What gear does your dog carry? I've realized that mine carries a lot more weight than he probably needs to, and I'd like to cut down.

For reference, here's Archimedes taking a break on a hot day on the Bold Coast in Maine:



His current gear list:

Ruff Wear Approach Pack
15' tieout (you can see it in the picture)
5' Leash
Fleece (made from an old one of mine with the sleeves cut off)
Food (1 lbs per day, kept in a plastic bag)
1 liter of water in a 1.2 oz soda bottle
Hair brush
Mini-frisbee for a water/food bowl and games of fetch


For now, I'll probably keep the mini-frisbee, soda bottle, and leash. The pack is something I plan to keep until he destroys it. The fit is great, and it's bombproof, which I think is pretty important for a dog.

I feel like the other equipment is pretty essential, but I could probably switch it out for lighter versions.

I'd like to get him a better fleece or jacket, but haven't found a lightweight one that I like enough yet. Any suggestions?

The hairbrush is a heavy one. I can definitely switch that out. However, he sheds so much that it's worth brushing him before I let him in the Tarptent. Again, I'd love any suggestions. Maybe a cheap plastic comb would suffice for backpacking trips. I'm not sure.

The tieout is heavy, but I need something he can't chew through and I want to give him room to stretch his legs around camp without letting him offleash. Any suggestions here?

His leash is also pretty heavy. It's thick, because he's got a bad habit of biting through them when I'm not looking. Not sure if I've got another option here.

I'd love any advice, and to see your pups' gear lists!

-Nate

Archimedes--what a sweet dog!

Hysson is wearing a Ruffwear Palisades pack in my avatar. I like this pack because of the separate harness. It's an older model, big enough for enough kibble for a 10-day trip. It's more of a bomber pack than I'd want to carry, but Hysson regularly bashes it into rocks and such, so he needs something sturdy. It has built-in water bladders that hold over a gallon each, which come in handy if we camp a long way from water. Needless to say, if I'm going to use him as a water carrier I unload his pack in camp first, and I don't put more than 2 quarts in each bladder!

I've been using a cut-down polypro baselayer top for a sweater, but for below-freezing nights it's not warm enough. I'm therefore looking for a kid's fleece jacket or pullover--hopefully Salvation Army or Goodwill. My daughter has warned me to get something loose that won't compress his downy undercoat (same effect as compressing your sleeping bag insulation). While Hysson, like all Labs, has a very thick coat, he's an indoor dog at home so is acclimated to sleeping at 60*, not 20*

I carry his pad (20x36x3/8" closed cell foam) and give him something of mine of equivalent weight to carry.

Hysson manages with a lightweight leash and no tie-out. He's not good with being tied up (he immediately winds the tie-out around his legs and body multiple times to the point he can't move), so I find the best thing is to tie his leash to a branch in such a way that it doesn't quite hit the ground and he can't put a foot over it. I therefore omit a tie-out, although I have a length of cord if I need it. If there's nobody else around, he's really good about staying close to me. Of course if there are others camped nearby, he stays on leash.

I take a pocket comb for grooming and use it every night (well, almost every night) before bedtime. Hysson sheds perpetually, and daily grooming definitely helps to keep piles of hair from accumulating in the tent. He really appreciates being groomed after a day of carrying his pack. Whether a pocket comb works for you depends on how hard it is to get a comb through Archimedes' hair!

First aid items travel in my first aid kit, because there is only one item (buffered aspirin) that I wouldn't take for me anyway. Even the vet wrap (self-adhering foam wrap), I've found, makes a good bandage for a human sprained ankle, with a little duct tape reinforcement on the outside, and is a lot lighter than Ace bandage.

My-daughter-the-veterinarian has advised me not to feed Hysson any more on a backpacking trip than I feed him at home, and to divide it into three feedings a day. I can always feed him more after the trip if he gets too thin. I had to curtail a trip last summer because of Hysson's barfing. Fortunately it turned out to just be that sensitive Labrador stomach.

Here's the best I can do with copy/paste of Hysson's gear list from Excel. This is for a nine-day trip, the maximum time we'd ever go out. Amounts are in ounces.

Ruffwear Palisades II dog pack (older model) 36.4
Carabiner (on pack)(so leash won't catch under pack bags)
Spectra line, 725 lb. test, 40 ft. 1.3
(dog tie-out, clothesline or bear hang--the last only if the ranger catches us, because I use an Ursack)
Dog dish, 1 qt. yogurt container 0.6
1 pint water in hydration bladders (1/2 pint each side)(may vary) 16.0
Dog food, 9 oz /day (2 1/4 cups) 9.0 per day 72.0 total
Dog food, emergency, 1 C 4.4
2 OP sacks (1 each side for dog food) 2.4
Ursack for dog food (for trips >7 days) 7.5
2-gal. ziplock bag, for wet/dirty clothes/laundry 0.7
Large plastic trash bag (for dog pack in vestibule) 1.3
Dog boots 3.6
Comb (groom dog) 0.5
1 Handiwipe in ziplock sandwich bag (groom dog) 0.3
Dog sweater (fleece) 6.0 estimated
Leash (6-ft puppy leash) and Gentle Leader headcollar 3.0
2 plastic shopping bags, for poop bags,muddy shoes, whatever 0.4
Item of mine to offset my carrying his pad 3.3

Dog total, oz. 159.7
Dog total, lbs. 10.0

Hysson weighs 80 lbs. so I try to keep his total pack weight under 12 lbs. (15% of his weight), the absolute maximum I let him carry. As he eats up his food, he gets to carry my garbage!

