Gear
One word to describe your entire backpacking kit. It encompasses everything from what’s on your back to what’s on your feet. It is what you’ll use to cook, to eat, to clean, and to fix unexpected problems.
What you bring will change and evolve, and this will help get you started on the right path for dog backpacking.
I won’t be recommending any specific brands, but I will be giving you some hard-learned dog-friendly options to make your trek easier.
Remember your gear will adjust and change as your needs change. Most people start off carrying too much and drop off things they don’t need anymore, their sleep systems or shelters change based on comfort, and any other piece of gear can be swapped when you find something that fits your changing needs better. Your gear is never set in stone (unless, you know, you actually set it into a granite rock).
This will be an overview about gear, and mostly for considerations for dog friendly options. I’ll be expanding on human options for clothing, first aid, and cookware in later blog posts.
Types of gear
I generally classify gear into six types (click to jump to that section):
Of those, I’ve found the first two are the most difficult to make adjustments for dogs, and the last four are simpler.
Let’s jump in.
Shelter
Your shelter is what protects you from the outside elements. For me, there’s only one kind of dog appropriate shelter: tents. For my purposes, I’m not looking at any other types of shelters; bivvies, tarps, and hammocks aren’t really appropriate for dog trekking.
Bivvies (bivies, or bivouac sacks) are tiny, one person sized shelters that are for emergency or extreme ultralight backpackers. They aren’t large enough to accomodate anything but the smallest dogs, and I recommend having your dog in your tent with you. In fact, most places will require you to have your dog in your tent with you.
Tarps are simple tents that are just a draped sheet over a central line. Sometimes they have a floor. I also don’t recommend these because, with a pet, you’re not enclosed.
Hammocks are an evolved version of the backyard lounge tool. They’re built to hold a higher tension and can accomodate an underquilt (a quilt that lines the bottom of the hammock) for colder climes, bug nets, and even rain flies. But dogs generally hate being stuck in a hammock and, if yours doesn’t, you still have a limited range of motion while sleeping because your dog is piled on you.
What kind of tent should you get?
For our purposes there are two kinds of tends: freestanding and staked.
Freestanding tents are tents that are secured to an archetecture which holds them up. The most obvious kind is a dome tent, with two poles that cross over to create a dome.
Staked tents are secured to the ground by a system of guy lines, nylon strings that connect a point of the tent to the stake in the ground. They can be as simple as a line strung between two trees with a tarp over them and the corners of the tarp staked to the ground. They can be a little more complex and be formed around a trekking pole stuck in the ground and the tent formed by securing center lines from that to the ground.
I don’t recommend staked tents for dogs. Not at all. Just navigating around staked tents can trip you at night. Having a dog on a leash, even in daylight, is almost guaranteed to get wrapped around a guy line. Depending on your type of tent you’ve just destabilized a little bit of soil that held your tent down, or you’ve collapsed your entire tent and you need to put it back up.
My verdict for the type of tent to get is a freestanding tent. In fact, I recommend only freestanding tents for dogs.
The size of your tent will depend on the size of your dog, whether you’ll be backpacking alone or with someone, and if you want your gear stored inside or outside. Most people will prefer a 2 person tent for themselves, their gear, and their dog. Some prefer one. Many couples work well with a two person tent and their dog.
My recommendation: 2 person freestanding
Sleep System
Your sleep system is critical.
Without good sleep you won’t have the strength or energy to trek in the morning, your body won’t recover from exercise, and the dreaded monkey butt can sneak in.
Some things that can make your night crummy are being too cold, not having enough cushion, and being too cramped. Of course, you’ll know your own comforts and can modify your sleep system to accommodate. For instance, I sleep best on my back with my dog between my legs, a foot outside the blanket, and an arm above my head. If you’re a side sleeper you might want extra cushion for your hip bones, if you’re a stomach sleeper a mummy style sleeping bag might be uncomfortable. More on this later.
What makes a sleep system?
If you’re wondering why I’m calling it a “sleep system” and not just a “sleeping bag” it’s because there are parts to a system, rather than just a bag.
At its core, a sleep system is your sleeping bag or quilt, and a sleeping pad. Some people will stack pads, others will skip it. I don’t recommend skipping the pads, though.
Sleeping Pads
Sleeping pads are important. They help maintain critical loft in your sleeping bag or quilt, loft which would otherwise be compressed under you and then not help keep you warm. They also provide insulation from the ground and help cushion you from the hard ground. Finally, many of them help reflect warmth off your body back up to you. They keep the cold ground from sapping heat from your body.
Sleeping pads come in two types: inflatable and closed cell foam. Inflatable pads might be a thin shell that fill with air or they might be a plastic sack around springy foam material. Either way, they pack small and inflate to a larger thickness. They can also suffer valve failure or, which is more likely with dogs, pop.
Close cell foam pads are as simple as a foam mat (even like a yoga mat) or as complex as a rippled, textured foam covered with a metallic reflective coating on one side.
Inflatable pads can often compress to something as small as a water glass while closed cell foam pads take up considerably more space. They are usually strapped on the outside of your pack.
They take up wildly different amounts of space, but both weigh about the same amount. Inflatable pads often help keep you warmer, but you can always layer pads up to increase reflected warmth and cushioning.
The robustness of closed cell foam pads far outweighs the potential insulation and size savings of inflatable pads, for me. Mostly because dogs can — and will — pop any inflatable pad. Let me rephrase that: if you have an inflatable pad, the second you run out of patches, you’ll be sleeping on hard ground.
My recommendation: a metallic sided closed cell foam pad.
Sleeping Bags
Sleeping bags have come a long way from your days as a Boy or Girl Scout.
They come in designs called mummy bags which cover the top of your head to help keep you warm, wrap tighter to keep more heat in, and are filled with goose, duck, or synthetic down to provide insulation.
