Camping with dogs?

[Bigpoodleperson]

I know alot of you camp with your dogs on here. Do you have any tips? I might be taking Ry with me this summer for a week long camping trip. We will have a trailer and a tent and be in a camping resort on a lake. We will be doing alot of swimming, boating and hiking.

The two main concerns i have are if we have to leave. We will have fans and leave him in the locked trailer. I just want to be sure he doesnt get too hot. My other concern is his knee. He has one bad knee (poss. two). It all depends if he is feeling better. If he isnt then i obviously wont be bringing him.

He is raw fed, but i think it would be too much hassle to do that up there. I might bring a bag of dry with even though he wont eat it well. Tips on that from raw campers? He is great off leash and will do any activity we do. Ive never really camped myself, let alone brought a dog so i want some advice/tips please. Thanks!

 

[BluButt]

You can feed raw while camping. I pre-portioned mine, froze it, and then used a separate cooler for the raw food. For the weekend one of those small beverage coolers ought to be big enough.

It's been a while while since we tent camped, but I never left the dogs alone in the tent since we were in bear country. If we HAD to leave her (usually only long enough to bring in some firewood or something), I made a tie-out so she had room to move if she had to. Think: a rope between two trees, then a leash handle sliding up and down the rope. And I usually do this with a harness, not a collar around the neck.

Now we usually have a trailer when we go and the dogs stay in there, or in crates under the trailer in the shade, depending on the weather (and I no longer live in bear country). It's usually pretty hot though, so we leave them in trailer with the AC on (and they much prefer it, princesses ).

I have also used an ex-pen, since they fold flat they're pretty easy to bring along.

My other suggestion would be to bring a stash of "dog-towels" for mud, or swimming at the lake, etc. I have always wished I had more towels for the dogs and usually end up using my beach towel on a sandy/muddy dog.

Pack some benedryl. You never know when your dog will wander into camp covered in mystery hives (been there, done that..).

My only tip is to go prepared. All the times we've camped with dogs, the only time we had problems was when we forgot stuff, like leashes, or crates, or food (try driving back down a mountain in a motorhome with a car trailer on the back... oops).

Have fun! Camping season is here!! :thumbsupsmileyanim: