Camping with your Lab

[BaconsMom]

Bacon, Jake and I are headed up to the North Shore on Wednesday for a 5 days of hunting, and taking in the fall colors. We have camped before with Bacon, but if you all have any great tips for us it would be greatly appreciated! It's going to be cold at night, lows between 35-40F, but nice during the days, near 60F. We are going to be hunting for grouse most days. Any tips on staying warm in the tent? Our plan is to have Bacon sleep in-between Jake and I (we will both be in sleeping bags).

We will be posting pictures when we return. Very excited to spend the week away from everything, no cell service except in town. Looking forward to it!!

[MightyThor]

Fun!

I like to make sure that thor has his own sleeping pad to insulate him from the cold ground. I used an old Thermarest Ridge Rest of mine, until I got ahold of the Ruffwear Highlands Bed with the pad insert. My husband likes to use a blanket when we car camp so Thor snuggles under the blanket with him. I'm usually in a sleeping bag but if it's a little warmer out he'll sneak out from under the blanket and snuggle next to me. I also like to make sure he has something to lay on around camp so he's not stuck in the dirt. We use a different Ruffwear bed that doubles as his bed in the cab of the truck.



I have a few NiteIze LED trinkets (a light that clips on the collar, a light up Collar, and a light up leash) that I love. Especially in the places where we dispersed camp and he's free to be off-leash, having a bright red light hanging on his collar makes him easy to find!

[Snowshoe]

One canoe trip we did it was cold enough at night we checked for ice on the waterpail. It was snowing, but no ice. A couple of nights I hauled Jet into the sleeping bag with me. Remarkably she stayed there all night, we were both nice and warm. The bag is rated to 0C.

You probably have all you need but something we added was always pliers in case of porcupine encounter. We were remote area tripping and human excrement (to put it politely) was a problem on portages and at campsites. We took a small bottle of dog shampoo and breath mints.

You are going to have such a great time, lucky Bacon.

[CraftHer]

Have fun! Can't wait to see the pictures.

[POPTOP]

Sounds like great fun! Looking forward to pictures.

[ChoppersDad]

I use Mr. Heater when I go camping in colder conditions:

https://www.cabelas.com/product/mr-he...ts&Ntt=heaters

[zd262]

I've found it best to bring Bubba his own stuff because he is such an intense snuggler than he usually ends up stealing our pads and blankets, so then we end up using his...There's a ton of awesome dog products out there, but if you don't feel like investing and doing product research right now, I think that as long as the ground is covered and he has some blanket he could snuggle if he wanted to he'll be all set. You might want to try craigslist! (of course always being on the lookout for bugs, etc when buying off craigslist)

[JackK]

I take Cassie camping quite often. Last Columbus day our adventures took us to the White Mountains of NH for a nice fall weekend. It snowed the second night!

I have found that Cassie is most comfortable in a portable cloth crate. I bring along an old down sleeping bag and open it up and lay it inside on top of a crate pad. Cassie will rearrange as necessary to get it to it to cover everything but her nose. I tried to let her just have the whole tent but she couldn't seem to get comfortable without climbing on top of me. I keep a few spare blankets in the truck just in case her crate pad gets to muddy.

In the cold weather Cassie didn't love sitting by the fire as much as everyone else. She would get tired and walk to the tent and paw at the door to be let in for the night.

Here's a few photos of our campsite from this summer - Same equipment I use in the colder weather except for 0 degree sleeping bags and a full cover and ground mat for the screen tent. With the full cover on the screen tent, it holds enough heat to be comfortable in the cold while cooking and eating.

[coopsmom]

We camp quite a bit, but we have a pop up. Even so, I always take an old foam bed cushion (egg carton looking thing) for the pups to sleep on. Comfort, but in your case it will also keep him off the damp ground. I would also take some old towels to dry him off good with. If it's damp or heavy with dew, he could get a deep chill.

[JC001]

Here's a few photos of our campsite from this summer - Same equipment I use in the colder weather except for 0 degree sleeping bags and a full cover and ground mat for the screen tent. With the full cover on the screen tent, it holds enough heat to be comfortable in the cold while cooking and eating.

Did your screen tent come with a cover or did you improvise one yourself? We don't go camping in very cold weather but a few trips it would have been nice to have a wind break or way to keep dry if the rain is blowing by covering some of the sides.