Camping with a high-energy dog

DutchmenSport wrote:
Every dog we have owned has been a high energy - highly sensitive - highly crazy nutso dog! They've all made GREAT camping dogs and this is how we did it! First all of our dogs barked at everything when we first got them. Camping was awful initially, they'd bark at every thing, even if the wind blew the grass!

Solution: And this works: Over stimulation! We kept all our dogs right in the middle of everything! We never sheltered them from anything. People, other dogs, noise, traffic, traveling, kids on bicycles, noises, everything! We would not let the dogs sleep. They stayed awake. We stayed right with them. If we were sitting outside, they were in a chair right beside us. They were exposed to absolutely everything.

Especially in a busy campground, the dogs (all of them) because so over stimulated at everything, they eventually exhausted themselves completely out. (usually by the end of the first day). Yes, it challenging to mommy and daddy, but necessary. Every day get a little better, until one day, they are so accustom to all the activity, they simply just lay around like good old Duke on the Beverly Hillbillies. It's worked for every dog we've ever owned.

Another thing, we have never left the dogs behind. Our camping and sight seeing activities all revolve around the dog. If the dog can't go inside, we go elsewhere, or else only one of us go inside while the other stays with the dog. It becomes a lifestyle, and after a while, it's never a problem.

If we go camping where we absolutely cannot take the dog, we leave the dog with relatives and don't take him then.

Bottom line is, if you're going to take a dog camping with you, you really need to accommodate the dog too. It's not fun for the dog to be left behind, caged, crated, tucked away, out-of-site, out-of-mind, going hysterical, and scare their mommy and daddy will never come back.

The solution for high energy dogs is simple: lots of exercise, lots of stimulation, and lots of personal attention. These will wear them down.

Great tips! My little man is a Yorkshire Terrier and has been camping since he was 5 months old. I do the same thing with him; he's always in the midst of everything when we're out camping and is involved as much as he can be. He loves walking around and being social with other people and dogs...he loves his attention! The overstimulation really does poop the little guy out...if we're sitting around the fire at night, he doesn't have any issues crawling off of anybody's lap and going right to the steps at the camper as if to say, "hey, I'd like to go to bed!". If I do have to leave him alone in the camper, he's in his crate with the furnace or A/C on and with the radio on for background noise. He does tend to bark some when he's first left alone, but he gets himself calmed down after a little while. I've never had any complaints.

He's the first dog I've ever had and I'd take him anywhere. He's my best friend.