advice on taking German Shepherd camping in TT with kids?

Don't. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Better to wait a bit till he settles out of puppy stage, and some serious training on how to behave around others, dogs and people, and how to mind well when you tell him to.

All you need is someone to complain about your rambunctious dog accosting them and you may no longer be seasonal at the campground.
Not everyone will think your dog with no manners is cute.

Our Rottweiler/Chow mix has camped with us since he was tan weeks old. He's 110 lbs of charisma. It's all about training him and those he comes into contact with. I tell those who approach us he is not the most sociable dog and would prefer not to be touched. He is well trained and responds to all of his commands.

Four years and zero issues, he'll even stay eight hours in the fiver while we are away for the day and no issues. He loves to go camping and I won't deny him his fun.

Camp on

Yes, we are hesitant for the above mentioned reasons. Figured we need to wait till he matures

You seem like pretty responsible owners, just by posting the question. I'll assume that you are already working on, and doing well, at basic obedience training. If not, well.....

But otherwise, the dog needs as much socialization to other people and dogs as you can get. The more he experiences it at a young age, the less problems you will have later. Worst would be to ban him completely until older, when behaviors/personality become more fixed.

That said - do it slowly, for limited times, in a controlled manner. Take him up for just a day or weekend. Make sure he is always on leash. Time outs work for dogs too - misbehavior, and isolate him in the trailer briefly. Talk to your obedience instructor about specifics, since they have experience with your dog. And remember the most critical - "A tired dog is a good dog". So lots of walks and running, and then introduce him to the new environment.

yes, we have worked hard to train him basic obedience but he does still get excited and ignore us lol! I agree with you that we maybe should begin when he is young and keep it short and simple when there but also leary of the "disaster waiting to happen" lol as he is a big boy! My husband and I have thought about possible taking him down a weekend when we go alone without the kids so we can focus on acclimating him to the new environment with training and lot of treats

I agree with Flapper. The idea of avoiding any potential training issues until he's grown IS a disaster waiting to happen.

My Bat-dog has people issues. I have always taken her camping with me (along with her brother who is a good boy). I've never pretended she didn't have issues, I've never let my attention wander from her, and I've always had a positive experience with other campers in regards to her. Most folks were happy to assist with a little positive reinforcement. When we started, she was a 95 percent problem camper. With a lot of 3 and 4 day trips, she has become a 10 percent problem camper (when she gets tired and cranky she regresses a bit).

Most shepherds are eager to please and a stern "NO" and "the look" can do wonders for them. They don't like having you upset with them.

I would recommend that one adult take on the task of keeping him in line - no trying to handle six kids AND the dog by one parent. Always keep him on a 6ft leash and always have an adult holding onto that leash and paying attention to him.

I squirt bottle with water can help when he gets "excited" and forgets to listen - the squirt of water is enough to break his attention from the excitement and remind him that you're there talking to him.

Exercise is great. A routine is great. A "cuddle" period at night before bed where he can lay down and let the kids touch him and just be calm and relaxed can help settle him for bedtime. A toybox with some special "camping only" toys can help also - you might stay away from tug-of-war and keep away games as those tend to encourage over excitement.

Good advice!

We have had a few dogs over the last (many many) years and the dogs were all ... well ... just plain nuts! We took them with us camping and exposed them to everything. Now please understand! Listen Carefully! .... It took WORK! Lots of WORK! 100% attention!

But, we exposed the dogs to 100% over-stimulation! The noise, the traffic, the people, other pets, constant changing environments, motion, things going on, constantly something happening. All day, and lots of noises all night Yes! Every dog we've had ... at first ... goes ape-nuts! Want to bark at everything, chase everything, and play with everything. But soon find it absolutely impossible to keep up with everything and literally exhaust themselves with over stimulation!


After about the 3rd time camping, they mellow down and eventually, absolutely NOTHING excites them any more!

Time, work, constant attention, and it pays off. Take the dog for car rides, let him go with you everywhere you go. Let him out of the car, even if just a parking lot. Play, play, play! But the secret is 100% stimulation, so much exercise, so much excitement, so much exposure to new things, and everything constantly changing... and they literally will give up!

Then they turn into really GREAT camping dogs, and now we work very hard to keep everything calm and peaceful. We have always had GREAT camping dogs, but it took work to get them there!

The good: exposure to new people and pets will be good for socialization - the lack of "nap time" that tends to come with camping will probably make for a tired (therefore "good") dog

The uh-oh: I can see with that many kids, and an outside filled with adventures, that your pup could slip out the dog and be off like a shot in the blink of an eye. I would probably not take him along with the kids until he has what's known as a "bomb-proof recall" and a strong "stay".

We camped once along the ocean a decade or so ago, and a few trailers down from us was a family with youngish kids and (ironically) a rambunctious shepherd. I can't tell you how many times he got out - in his case, he made a beeline for the water to chase waves, so he wasn't exactly a threat to the other campers, but hearing his family of 5 chase and shriek his name as they tried to catch him, multiple times each day, got wearisome....LOL! In that dog's case, he had ZERO recall.