5 Must Haves When Camping With Your Dog
We love being able to take our dogs with us when we’re enjoying the outdoors. The dogs come with us whether we’re camping, fishing, hiking, or overlanding. Outside of providing them with food and water, there’s very little your pet actually needs to enjoy outdoors activities with you, but we’ve found a few things that make trips more enjoyable for all of us, and depending on how you choose to adventure, they make work for you.
WATER BOTTLE
Although we’re often on the water or camped next to it, there are many times when we aren’t near it and the dogs need something to drink. After trying some other solutions, I finally decided to search for a dog water bottle on Amazon and bought the Portable Pet Water Bottle by LumoLeaf for less than $20.
What I liked about this one was that it held enough water for the three dogs for an average hike, the bowl was soft and folds up against the bottle, so I couldn’t easily break it when I inevitably tossed it somewhere, and it had a design that looked pretty safe from leaking. It was also nice and compact for fitting in the backpack, the door of the truck, or in a rod locker in the boat. When hiking we usually just clip it to an exterior strap on the backpack.
It took no time for the the dogs to figure out drinking from it, and it seems to be Panda’s preferred method of drinking when we’re away from home.
COLLAPSIBLE BOWLS
For several years we would just bring the dogs metal food bowls from home when we went camping, but they take up space and make a racket when they clang together as you’re moving them around. We were working to downsize our camping gear this year (and found ourselves taking the dogs on more trips than ever) and decided to buy some collapsible bowls. We ended up purchasing the Lewondr 1000ml Collapsible Dog Bowl 2 Packs for under $20. I went with these ones in particular because they were silicone (so easy to clean and soft), the bowls can be setup at different sizes, but most importantly they had the largest capacity compared to other bowls I was looking at.
These have worked great so far. The bowls come with lids that I don’t use since it’s just one more thing to get in the way, but also carabiners, which I love. When the dogs aren’t eating I clip the collapsed bowls to the dry bag that contains their food. We bought two packs which means a food bowl for each of the three dogs, and a fourth bowl for water. They’ve been easy to clean, are lightweight, and work great.
LIFE JACKETS
Some people laugh when I tell them we have life jackets for the dogs, other people nod knowingly because they get it. If you’re going to be spending much time on the water with your dogs, life jackets are a necessity. To be fair, we didn’t have life jackets for the dogs before this year. After a scary incident on a camping trip, we came home and bought them. Now the dogs wear them whenever we’re going fast in the boat, or when they’ll be getting in and out at a dock or anywhere that’s not shallow.
We ended up buying the Petco Dog Flotation Vest from Canadian Tire. After taking measurements we bought the medium size for all three dogs ($42.99) but Molly would be more comfortable in a large. If your dog is at the top end of the measurements you might want to jump up a size. The dogs love swimming in these life jackets and fortunately, the vests dry out pretty quick. I really like the bright colour as it makes the dogs easy to see when they wander off to explore a new campsite.
FIRST AID KIT
Of course we carry a first aid kit for ourselves, but there are a few additional things we have for the dogs, or carry extra of since they work for both humans and dogs.
The main addition is Vetrap. I’ve had animals to look after almost all of my life and there is nothing I have used as much as Vetrap. This bandage is self-adhesive and my go-to for anything that requires applying a splint, or a pressure bandage, or gauze, or a poultice, or whatever.
We pack extra squares and rolls of gauze. I also like to have a little bottle of antiseptic for cleaning wounds. Some styptic powder is great for stopping bleeding on broken nails. Benadryl (for allergic reactions) and Gravol (for nausea) are also handy to have, but talk to your vet ahead of time to make sure it’s safe for your dog (because every dog has a unique situation) and to get the appropriate dosage.
**This is not medical advice. These are just some of the things we carry. Always talk to your vet ahead of a trip and find out what they recommend.**
SLEEPING BAGS
Really? Our dogs can’t just sleep on the ground? Of course they can and they do, but a little bit of comfort goes a long way. Sleeping bags help to dry them out at night if they’ve been playing in the water all day. They help our senior dog sleep easier. They protect the floor of the tent from their nails. And they help keep them warm on chilly nights. I toss and turn too much for them to sleep on our sleeping bag, so having their own bags helps.
I looked at buying sleeping bags made for dogs, but they were either ridiculously tiny, or ridiculously expensive. I recommend going to Canadian Tire and picking up whatever works for your situation. They now have our old summer sleeping bags for times when we have less room, like when we’re camping with the boat, and cold-weather sleeping bags for when we’re camping with the truck and have more space (these bags are huge when rolled up but so cozy).
There are other things that we take when camping with the dogs, but these are the main things we don’t leave home without. Our dogs would probably tell you it’s essential to bring along treats as well. I’m not sure I agree with them but I’ll admit that they usually have them.
What are some things you consider to be a MUST HAVE when camping with your dog?
argosgirl
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