It’s Wednesday morning, and Hawkeye is ready for Trek and Trot.
The 5-year-old rescue Labrador retriever/border collie mix stares out the front door in his orange vest, waiting for Sandie Brandner to pull up in her bus.
Every Wednesday morning, Brandner picks up Hawkeye and other dogs for a spirited romp along one of the trails off Ridge Road near Michaux State Forest.
Sometimes, it’s a 4-mile trail; other days, it is 6. When they are all done, Brandner drives the bus back and returns Hawkeye to her owner, Jennifer Westford.
Hawkeye is content for the rest of the day. He finds a place to lie down to chill and mellow out.
Westford feels better, too.
She discovered Trek and Trot and Brandner about two years ago, through Trek and Trot’s Facebook page.
She was at her wit’s end with Hawkeye. Walking him 3 miles a day, five to six days a week, wasn’t enough. He had “crazy” energy.
Westford took Hawkeye to a trainer, but that didn’t work out. Brandner then came to Westford’s house to meet Hawkeye and another of her rescue dogs, Dexter, a 5-year-old boxer/pittie mix.
“I could tell that she loved the dogs,” Westford said of Brandner. “She had this understanding of them that just comes naturally.”
Hawkeye has been a fixture on Brandner’s dog bus each Wednesday ever since. If Westford is traveling, Hawkeye gets to do Trek and Trot more than once a week.
“I’d have him go five days a week if I could,” Westford said. “Sending my dog with Sandie once a week is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
She especially likes that Brandner comes to her house to pick up Hawkeye and drops him off a few hours later the same day.
“It’s just so convenient,” Westford said. “For me to have to take him somewhere to doggie day care or something just isn’t practical.”
Her Passion
Brandner started Trek and Trot in 2019, shortly before COVID-19. The idea came out of the frustration that Brandner was experiencing meeting the energy needs of her own dog.
“I had been taking my dog out in the mountains for a long, long time,” she said. “We had to kennel him one time, and he came back and was very excited and very freaked out, and I thought, ‘that’s such a shame.’”
At the time, Brandner was about 20 years removed from escaping with her children from an abusive marriage in New Jersey.
She had spent some time near Fort Ritchie south of the Pennsylvania state line, caring for her niece while Brandner’s brother was in the military.
“I just fell in love with Pennsylvania,” she said.And, when the time came to make a break for it and start a new life, she landed just outside Carlisle.
She started a cleaning business and drove a bus, “whatever I had to do to feed my kids and keep a roof over their head.”
She bought one house then a second. The kids grew up and moved out. Brandner met her current husband about 10 years ago. The couple settled on a small, 4-acre farm, where they remain.
Brandner has always been one of those people who loves animals—dogs were her passion. After all the years of hard work rebuilding her life, she was ready to do what she really wanted to do.
“It just reached a point where I decided to make a change in my life,” said Brandner, now 57. “I wanted to do what my passion was.”
Spot On
The key to the success of Trek and Trot could be Brandner’s “second-hand man,” her 3-year-old Doberman rescue, Groot.
When a new client contacts Trek and Trot, Brandner has the person bring their dog or dogs to her farm.
Groot goes out with each new dog. He tells Brandner everything she needs to know about the new dog, and what pack the new dog will best fit into on the trail.
“I watch how my dog reacts and how he is around them,” Brandner said. “He’ll let me know if the dog is really nervous or if the dog is spot on.”
When taking 10 to 15 unleashed dogs on a trail for several miles, all the dogs must be on board or it won’t work.
“I have to make sure that, when I have them out there, they listen, they come back, they know who the pack leader is, which is me, and they all get along,” Brandner said. “I just can’t take a dog in and go well, ‘OK, we’ll just take him up in the mountains.’ That dog needs to know who I am, first.”
Trek and Trot is open to any dog breed, any size or age, provided each dog has his or her shots and that their place in the pack is established with Groot’s help.
Brandner does trail trips every Monday and Wednesday. A few employees go along to help out, but Brandner is always there. Other days, she does dog training at the farm.
The rate for each Trek and Trot trail trip is $30 per dog, unless Brandner goes a distance out of her way, then it’s $40 for pick up and drop off. It’s $25 if you drop your dog off at the farm.
Brandner mostly serves the Carlisle and Boiling Springs area, but urges anyone with a need to contact her, regardless of where they live in south-central Pa.
“People are more than welcome to bring their dogs to me, or I can meet them somewhere,” she said. “There’s always a solution.”
To learn more about Trek and Trot, visit their Facebook page or call 717-658-7196.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