No toys because Hysson isn't particularly interested in retreiving (he won't swim, either!).

Archimedes isn't much of a retriever or swimmer either, despite his obvious lab heritage (we think he's a lab and pointer mix). We probably use the frisbee for ourselves more than him. I do like the idea of using a yogurt container, though. Or perhaps even a shorter and lighter hummus container. He never drinks too much at a time.

I do need the tie-out, but just realized that a ten foot tie-out attached to his leash would serve the same purpose and save quite a few ounces. My local hardwear store sells lightweight, plastic-enclosed cable, so I'll have to buy a few feet of that and try it out. He'd bite right through a length of cord, unfortunately.

I'm definitely going to have to switch out the brush for a pocket comb. It won't be perfect, but it'll be enough to do the trick and the weight savings will be worth it.

I haven't thought about first aid for him, but I probably should if I'm going to take him on longer trips. He's only been on three 2-day trips so far, and is about to go on his fourth. We go hiking three or four times a week, though.

If we go on a much longer trip, I'll just have to carry some of his food myself, I guess. He's only 55 lbs, so I can't have him carry too much.

Thanks for the tips!

Your lab doesn't swim? He must be old or very strange.

If you use high-performance dog food, you don't have to feed him as much. Back when Hysson was in beginning obedience class, we were given a study of the different dog foods--generic vs. supermarket brand vs. popular brands vs. the high-end stuff. The lower-end foods (including the popular brands you get at the supermarket) have more bulk, so you have to feed more and also pick up more in the back yard! With the high-end stuff, you can take less bulk and weight. Warning--always take a week to 10 days to change the dog's diet, and do it gradually--a little bit of the new in with the old, and gradually increase the proportion of the new.

More like strange! The non-retrieving comes because he has an overbite (undershot lower jaw). I don't know where the non-swimming came from!

Wow, my dog only wears a pack when its more than a 2 night trip, he drinks out of creeks, or drinks from the same cup I do. Has no clothes but I may get him boots for the snow hiking I plan to do this winter.

I cut up pupperoni to the size of his food and mix it in for xtra calories.

Thats reallly all I do, i will carry his food for short trips simply because his pack is one more thing I have to do, put on, take off, I'd rather carry the weight.

I have found that buying some climbing rope and making a 14ft lead that you can tie a loop in at 6ft incase a short lead is needed has worked best for me, you can let a dog drag climbing rope behind them, its less likely to snag cause its made not to, that way your dog has freedom but is usually close enoughfor you to grab the lead if need be. I have been doing it for years now, climbing rope makes great leads.

What dog is complete without a dogzilla superhereo outfit?

(not Ember)

Seriously, Ember carries a simple pack (don't know the brand; it's old) with water, water bowl, booties, and snacks.

My wife's sister has a Portugese Water Dog that hates water and won't even go in the pool!!!

Now that is funny, I don't care who you are.
My dog hates water as well, but her breed does also. She is a malamute. You should hear her crying when I turn the hose on her in the middle of July. You'd think I broke her leg or something. Luckily we live in a desert with little rainfall, because she does the same thing when it starts raining.

I remember Hysson's first rain storm. He was born in June in California. I picked him up the following October. Oregon had a long, dry fall that year, so the first rain he ever saw was in late November, at 5 months old. You never in your life saw a more puzzled pup! He still is reluctant to go out to the back yard when it's raining (I call him my "California dog"), but if I'm with him, he doesn't mind at all.

Archimedes made a bit of progress this summer in the swimming department when we were up in Maine. I stood in the water with treats and kept going out further and further until he was over his head. He didn't love it enough to go swimming on his own, but he'll now at least walk through water, which he'd never do before.

But hey, a wet dog is less ultralight anyway!

I tried that technique at Lake Superior 5 years ago. Hysson was actually swimming, with me hollering "GOOD DOG" in my most encouraging voice, until he got to me and tried to climb on top of me, nearly drowning me. He headed straight back to shore (leaving me sputtering) and has never been tempted beyond his depth since.

He does love to wade, as my avatar shows. Once the water is up to his belly, though, that's it.

I'm waiting until we have to do a thigh-deep creek ford. That could get interesting!

Is that even possible with a dog? Seems pretty scary.

My dog loves to swim, but he hates the squirt bottle. When he misbehaves and barks my wife gets the squirt bottle. One look at that and he quiets down.

It took a week or so to get Rebel to swim of his own accord. This leads me to believe that perhaps it is all a matter of training and encouragement. Of course some breeds just don’t like water for good reason. My wife and I like to swim and that made things a lot easier. He wanted to swim out to us but was afraid at first. Once he got though, he would not only swim out to us, but would swim in circles.

Howie

IVE BEEN THINKING OF GETTING A PACK FOR MY DOG BUT NEVER HAVE HE'S A WORKING BLUE HEELER AND IS PRETTY TOUGH BUT PRETTYMUCH EATS WHAT I DO NEVER LEAVES MY SIDE AND IS PRETTY GOOD WITH FINDING WATER BUT HEELERS WERE BRED TO BE SELF SUPORTING IVE HAD HIM UP OVER 10,000 FEET IN THE TETONS MORE THEN ONCE BUTDO THINK ILL GET HIM BOOTS FOR THE SNOW HIS NAME IS GOOSE BY THE WAY IM KINDA NEW TO THIS AND WOULD LIKE TO POST PICS OF HIM BUT DONT KNOW HOW HE IS MY BEST FRIEND