Sunday, June 27, 2010

Tips For Hiking and Backpacking with a Canine

1. Equip your dog with a glow stick or light. This will allow you to keep track of them as well as improve their line of sight. Always bring spare glow sticks. I failed to do this once, and found out my one glow stick was bunk.

2. Dogs can carry approximately 33% of their weight. Start out with 25% and gradually increase only if they are enthusiastically traveling with ease and comfort.

3. Bring dog booties. Depending on the terrain and how strong your dog's pads are, they could be essential.


4. Bring citronella spray, and keep it easily accessible. Spraying citronella can easily break up a dog fight in most situations. Not all dog owners are responsible dog owners. Many owners of reactive dogs take them on rigorous hikes. This can easily result in an unexpected dog fight, so expect it.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the list of tips. I didn't know about citronella spray. You never do know when you could use it. We had a dog turn on our dog last fall when we hiked up to Cedar Lake, it was a little scarey.

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  2. I like the glowstick plan, that's pretty slick. Seems like it could also work on small children...

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  3. What are dog booties? I've never heard of such a thing.

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