There are also quilts, which don’t have the traditional zipper of a sleeping bag or the amount of filling underneath you. They keep your head uncovered, but weigh less and let you move more.
What you use will depend on how you sleep and what sounds best, and it can always change.
At the time of this writing I’m testing out a quilt, because bags are uncomfortable for me and the extra space gives my dog a little room to sleep between my legs. I like to move a little more when I sleep, so mummy bags are uncomfortable for me.
Sleeping bags and quilts come in temperature ratings, which is the lowest temperature they’ll keep someone alive in. Whether you’re a cold or a warm sleeper will determine if your comfort level is 10-20ºF above that rating. For instance, if you’re a cold sleeper using a 15ºF bag, you’ll probably be comfortable down to 35ºF. If you’re a warm sleeper using the same bag, you may be comfortable down to 25ºF.
The best way to test bags out is to borrow or rent them.
If you’re worried about tracking dirt in or needing extra warmth, you can get a bag liner. This is a sack which you stick in your bag. Some, like fleece ones, provide extra warmth. Others, like simple cloth ones, are made just to keep your bag cleaner of sweat and dirt.
My recommendation: try out a few bags or quilts until you find one you like
Sleep Systems for Dogs
There are sleeping pads and sleeping bags made for dogs. These are ready designed systems that many people like.
I prefer a little extra functionality, though. If a piece of gear I have can serve more than one purpose, I like it to.
My sleeping pad for my dog is a Therm-a-Rest sitting pad, made for sitting down on at camp. When it’s not a seat for me, it’s a sleeping pad for him. My sleeping bag for my dog is a fleece liner. It’s big enough to spread out and cover my quilt and still give him a warm bed.
If we go camping somewhere cold enough, he’ll crawl into the quilt or bag I’m using with me, and we can both use the fleece liner.
Your dog will be different and you can adjust your kit to fit your dog. If they’re large enough not to fit in with you, they deserve a dedicated sleep system. If they’re cuddly, fit in with you, and you’re comforable with it, then they deserve to have you as their dedicated sleep system.
Sleep is highly personalized, and I’m willing to bet you have an idea of what will be most comfortable for you and your dog: a light cover, cuddling with you, or a dedicated system.
Pack
Your pack will carry your gear. You can also get a pack which will allow your dog to carry up to (and no more than) 33% of their weight.
Backpacks are measured in their carrying capacity by volume in liters (L). Lighter weight packs which are less expensive sacrifice rigidity, sturdiness, or quality. Personally, for dog trekking, I like a sturdy pack and am not worried about the 3-5 extra pounds that come with a sturdier, thicker pack.
Most experienced backpackers only need a 45L backpack, and beginner backpackers often make the mistake of getting the largest one they can find and overpacking it with much more than they need.
That said, backpacking with a dog requires extra food, food that might be bulkier than your own backpacking food which just needs water added. I also like a couple features, like a D-ring on the shoulder straps for clipping a leash on to and spacious hip belt pockets.
Pack considerations are mostly made in person, and I recommend trying on as many as you can. For instance, Osprey and Gregory packs don’t fit my body, and Deuter and Hyperlight fit me like gloves. Other people fit into an Osprey like filling into a Kong.
I hike with a Deuter Air Contact 75L, because I lead treks and need to carry extra equipment. I like the clips and extra features, and the almost-7lb weight is a necessary sacrifice. My girlfriend uses a Hyperlite 3400 Windrider, which fits what she needs and is nice and light. The Hyperlite can’t take as much weight as mine, so we have to be sure not to overload it.
My recommendation: try on all the packs you can with 30lbs of weight after a long day and see what feels best
Clothing
You don’t need special clothing for you when it comes to trekking with your dog. You’ll need weather appropriate clothing no matter what, a change of socks and underwear, and some emergency clothing like a lightweight rain jacket.
I think it’s a good idea to have camp shoes you can change into at camp in order to let your feet decompress and a dedicated pair of socks only for sleeping.
You might want a coat for your dog, for warmth, rain protection, or both. Having boots or shoes for your dog in case of an injury to their paw is a good idea.
Cookware
Dogs love getting in your business, especially when that business involves food. If you have to keep them on a leash, which many areas require, that leash can knock over your stove and cookware while in use.
The most prudent thing to do is to secure your dog away from your cooking area or otherwise remove your cooking from the reach of your dog and their influence.
There’s really only a few things I recommend for cookware or eating ware for your dogs: collapsible bowls. Some people prefer silicone bowls that collapse into a disk, though I prefer sturdy waterproof fabric ones that roll up. I find they pack easier.
First Aid
You’ll need a comprehensive first aid kid regardless of who or what you’re hiking with. Bandages, first aid ointment, moleskin or tape for hot spots and blisters, gauze, antibiotic ointment, and some NSAIDs.
Your dog will require a few extra things, and some of these might be things you already pack.
- Aspirin in a dosage safe for your dog
- Veterinary wrap or Coban
- Benedryl or another allergy medication
- Styptic powder or clotting gauze
- Tick key
- Tweezers
- Liquid Stitch or another liquid bandage
Having a tick key and tweezers is one of the few times I recommend redundency because tweezers can be hard to get a safe pull on a tick with a wriggling dog with. A tick key makes it easy to safely and easily pull a tick off. Ticks aren’t the only things tweezers are good for. They’re good for removing thorns, large debris from wounds, and can even help fix eyeglasses in a pinch.
Wrapping Up
This article should give you a good bearing on some considerations to make for your dog.
I’ll expand on how to fit a dog pack and adjust your dog to it, along with general gear guides for clothing in the future.
In the meantime, what do you pack for your dog? What other concerns do you have?
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