Tips For Hiking With Dogs

[FooFooCuddlyPoops]

Hey guys,

I have been trying to get around to posting this for a while now and finally got down to writing it out. These tips are not mean to start a debate over off leash/on leash, and snarky comments are to be with-held.

So without further ado, here are some tips for beginners on hiking with dogs:

Camping-

First tip is to of course know your dog. If they can only hike up the block without panting, than do not expect them to be able to join you on a 20 mile back country camping trip.

For those that do bring their dog camping, make sure to pack accordingly. Do not just think your dog will love sleeping outside the tent at all times on the cold hard ground. When I tent camp, I usually bring an extra fleece blanket for my dog to sleep on/in. I also usually bring a small piece of a blue pad for him to rest on so he can better warm himself in the winter months.

Dog Cloths and Packs, make sure they don't chafe. Dogs get sore spots as well. Also, they can only carry little less than 10% of their weight. I however would not put backpacks on dogs with known back problems like Dachshunds or Basset hounds. Know your dog!!

If you are deep in the back woods, know your dog, and are sure there is a 3.111111% chance of someone coming upon your campsite, Your pup can be off leash. However, my rule of thumb is...back on leash the moment they stray out of site at camp. Feel sad for your dog being on leash at the campsite? Get a long leash unless you know for sure your dog won't run off. I have two dogs, one young. one old. The young stays on a leash, and the old is allowed free roam (never out of site, and usually he just passes out somewhere after a long hike.) unless someone shows up at camp. Out of respect, I make sure both dogs are on leash as too not bother the other people.

Hiking:

TB Continued. Coffee run, and I will edit when back. I dont want to loose my writing in case laptop turns off.

[mitch]

Good advice, My dog is under verbal command all the time. I make sure people we meet are ok with dogs before he can approach them.P1010709.JPG

[DuneElliot]

How much a dog can carry is actually more like 20% of their weight, not 10%, but that also varies with the breed and size of the dog.

[T-Rx]

I am currently on the trail in Georgia and have been here for 4 days. Based on my experiences so far I have a couple of tips for dog owners who wish to hike with their dogs. #1 is control your animal!! I have yet to see a dog on a leash or walking with their owners. They travel 30-40 yards ahead, bark at on coming hikers and then the owners just smile and laugh. 2 nights ago at Gooch mountain we were hit with quite a storm. The shelter was filling up fast. In comes a couple and their son and 3 large aggressive dogs. They proceeded into the shelter where the wet dogs walked on everyone's stuff. They then proceeded to put out 6 pads in the shelter, one for each person and one for each dog! People left the shelter and went into the rain to set up tents to avoid these idiots with the dogs. What made this worse is "Kenny" the Ridge Runner/ Caretaker for Gooch was sitting right there in the shelter sipping his tea and observing all of this. He never said a word to the dog owners about their dogs behavior or the "people" space they were taking up in the shelter on this bad stormy night. I am a dog lover but my experiences on the AT both this year and past years has absolutely convinced me that dogs DO NOT belong on the AT. And I'm certain this rant does not apply to all those whose little furry friends would never do such a thing!

[rocketsocks]

C'mon, everyone knows this has nothing to do with dogs and is all about idiot inconsiderate don't give a shyte hikers...period! The dogs should leave these owners home.

[Sarcasm the elf]

I am currently on the trail in Georgia and have been here for 4 days. Based on my experiences so far I have a couple of tips for dog owners who wish to hike with their dogs. #1 is control your animal!! I have yet to see a dog on a leash or walking with their owners. They travel 30-40 yards ahead, bark at on coming hikers and then the owners just smile and laugh. 2 nights ago at Gooch mountain we were hit with quite a storm. The shelter was filling up fast. In comes a couple and their son and 3 large aggressive dogs. They proceeded into the shelter where the wet dogs walked on everyone's stuff. They then proceeded to put out 6 pads in the shelter, one for each person and one for each dog! People left the shelter and went into the rain to set up tents to avoid these idiots with the dogs. What made this worse is "Kenny" the Ridge Runner/ Caretaker for Gooch was sitting right there in the shelter sipping his tea and observing all of this. He never said a word to the dog owners about their dogs behavior or the "people" space they were taking up in the shelter on this bad stormy night. I am a dog lover but my experiences on the AT both this year and past years has absolutely convinced me that dogs DO NOT belong on the AT. And I'm certain this rant does not apply to all those whose little furry friends would never do such a thing!

That section is very popular and packed full of hikers, tourists, inexperienced hikers, and jackasses alike. What you are describing is not a problem with dogs on the trail, it is more correctly the hiker equivalent of going to Disney World during spring break, there is going to be a certain amount of chaos and nonsense.

This isn't meant to excuse any of the behaviors you saw, I'm just saying don't draw any general conclusions about the whole 2000+ mile A.T: based on the nonsense that happens in Southern Georgia in the spring.

[nsherry61]

. . . my experiences on the AT both this year and past years has absolutely convinced me that dogs DO NOT belong on the AT. . .

By this logic (a few bad apples) people shouldn't be allowed on the AT either.
I object to that concept, because, without the AT to keep backpackers occupied and away from other trails, I've have to put up with more people when backpacking.

[Greenlight]

I'm seriously considering a SOBO or Harpers Ferry Flip-Flop when I do my AT thru-hike, just to avoid the drama of starting in Georgia in the spring.

I'm just saying don't draw any general conclusions about the whole 2000+ mile AT based on the nonsense that happens in Southern Georgia in the spring.

