quick.”

Quicksand is found most anywhere water and sand mix every day. Good places to find quicksand are on ocean coasts, near sandy creek beds and area of sand over an impervious clay substructure. Another good place to find quicksand is in hilly country with abundant caves and underground springs lurking beneath. The desert country of the southwest is such a place and, since there is often no apparent source of water nearby, the unexpected quicksand was a natural to catch the devious fancy of a Hollywood screenwriter.

OK, that’s what it is and where I’ll find it but can it make my dog disappear?

No. Unlike the bottomless pits of doom depicted in the movies, most patches of quicksand are only a few inches to several feet deep. And quicksand does not pull its victim down to lethal depths like a deranged Hoover. It is, however, possible to perish in quicksand but, just like drowning in vegetable soup, you really have to work at it.

Should you stumble into quicksand you will sink just as you sink in water. If the quicksand is shallow, you can retrace your steps and extricate yourself from the sandy tentacles. But if the quicksand is deeper there is still little to worry about. Since the water is slightly more dense than than the human body it is possible to float in quicksand just as you would in a swimming pool. Your dog will no doubt adjust immediately to auto-swim in a pool of quicksand.

In fact, since quicksand is saturated with liquid it is far heavier than water and will allow you to float even higher, provided you move slowly and allow the sandy potion to flow under your body. As it is, do not thrash about as you position yourself into a floating posture. If you are traveling with a hiking stick, and it doesn’t reach the bottom of the quicksand, you should lay the pole on the quicksand and pull your body over it until it rests beneath your back. Use the pole for leverage to eventually raise your leg out of the quicksand as you reach friendly turf. You may even be able to swim to firmer ground by dog-paddling as if you fell into a mountain lake. Just don’t let your dog see you.

I am the author of over 20 books, including 8 on hiking with your dog and the widely praised The Canine Hiker’s Bible. As publisher of Cruden Bay Books, we produce the innovative A Bark In The Park series of canine hiking books found at http://www.hikewithyourdog.com During the warm months I lead canine hikes as tour leader for hikewithyourdog.com tours, leading packs of dogs and humans on day and overnight trips. My lead dog is Katie, a German Shepherd-Border Collie mix, who has hiked in all of the Lower 48 states and is on a quest to swim in all the great waters of North America – http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Katies%20Blog/ Katies%20Quest.html. I am currently building a hikewithyourdog.com tours trailer to use on our expeditions and its progress can be viewed at http://web.mac.com/ crudbay/iWeb/Teardrop%20Trailer/Building%20A%20Tour%20Trailer.html.