Camping with a dog (cold and other questions)

[Hello Kitty]

We're supposed to be going camping this weekend with our 1-year old Doberman. DH is concerned that she's going to be too cold at night. FWIW, we have a 3 season / 2 person tent (so close, snuggly quarters), and the overnight low is supposed to be 37. Obviously she'll be in the tent with us so she'll have our body heat in a closed environment, but what should I put over her - a sweater? a blanket? Is it just too cold for her to manage?

Any other tips on camping with a dog? We go wilderness backpacking, so we're not car camping/campground camping.

[BethIrish]

My dog hates camping. We took her last year and she wouldn't come out of the tent!!! Actually, we had only had her at that point for about 2 months - she was still a little shy of other people.

Anyway: we went on a cool, rainy weekend. Our poor little girl was shivering and we basically had her wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket all night. After that weekend, I went out and bought her a little jacket thing from Lands End. It's been great - she is a 27lbs whippet mix, so there isn't much fat on her. She wore it all last winter when she went out in the snow to play!

Have fun!

[fuzzy]

Um, our dog is pretty good about tent camping. She just curls up on our sleeping bags and snoozes. We've never had problems with the cold (and we do live up North).

My big concern about backcountry camping is keeping her within eye sight at night. There are bears in the Adirondacks and I always worry about what would happen if one wandered into our campsite. That, and I worry about skunks. So I keep long lead in out backpacks and use that to secure her to something so we don't have an problems.

[jessied1025]

We took are dog camping within the first month we adopted her. She did okay, but she likes to bark at every noise or sound she hears.

With the cold weather, I think your dog would be okay, she would probably just want to cuddle with you at night. Maybe bring her an extra blanket so you can cover her up at night.

Also make sure to have plenty of things to keep her occupied. We brought along with us plenty of bones and toys for our dog to play with. She loved to hide her bones and then after a little while go find them again.

Hope you enjoy your camping trip!

[Hello Kitty]

Thanks for your replies. She's very lean too, so that's why we were concerned about the temperature. I will have to find a lightweight blanket to pack in for her, I think.

We'll be keeping her on her long leash at night - it just gets way too dark there, and she'll have been free all day, so I don't feel bad about keeping her next to us.

I also checked and it's the one weekend in WI that there's no hunting season going on, which is a good thing. :p

Fuzzy, since you do backpacking, what do you do with your dog to bring her in to the site? We have a 30 minute mountain bike ride on a very defined trail.

I'm not sure if I should let her run along side us, with or without the leash, or if I should just walk in with her. I would really love to be riding, but I'm not sure if it's the best idea.

[Golightly]

Chewy loves going backpacking with us... of course we usually worry about him overheating instead of being cold (he's a siberian husky).

We are sure to be really careful of his feet. Chewy has hair in between his pads, so he gets pretty good traction, but we are really careful to make sure he's not hurting his nails or pads on rough terrain or ice/snow.

We also have equiped him with an extra-wide blaze orange reflective collar and a bell so he doesn't confuse any hunters, and so we know where he is.

He's great in the tent except that he insists on being right between DH and me, up by our heads, and he snores. :rolleyes:

[elladee]

Seb's Kitty, I don't have a dog, so I can't give you advice there.

I did want to ask about the mountain biking thing, though. Have you ever biked into a campsite before? I haven't, but I've done both mountain biking and backpacking seperately. I can't imagine mountain biking with a 25-lb bag on my back. I think it would throw my balance way off. I'm interested to hear if it's really not as difficult as I'd think.

[Hello Kitty]

The trail is stomped down grass and a worn dirt path, so her feet should be okay.

Elladee, interesting question, b/c I've never thought about it before. We've gone backpacking 7 or so times since we've been together and everytime, we've ridden in. We don't have the patience to hike, and the trail for this particular site is sooo much fun to ride.

It's not bad, it's just different. I carry myself differently than when I ride sans pack and I notice the terrain more. For the added bit of difficulty (the weight and your balance) it's well worth it.

It helps to have good bikes (DH does, I'm working on getting one ;)) and have packs that fit you extremely well and don't have too much carribiner-ed to the outside.

[fuzzy]

Oh, you are biking! How cool! We've never biked -- we hike. Have you done test run to see how she is along side the bike? My parent's dog does wonderfully along side a bike -- a well defined trail would suit him just fine!

The problem with our dog is that she has a high prey drive. If she sees a deer, she bolts after it and won't find her way back to us. So I keep her on the leash the entire time. (A shorter leash for the hike in, and a 25 foot lead for the camp site). I hate doing it, but...well, she does it to herself. ;) Also, my psycho puppy is known to pick fights with other dogs. I don't trust her enough to allow her off the leash, in the event we run into someone.

So, in short, I think its going to depend on your dog's personality.

I also should ammed my previous comments. More often than not, our dog is actually *IN* the sleeping bag with my husband. :p

[Hello Kitty]

Well here I thought that the way you get into all those remote sites was on a bike. I have to give y'all props for hiking in!

I think we're going to try her on a leash with the bikes, but will probably end up letting her be free as we go in. We take her to a prairie reserve by us and she does very well off the leash. Birds don't tempt her to run off.

Anyway, I'll have to post a pic when we come back.

[Scooter]

A lightweight blanket or sweater should be good for sucha shorthaired dog. We took ours, who has a thicker coat, camping over the summer. The lows did get into the 40s, but she was fine sleeping on her dog pillow. She didn't even need the warmth of lying on our sleeping bags. The surprising thing was that even when a bear came into the campsite at night, she did fine.

[Hello Kitty]

We went last weekend and had a blast! Addy absolutely loved camping and was such a good girl. We kept her on her 30 ft leash going in (ended up walking b/c we went somewhere we couldn't ride) but let her off when we got to our site.

At night (39 degrees) we put her in an old fleece jacket, and she was very toasty, so it worked out perfectly. Can't wait to go again. :)

It ended up being deer/bow season so we looped an orange hat around her harness:
http://images.snapfish.com/344%3C789923232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E232%3A%3D685%3D79%3C %3DXROQDF%3E2323%3B72%3B4369%3Aot1lsi

http://images.snapfish.com/344%3C789923232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2323%3D%3C63%3D%3B3% 3C%3D3232%3C63%3A4%3B88%3Cnu0mrj