I’ve been tenting with my canine for 20 years and have camped with dozens of different canine mates.
After I received my first canine, I clearly couldn’t depart him at dwelling alone for a number of days at a time, so I simply took him with me. Though it was enjoyable, the aim was utilitarian.
Fortunately, the journey went effectively and he was an professional camper himself very quickly. He liked sleeping out beneath the celebs with me.
After I adopted my second canine, who was so anxious and reactive she was on Prozac, I additionally merely took her tenting with us with out preparation to see how it might go. To my shock, she did very effectively and loved herself.
It was then I found what an excellent enrichment exercise tenting may be for a canine.
Tenting shouldn’t be for each canine although, particularly if an proprietor is new to tenting themselves, or canine possession normally.
Through the years, I’ve give you a listing of canine expertise and behaviors that may assist assure a extra pleasurable expertise for each you and your canine.
I’ve additionally realized a few of the canine character traits which will point out a canine shouldn’t be able to go tenting.
Helpful Abilities to Train Your Canine Earlier than Going Tenting
Whereas it’s not necessary that canine have these expertise earlier than going tenting for the primary time, they can assist make the expertise extra pleasurable for each of you.
Coming when referred to as
That is most likely some of the essential issues that your canine ought to know for those who plan to take them tenting – recall, which is coming when referred to as.
I don’t advise each purposely letting your canine get lost from camp. Even letting them off leash when you’re protecting them shut is dangerous.
Nevertheless, for those who do, or a leash breaks, and your canine wanders off, a having a stable recall is your finest guess for getting them again.
Understanding place and easy methods to settle
Even when your canine will likely be secured to one thing with a leash, it’s helpful in the event that they know the place command and easy methods to decide on a mat or mattress.
It’s no enjoyable for you or your canine in the event that they’re continually straining towards their tether to get to one thing, are continually whining, or are continually on excessive alert.
In case your canine is aware of the place command, you possibly can ask them to put on a particular goal (normally a mat or canine mattress) and keep there.
In the event that they know easy methods to settle, being on their mat will likely be a sign that they need to simply hang around calmly.
The depart it command
If you’re cooking at camp with distractions, and in a smaller house, it’s extra seemingly that you’ll drop one thing on the bottom that you just don’t wish to eat.
Plus, there are poisonous vegetation out within the woods.
Educating your canine a stable depart it command can assist stop your canine from ingesting one thing that they shouldn’t.
Good manners
If you end up tenting, there’s a good probability that you’ll have neighbors, so being respectful is essential.
Many etiquette guidelines may be achieved via administration. In different phrases, your canine doesn’t must know something particular.
Examples are, protecting them on a leash or tie out so that they don’t wander into different folks’s camps or harass wildlife.
Retaining disrupting noise to a minimal is essential too, and coaching will assist with that.
Educating your canine a quiet command like “quiet” or “that’s sufficient” at dwelling whenever you need them to cease barking may be transferrable to the campsite.
There are completely different sounds in nature than round your home that your canine might bark at. Frequent sounds are folks speaking, different canine barking, infants crying, and and dishes clanking collectively.
Your canine is prone to turn into desensitized to those sounds naturally and begin to ignore them as they’ve extra tenting experiences.
Nevertheless, you possibly can assist set your canine up for fulfillment by exposing them to those noises when outdoors round your home by simulating these noises your self or utilizing a recorded sound from Spotify or YouTube.
Fascinating Habits Traits in a Canine Tenting Buddy
I’m a agency believer that any canine can go tenting, and that canine with minor behavioral points like reactivity or nervousness shouldn’t be denied the expeirence.
In case your canine have some idiosyncrasies which will trigger misbehavior or stress in sure conditions, it’s doable to pick out a campsite that may decrease publicity to those triggers.
With that being stated, some canine which are simple to camp with and have a tendency to take to it straight away have these character traits:
No excessive concern or nervousness
In case your canine may be very reactive, extraordinarily fearful of latest, unfamiliar settings, or aggressive in the direction of folks, tenting is probably not for them.
Whereas it’s nonetheless doable to rigorously handle the surroundings so a canine with these traits can nonetheless go tenting, it is probably not a enjoyable expertise for you and/or your canine.
No noise phobias
Lots of my mates take their canine tenting within the woods on the Fourth of July as a result of they’re afraid of fireworks.
That may work if you choose a campsite very rigorously and select one that’s distant from any city and prohibits the usage of fireworks.
Examples could be backpacking or dispersed tenting miles into the woods on Forest Service land.
However one time my buddy tried to “escape” fireworks along with her canine, solely to seek out that the tiny group close to the campground let of fireworks that her canine may hear.
Some canine are afraid of working turbines or diesel truck engines, each that are widespread in campgrounds.
