Overlanding with k-9 companions.

[Blighty]

Bringing this thread back to life!

This seems like a worthy topic and not much else out there.

My wife and I just returned from a short trip out to the Francis Marion Natl Forest in SC. Well took our three dogs with us 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small. I wish I had read this thread before hand. Turns out we were woefully prepared and ended up having them sleep in our sleeping bags to counter the shivering!

What did we learn?
1. They loved it!
2. We have one dog Nancy (the basset) who is always car sick, we read somewhere to give her sugary food before the trip and voila! No sick! Peanut Butter BTW.
3. We need to leave them with more adequate insulation (bring dog beds).
4. Layering the tent with a rug prevents punctures.
5. We need to get a tent with compartments to prevent them climbing on us and waking us up all might.
6. Maybe cots would work to allow us to be elevated above the sea of hair and sand they gave to us?



Anyway it was a fun weekend and yay to dogs!!

 

[xpdishn]

Bringing this thread back to life!

This seems like a worthy topic and not much else out there.

My wife and I just returned from a short trip out to the Francis Marion Natl Forest in SC. Well took our three dogs with us 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small. I wish I had read this thread before hand. Turns out we were woefully prepared and ended up having them sleep in our sleeping bags to counter the shivering!

What did we learn?
1. They loved it!
2. We have one dog Nancy (the basset) who is always car sick, we read somewhere to give her sugary food before the trip and voila! No sick! Peanut Butter BTW.
3. We need to leave them with b=more adequate insulation (bring dog beds).
4. Layering the tent with a rug prevents punctures.
5. We need to get a tent with compartments to prevent them climbing on us and waking us up all might.
6. Maybe cots would work to allow us to be elevated aove the sea of hair and sand they gave to us?

View attachment 141171

Anyway it was a fun weekend and yay to dogs!!

Love your report, but don't I see 4 dogs?

 

[Blighty]

Love your report, but don't I see 4 dogs?

Aha!

You spotted the deliberate mistake! The other one is RoyBoy, my Father in Law's blockhead lab. He hopped in on the way back! The big, wet, water-loving son of a gun!

 

[slvyj]

Great thread with some great advice. I've taken my vizsla on a number of trips and one thing I would ad is the need to secure the dog in the vehicle while traveling. Nothing worst then getting into an accident and having a 75lb dog flying loose in the vehicle. I use a chest harness that attaches to a child safety latch or via a seatbelt.

 

[Mitubitchy 3.5]

Agree, great Thread.

I secure my Dog with this http://www.ruffwear.com/Web-Master-Harness_2?sc=2&category=1131

Works great and my Dog and me a very happy with the Harness.

Two Pics

And yes, I feel much safer with her on my side when somebody near our Campsite at Night...

Stephan

 

[Lacy Hershey]

After seeing Blighty's post, I think I can pull off a camping trip with all of our dogs. Last time I went camping with dogs. My husband brought his 2 large outside dogs in their own tent (which they destroyed, glad it was a cheap walmart tent) and my two slept in our tent (one on his bed and one in her puppy kennel). Now we have 1 shep/lab mix (90lbs), 2 german shorthaired pointers (60-50lbs each), and a 1 chestie (chi/westie mix 10lbs) and all have been made into inside dogs. So between them, us, and our 1 year old little girl, this should be interesting to say the least. Trying to figure out now where to put the dogs. We tent camp and have a Coleman Evanston sleeps 6 but afraid our dogs will try and get in the bed with our little girl and squish her. (they are large lap dogs..lol) A camper may be in our future.

 

[Scoutn79]

Every one has covered most of the basic/responsible things.
One thing I would add is training. Whether you do it or someone else, preferably you. You dog and you will be much happier if they don't have to be on leash all of the time. OF course there are srtain places they must be leashed. The places I usually go there aren't very many people. So my pup gets to run free. If you can get her trained so she won't run off and will come when called and come back on her own when she is done exploring.
Here is kinda what I mean and what I do with my girl, she's about 3 now but been doing this for a couple years.
I usually let her out of the tent before sun up and she goes and explores some then come back and checks on me and will be outside the tent when I wake up. She loves to explore but doesn't go far and always will come back "shortly" so when in camp I don't have to have her tied up or worry about where she is and if she'll come back. I won't tell you how to train your puppy but you get better results if they want to be with you because you are your friend than you do if they are around you because they are afraid of you. I have seen some train by instilling fear into the animal if they don't obey...I think this is wrong. If they do right and they get high praise they will never want to leave your side. Even when all mine were little and would get in trouble for running away and I would call them back I would praise them when they came back. I wasn't praising because they ran off but because they came when called. Do this and they will always want to come when called because they get loved on. Always remember dogs are pack animals. They need to be part of the pack with lots of affection. Not treated like an inanimate object that gets played with and then put on the shelf and ignored for two weeks. If they adore you they will be great and do as you ask.
Well I guess I told more than I had planned. You are just at a very important part of your/your dogs bonding process and this is key. ALso make sure they enjoy the trips in the car...Some dogs are scared to death of a ride in a car. Get that taken care of before you go or your new friend will not have a good time.
Darrell

