Camping with our Pup – What worked and what didn’t

We took our 9 month old Border Terrier for his first camping trip earlier this week. We went to the Sierras and camped at a site next to the Truckee River. The setting was glorious, as my dad would say, and it felt so nice to escape from home for a little while. Pippin did really well and it was a relief to see that some of our early training paid off. But of course, there were a few challenges as well.

Preparing Pup for Camping

While I didn’t do anything in particular to prepare Pippin for our camping trip, some of our earlier training worked wonders.

• Mat Training: Because we have practiced having Pippin lay on his mat any time it appears, this made meals and rest times easier. At home, I keep a mat in the kitchen (close to our main living space) and I also have one in the car. By practicing this regularly at home and on the road (at parks or even at a cafe once), he immediately understood what the mat meant. In the photo above, he had even generalized the concept and decided that he should chew his bully stick on the door mat we put outside of our rental trailer.
• Long Line work: We do LOTS of walks on long lines, which means that he can sniff, climb through bushes, roll around and generally, just be a happy dog. This is a blessing and a curse (which I will describe below). The good news is that it meant that he was comfortable exploring on trails nearby and also that he could wear it around our campsite (to prevent him from sneaking off and being carried away by the fast moving river – he LOVES the water.)
• Recall practice: We are in full blown adolescence right now, which means that I’m less exciting than the environment. We kept him on a leash all the time, per campsite rules and also due to the predatory and sneaky nature of terriers. I love him too much to risk him taking off. That said, all of our practice with recalls in the past was still handy on trails – especially when I thought I saw a bear ahead (which turned out to be a giant black dog, lol).
• Water play: Pippin LOVES the water. He is a wading fanatic and I suspect that eventually he will be a very brave swimmer. We have done many hikes where he has had the opportunity to walk through streams. Unfortunately, at home, they are all dry for the summer. But he relished in cooling off in the water on this trip every chance he could, and I was glad that he felt comfortable.

Improvements I could have made

• Short leash practice: As I said earlier, we do lots of walks and hikes on a long line. But I definitely need to practice more with him on a regular 6-foot leash. He can learn that different equipment means different rules, but I have to get him there. And that will take more practice. It’s entirely my fault that he thought that any leash meant that he could wander about. We will do more practice on the shorter leash with lots of rewards close to my body.
• More high value treats: Camping means being outside, which translates to a gazillion distractions. It also means that treats that he finds rewarding in our relatively boring house or backyard don’t have enough value to catch his attention. I should have packed more high value treats to incentivize him to pay more attention to me near distractions.
• Desensitizing to outside noises at night: This was our first time renting a trailer. All of the camping trips of my youth were in tents, where we could hear every little sound, day or night. Fortunately, the trailer we used kept a lot of the sounds at bay, but Pippin was still quite sensitive to the ones he did hear. The first night, none of us got much sleep, but he did much better the second night (but that was likely due to exhaustion). In retrospect, I should have used the app “Pup School” or my birding apps to desensitize him to a variety of other noises he could have encountered while camping. When you know better, you do better 🙂
• Practicing napping in locations outside the home: On our second day, Pippin hardly napped, aside from when we were in the car. He had a serious case of FOMO – not wanting to miss out on anything. The good news is that he slept like a rock that night. But the bad news is that he was not well rested throughout the day, which made him crankier than usual (I can relate). I think that moving forward, I’ll need to work with him more on napping when we are out. We’d love to go camping more often, but would prefer he is more rested and well adjusted than he was on our maiden voyage.

Have you ever taken your dog camping? If so, I’d love to hear your tips! I still have so much to learn.