If you happen to suppose that your canine might an excessive destructive response to noises they might encounter at a campsite, tenting is probably not for them.
Pleasant and social
Whereas good etiquette says that one ought to preserve their canine and youngsters contained to their very own campsite, accidents can occur.
A baby or off leash canine may wander away and are available into your campsite. Relying on the placement of your campsite, children could also be trip bikes or skateboards by you.
Additionally, it’s widespread for a camp host or ranger to enter your campsite to see when you have any questions or confirm that you just paid.
Whereas some interactions may be managed by briefly placing your canine in a car or strolling to the sting of your campsite to fulfill folks, your journey will go far more easily in case your canine is pleasant to different canine and unfamiliar folks.
A manageable prey drive
It is a private problem for me. My canine are Dachshunds, that are scent hounds and bred for searching.
Fortunately, solely one among mine has an excessive prey drive. Even then, it not often poses an issue for us… till it does.
The primary time it was an actual downside, we have been tenting in a campground within the excessive desert of California. The mice there have been habituated to being fed by folks or scavenging scraps from campers.
As we sat across the campfire, and my canine have been calmly laying on their camp chair, a mouse actually walked proper as much as them and stood there. It’s nearly prefer it was dancing in entrance of them.
My excessive prey drive woman completely misplaced it and began screaming (sure, her shrieks sound like a scream), inflicting a scene and disrupting different campers. No distraction methods we tried, like a coaching session, deal with toys, chews, or an pure calming complement, calmed her down.
We finally resorted to giving her a medicine with sedative properties as a result of it was late at night time and we had nowhere else to go.
We by no means went again to that campground, and attempt to keep away from established campgrounds within the desert because of this, but it surely was a really disagreeable expertise.
No useful resource guarding points
That is much less of a problem for those who go tenting alone or solely with folks and canine that you and your canine already know, however a canine that useful resource guards folks, meals, or toys may be troublesome to handle in a gaggle.
People who find themselves not used to being round your canine, is probably not conscious of the necessity to supervise interactions or know your canine’s physique language indicators that intervention is important.
Useful resource guarding may be critical and end in a chunk damage… and the final place you need that to occur is out within the woods away from medical care.
A go-with-the-flow angle
Canines which are very set of their methods, and who get upset when their surroundings or routine modifications, might not make the most effective tenting canine.
I don’t preserve a constant routine round the home, I board Dachshunds in our dwelling so they’re used to new canine coming and going, and we journey and camp rather a lot, so they’re used to issues continually altering. No new conditions faze them.
Whereas exposing your canine to new expertise can assist them be extra versatile, tenting isn’t most likely the most effective first expertise for them.
I might begin with a keep in a lodge or at a buddy’s home the place the sights, smells, and sounds are extra acquainted.
Testing Your Canine’s Tenting Habits
If you happen to suppose your canine is able to attempt tenting, the subsequent section is definitely testing the expertise. There are two mains methods to do that.
Take a day journey
Sometimes, when canine encounter folks and different canine on walks or hikes, it’s just for a short second – they cross you shortly. At a campground, your canine is constrained to at least one location and the neighbors “linger”.
To check out how your canine does with this fixed presence, go to a campground or picnic space near dwelling – ideally one with different customers close to close by however not too many – and hang around for many of the day.
You don’t need to arrange a full camp, however contemplate doing a traditional camp exercise or two (like cooking lunch).
Camp in your again yard
Sleeping in a tent could be a bizarre expertise for a canine. They are going to be “outside”, but they gained’t have the ability to see via the tent wall, and people night time sounds and flapping tent partitions may be scary.
To check whether or not your canine will snuggle in and fall asleep or vigilantly preserve watch all night time, poised and able to bard, arrange a tent in your again yard and sleep out in a single day. If you happen to don’t have a again yard, decide a campground as near dwelling as doable.
Then you possibly can check out tenting in your again yard, or go sit at a campground for the day together with your canine, to see how they do with spending the day outside with you.
I’ll word that I’ve heard stranger night time noises in my neighborhood than I each have out within the woods, so this may increasingly nearly be a worst-case situation sound check.
In case your canine does effectively in each of those eventualities, then you might be able to attempt tenting with them for actual.
Last Ideas
Tenting is an effective way so as to add pleasure and enrichment to your canine’s life, in addition to present publicity to new experiences and train them resilience.
Though it could sound enjoyable and simple, and one, in fact, is all the time welcome to simply wing it and see the way it goes (that’s what I did the primary time), you possibly can assist guarantee a enjoyable and pleasurable expertise with a little bit preparation.
A terrific camp canine must know a number of useful instructions, shouldn’t have excessive nervousness (except it may be simply managed), and has a little bit observe.
