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| Photo Courtesy of Deb and James Rodden of York River Chesapeakes |
We have been trying to wrap our brains around how you camp with a dog. We camp in a tent, and the idea of sharing our little tent with a dog, especially a puppy, seems a little intimidating, wet, smelly, etc. We booked a trial and very first puppy camping trip for Memorial Day Weekend at Horseneck State Beach. This leaves us with a 12 week old puppy, a tent and a car. How do you bring a puppy camping? Do we use a crate? Does it get it's own tent? Does it sleep in ours without a crate? Can we keep the dog in the crate in the car? I'm obsessed with the details of it (if you couldn't tell)!!!
I found a campground that has put my worries at ease a little...it's called Chocorua Camping Village and it seems to be the most dog friendly but still very much so human friendly campground in the area. Many campgrounds don't allow dogs, and most that do have very strict rules. This place has a dog friendly lake beach (CBRs LOVE to swim!), dog sitting if you'd like to go to partake in a non-dog friendly activity like a dinner out or something, and overall just seems to have a more welcoming attitude towards dog crazy campers....like me.
But alas, we still have the confusion of HOW you camp with a dog. Does anyone have any tips or tricks or ideas?
Also, fill out the little survey on the right of the page, we can't decide!!!!
Thanks for sharing this journey with us :)
Camping with your pup can be a wonderful experience, so long as you plan ahead.
ReplyDeleteFor the ride - Meike has a history of car sickness, so we tend to let her have the entire back seat on the drive, and pack everything else in our trunk. Since you will have a puppy, I might suggest a crate in the back seat or investing in a dog seatbelt.
For camping, make sure you bring a long rope or lead so the pup can sniff its new surroundings while you unpack and set up the tent. Speaking of tents, we bought a large 5-person tent, and let our dog sleep at our feet. Sleeping with this setup was fine, but we did wake up to a Meike pounce on our air mattress when she was ready for us to get up. Since your new pup will be prone to "accidents", it may be wise to bring a crate.
While we were camping - hiking and outdoor activities were fine, and we even found a few restaurants we could bring her to. We found that even though we were camping in a very touristy location, we enjoyed adventuring & spending time with our dog, and didn't feel like we missed out on anything we couldn't do with her.
Again - the key to a successful trip is being prepared. Bring lots of treats, toys, poop bags and wipes - since there is no such thing as a "clean dog" while camping. The only thing we forgot when camping was to bring Meike her own chair - since she repeatedly jumped in mine when I got up so she didn't have to lay on the ground.
Also - best lesson learned on the whole trip? http://www.dogfriendly.org is your best friend. It lists all the dog-friendly hotels, motels, campgrounds, restaurants, parks, and anything else you can think of. Also - if you're in a touristy location, find the local dog store and ask their workers where are some great local activities or restaurants you can check out with the pup. When I did this in Bar Harbor, ME - they handed me an entire paper of restaurants and a book of activities.
Long-winded answer, but I HOPE this helps! Congrats on your pup, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about your pup and your adventures in getting to know each other!