 

[Imnosaint]

Our girls love to camp. We started conditioning with daily rides in our rig to the trail for their morning walk, from four to eight months-old. On longer trips we default to the motorcycle rule of leg stretching every 90 minutes, which forces some rose-smelling along the way. Not a bad ting. The dogs get a good run in and are ready to hop back in and go. We continue our daily training routines on the trail.

Besides the great advice on this thread, know the contextual threats to your pets. For our area it's rattlesnakes. We're aware of a vaccine that either delays the effects of a snake bite, buying time to get the pet to emergency medical care, or nullifies as an anti-venom.

 

[xpdishn]

After seeing Blighty's post, I think I can pull off a camping trip with all of our dogs. Last time I went camping with dogs. My husband brought his 2 large outside dogs in their own tent (which they destroyed, glad it was a cheap walmart tent) and my two slept in our tent (one on his bed and one in her puppy kennel). Now we have 1 shep/lab mix (90lbs), 2 german shorthaired pointers (60-50lbs each), and a 1 chestie (chi/westie mix 10lbs) and all have been made into inside dogs. So between them, us, and our 1 year old little girl, this should be interesting to say the least. Trying to figure out now where to put the dogs. We tent camp and have a Coleman Evanston sleeps 6 but afraid our dogs will try and get in the bed with our little girl and squish her. (they are large lap dogs..lol) A camper may be in our future.

Please, please, pics of this epic camping trip. Love seeing dogs/children mix.

Maybe a small cot for her?

 

[java]

We always take our two dogs with us. A 100lb german and a 90lb lab. Take a lot of car space up, but love to come.

We have an indoor outdoor carpet that goes into the tent to protect the floor. a found a thermarest type dog bed at costco a while ago. Its awesome, only a couple inches thick so saves room.

One thing is mine like to escape from the tent, Which is fine when no one is around but in a campgound can be problematic. they learned they could use their noses to open the zipper, I have to run the zipper up to the top corner now so they cant get at it. Or use a piece of para cord to tie them together.

Happy campers!

 

[Lacy Hershey]

Please, please, pics of this epic camping trip. Love seeing dogs/children mix.

Maybe a small cot for her?

Will definitely do that. Hoping to get a small trip in the last weekend of April. It will just be a short campground trip to test everything out. I recently purchased a little trailer to turn into an offroad trailer(although no changes have been made yet) so we will be using that to haul our gear as the JKU is cramped once all the dogs are in it.

Needing to find a bedding solution for our dogs also. The two GSPs are chewers and have eaten every type of bedding we have tried. Anyone have any suggestion???

 

[craig333]

Know your dogs. My husky loved camping but couldn't handle the Jeep. Yuma otoh I'm pretty sure was part mountain goat. They all slept in the camper. Taking dogs is definitely an adventure. Not everything always went smoothly but theres no way I'd make them stay home. Its worth the trouble.

Still looking for my next traveling companion.

On the coast. Normally one to chase anything with four legs this place had enormous elk you could walk right up to (maybe, I wasn't crazy enough to try) but Yuma took one look at those and decided he forgot something back at the camper.

 

[mikekey]

Just out of general curiosity what does everyone do about national parks? Seems like everything in the West bans dogs. We have an Husky who we regret leaving home on our trips out west. Last year while in Canyon Lands and the North Rim we came across a few people on the backcountry ORV trails with their dogs. But we where discouraged from reading online that it was a big NO NO.

The fact is, I don't want to keep living my dog home on these long adventures.

 

[CorreCaminos]

Just out of general curiosity what does everyone do about national parks? Seems like everything in the West bans dogs. We have an Husky who we regret leaving home on our trips out west. Last year while in Canyon Lands and the North Rim we came across a few people on the backcountry ORV trails with their dogs. But we where discouraged from reading online that it was a big NO NO.

The fact is, I don't want to keep living my dog home on these long adventures.

I'm curious about this too. Any comments?

 

[rcharrette]

Simple

Pretty simple, 95% of our trips do not involve entering a NP! "Most"of the time the surrounding area around National Parks (Arches for example near us) offer plenty to do without the restriction. Maybe it's different for us but I've never felt a strong need to enter a NP in general. I know they are wonderful but also very crowded and their are plenty of other sights to be seen on our terms with the pup's.