Carrying her own weight

Getting ready for my vacation next week. Our 14 mo. old lab is now big enough I feel to carry her own food and gear. I looked around for a suitable pack for her. finally settled on a Ruffwear Aproach. I am sure there are other good ones out there.The salesman at the local REI let me bring her in the store to try them on and this one seemed to fit the best. I have seen other people with them and some looked good some not too much.The dog loves it! She doesn't seem to mind having it on and almost acts like she has a job when it is on. We started with it light (almost empty) and then added small water bottles. As long as it is fairly balanced, it rides straight and stays on great. An added benefit is she seems to be more settled. We have been taking her on hikes locally of approx. 3-4 miles and she has had no problems with the extra load. This should make longer trips easier on Dad because I would heve been the one carrying her stuff otherwise.



We hope to make four bp trips in between visting relatives on our vacation so I'll report back later.

Keep it balanced and watch for wear spots on her hide. One trip with my Dobie, I wasn't paying attention and the chest strap was rubbing her shoulders real bad and was down to the skin. I carried her pack as much as I could after that on that trip. If your dog is settled, wait for a critter to pop out or some wasps to nail her. You'll see how settled she is then.:) Have fun. My past dogs seemed to love their packs also. In the morning, when I was packing stuff up, if I got close to their packs they would come over to me, ready to go.

Your dog is 14 months old, but take care until she is more than two years. Then you may really have good use of the weight she may take. The rule for a normal trained dog older than two years is 1/3 of the dog weight. With much training and in good terrain you may go up to 1/2.

I have a 5 years old Border Collie that is 30 kilos. This summer he carried 10 kilos on two trips I made. One was in very stony terrain, the other on good tracks. No problems at all.

In addition to look for wear from the back-pack be aware to also look closely on the paws. I always have two extra socks with me just in case.

Please note that Labs are not physically mature until close to 2 years of age. If you try to push pack weight and long hard hikes now, her joints will suffer later. This is especially important for breeds prone to hip dysplasia (which include Labs, Goldens and German Shepherds). Go ahead and use the pack, but don't put more than a couple of pounds in it for now. I know she looks like a mature dog, but her joints are not yet mature and can still be easily injured. Start working very gradually up to full weight (20% of body weight is what my-daughter-the-veterinarian told me; that's 16 lbs. for an 80-lb. dog, and Hysson's pack on a recent 7 days' trip, with his food, all his gear and a quart of water was only 12 lbs.) when she gets to be about 18 months, and she'll be able to carry all her own food, water and gear next summer. Talk to your veterinarian if you have any questions about this.

I hadn't thought of socks; considering the trouble I've had keeping booties on Hysson (see my avatar), socks just might be the answer. I certainly have a lot of old thick ones around. In the Wind Rivers I put the booties on Hysson to go up a steep rocky section of trail; by the time we got to the top he was wearing one bootie and I was carrying the other three.

Another point--for backpacking, use a premium quality, high energy dog food, and the weight and bulk per calorie will definitely be less. I've seen a study which showed that, per calorie, premium dog food costs no more than generic supermarket brand dog food. And there's a lot less coming out the other end to clean up with the high quality food!

The socks I have for my dog are not my own thick socks, but special socks for dogs. The sledgedog runners use these in the winter, but I have never used it permanently for any of my tree dogs. I only have the socks as safety for sore paws. They cost here in Norway about 3-10 USD each, depending on the quality of the sock.

I agree about the food. I have two types of food from the same supplier. One is the normal every-day food, the other is a high energy food with much more calories. My dog gets 300 grams (10oz?) of normal food each day, but on trips where he carries backpack or pulls my pulk he gets 500 grams of high energy food. It is important that you stick to the same supplier for both normal and high energy food, as some dogs may have trouble with the digestion if you change type of food too quickly.

Just a Quick update. My wife was injured after the second BP trip (bad sprained ankle) so we only got to make two trips. The first was approximately 4 1/2 miles amd the second 3 miles. I found that the pack and dog both performed great. The dog was able to carry her food for four days, boots, and fleece blanket/ bedroll. My dog is 15 months old and is in to everything. The pack stayed put except when going down long hills. This was easily remedied by attaching the leash to the ring on the pack and keeping the pack straight with the leash. The pack worked great and considering the "abuse" that she put it through, is in great shape and will be part of many more trips in the future. My wife is on the mend and we will be back at it soon.

I have had to add an additional strap to Casey's pack. It wraps around the back of his rib cage from the back of his pack and as such fits rather loosely, but stops the pack from sliding forward when going downhill.

It is made from tubular webbing with an elastic strap inside. This provides lots of expansion and does not constrict him in any way. It is affixed with a side release buckle, just like the other two straps - breast and ribcage.

I have found that the pack that fit my 80lb. dobie the best, had two belly straps, one behind his front legs and the other under his belly. One strap or too loose of straps, allowed the dog on downhills or in panic mode to dump the pack. Not fun if you are boulder hopping. We lost one pack above Schmidell Lake in Desolation Wilderness.