Longer distances with dogs

My friend and I are looking at doing a 2-day, 27 mile trip. Both of us have dogs, and we're wondering if it'll be too much for them. We're thinking we'll probably do 15-17 miles the first day, and 10-12 the second. The most I've ever done with my dog in a day is 8 miles, although that was on pretty rough, steep terrain and this hike should be a bit more mild. My friend's never done more than 11 miles with his dogs.

In your experience, does this seem like too big of a jump in mileage? We both hike several times a week with our pups, but it tends to be more like 3-5 miles when we go out.

I'd appreciate any advice/insight.

Thanks!

-Nate

When I had my dobies, the females first trip was at 10 weeks of age, so you know she had no time for conditioning. She did great. Kept darting for the shade on a week long trip of 35-40 miles in length in the Sierra. She was stung numerous times by yellow jackets one day and took off crying, I called her back and brushed them off. Her dad bit or got bit by something and had a swollen neck/jaw, had to take him to the vet when I ended the trip a few hours early. I was offered some money for her when we were headed out.

What breed? Some will do great, others won't.

My dog is a mutt, but seems to be a mix of lab, dalmatian, and pointer.

He's got a sheltie/terrier mix and another small dog that looks like it's a cross between a golden retriever and a dachshund. I honestly couldn't tell you what that one is. The sheltie/terrier carries a pack, but the other one is a bit smaller so goes hiking without one.

All three dogs are in great shape and have been fine on any hike we've taken them on, but like I said, this first day will be about 5-8 miles more than they're used to.

Most dogs can cover a lot of ground with no ill effects. In hot weather you do have to watch out for overheating. Remember that dogs cannot dissipate heat near as well as we can.

They will do better than you as I'm sure the fall weather up there will be great for them.

That makes sense about the weather and overheating. One of the main reasons I was concerned was because on a 5 mile hike in 85-90 degree weather, my dog ended up just sitting down and refusing to move about 4 miles in. I had to carry his pack the rest of the way. Makes sense now.

Glad to hear he should be fine on this trip, it'll be lots more fun with him. Thanks!

Watch their paws; the longer distance may make them sorefooted (not much different from people, actually). Allow for rest stops. Hike the dog's hike--if the dogs are getting tired, stop to rest. Above all, keep them hydrated.

In 85+ degree weather, you want either to leave the dog at home or do an easy, shady hike close to streams, stopping frequently (like every 15-20 minutes) to let the dog cool off. On hot summer days I try to start at the crack of dawn and get off the trail by 10-11 am--for my sake as well as my dog's!

Well, we took the trip this past Friday and Saturday and the dogs did great! As was predicted, they did better than us. Thankfully, we made it too.

I know a lot of people here do high mileage regularly, but 15+ miles a day is new territory for me and Archimedes and I'm glad to see it was pretty manageable.

I have a feeling the weather helped. Days were between 60 and 65, which is awesome for this time of year in MA. Pretty good weather for a lab/dalmation mix, I should think. I also lightened his pack a bit this time.

Here's a pic of the group of us:



If you want to check out the full "trip report", go here and click on the Metacomet-Monadnock trip.

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Just wanted to put in some pictures of a trip me and my wife and a job-friend took some years ago. Overheating was the least problem we had as you will find out in the pictures here[url=http://picasaweb.google.no/otto.stover/VinterturAbiskoSulitjelma2005#][/url]
No problems though the weather was partly rough. The dog is a big Border Collie that is trained to be a sledge/pulk dog. Weight of the pulk is about 30kg, the same as the dog.