[T-Rx]

Rocket & Sarcasm, you are both correct. It is the owners not the dogs because dogs are trainable animals. I have hiked a lot of miles on the northern half of the AT and observed some bad behaviors in dogs and owners but never to this degree that I have experienced in Ga. My advice to anyone attempting a thruhike would be SOBO or flip flop but avoid this crap if possible! And the Ridge Runner reinforced these bad behaviors by doing nothing! I do love the AT and Ga. was my home for 40+ years but this self absorbed behavior I have observed this past week is awful.

[Greenlight]

T: Exactly on the SOBO/FF. For those who insist on doing a NOBO, has anyone on here ever started in TN/NC and hiked north until the hoi polloi has left Springer and most of them decided by GSMNP that thru-hiking isn't for them, then circle back to Springer in hmmm...later in May? Hod did that go?

Rocket & Sarcasm, you are both correct. It is the owners not the dogs because dogs are trainable animals. I have hiked a lot of miles on the northern half of the AT and observed some bad behaviors in dogs and owners but never to this degree that I have experienced in Ga. My advice to anyone attempting a thruhike would be SOBO or flip flop but avoid this crap if possible! And the Ridge Runner reinforced these bad behaviors by doing nothing! I do love the AT and Ga. was my home for 40+ years but this self absorbed behavior I have observed this past week is awful.

[saltysack]

Rocket & Sarcasm, you are both correct. It is the owners not the dogs because dogs are trainable animals. I have hiked a lot of miles on the northern half of the AT and observed some bad behaviors in dogs and owners but never to this degree that I have experienced in Ga. My advice to anyone attempting a thruhike would be SOBO or flip flop but avoid this crap if possible! And the Ridge Runner reinforced these bad behaviors by doing nothing! I do love the AT and Ga. was my home for 40+ years but this self absorbed behavior I have observed this past week is awful.

I hike with my pup and agree dogs should sleep away from the rat boxes...rain or shine....sorry for your crappy experience....this the main reason I prefer to hike in the "off season"........when I do a thru it will be sobo.....

[Singto]

This is the current self destructing attitude in the country today. Because of a few bad apples all the good apples have to be punished too. It has now permeated throughout our society even to the point that our politicians exploit such incidents to pass more and more costly regulations and oppressive laws.

Leave the good people (those who control their dogs, in this conversation) in our society alone. Why do they have to pay for others acts of ignorance or irresponsibility?

[Tipi Walter]

The shelter was filling up fast. In comes a couple and their son and 3 large aggressive dogs. They proceeded into the shelter where the wet dogs walked on everyone's stuff. They then proceeded to put out 6 pads in the shelter, one for each person and one for each dog! People left the shelter and went into the rain to set up tents to avoid these idiots with the dogs. I am a dog lover but my experiences on the AT both this year and past years has absolutely convinced me that dogs DO NOT belong on the AT.

I am convinced that shelters DO NOT belong on the AT. And these rat boxes DO NOT have rules or regulations no matter how much love hikers have for these car ports. So, when someone brings in their muddy dogs at 2am none of the shelter lovers have any right to complain. I actually want to see muddy hikers with muddy dogs come in at 2am and wake everybody up demanding a spot on the floor with the dogs getting everyone filthy.

Why? Because everyone in the shelter is box dependent. The shelter residents actually have the gall to say the shelter has rules like no dogs and yet they are Detards as the shelter is a wide open piss tank available to anyone for any activity. If someone is strange enough to use them on their backpacking trip and too lazy to set up their own shelter then they have nothing to say for themselves in defense of their space while in one of these rat boxes.

Because once you air a single complaint you are advertising your unwillingness to rely on your own shelter system. You willingly have allowed yourself to be box dependent and this choice negates any indignation you may have with fellow occupants in the same box. You're all in the same boiling pot of sewage . . . . and slowly cooking in a rat box-induced retardation.


Once dependent on these mud homes people get prickly as if shelters have rules and they develop a strong sense of entitlement to these open sores.

"No dogs! No room except for me and my friends!! No dogs!!!!"

Uh, yeah, right.

[Traveler]

Unfortunately, due to the high population on trails like the AT in the Eastern US, shelters are in fact a necessity to consolidate camping damage from large numbers of people. I cannot imagine what the trail would look like without them, as unpleasant as they may be, the alternative would be worse.

[jefals]

I know this is AT related, but felt like sharing this: I'm not a dog owner. Found a story about a new trail, so a friend and I decided to hike it last week. The trailhead is at this store, about 9 miles up a narrow, winding mountain road. We got there, parked, and these two dogs started running up to us excitedly, barking, while we were getting prepared. We were both a little nervous and very annoyed, especially with the fact that whoever owned them was ignoring the situation.
It turned out, the dogs were excited because they knew they were going hiking. They ran off down the trail ahead of us, but kept coming back to "check on us". So they kind of led the way and kept us from getting lost. And there were no other hikers out there, so they couldn't bother anyone. in this case, I kinda liked having them along.

[plexusbritt]

I am a dog owner and I do hike with my dog. Just throwing that out there from the get go.

But for the life of me, I cannot imagine having my dog off leash unless in a really really out of the ordinary, odd situation. (ie this past weekend camping in a locked park area/knowing that I was the only one with a pass for that area, I did let her go off leash down to the creek) I have just run into way too many aggressive dogs for me to be comfortable with her being more than a few feet from me.

I think successful hiking with your dog boils down to respect. If I respect my fellow hiker/backpacker, I wont just bring my dog into a shelter. I will ask if anyone has a problem with dogs. If I respect my fellow hiker, I wont have my dog (albeit very well behaved) off of a leash. If I respect the wildlife, I will not have my dog off leash and/or barking at it. If I respect the wilderness, I will dispose of her waste in a responsible manner. If I choose to bring a dog into the wilderness setting, I bear the responsibility of making the above considerations and if I feel that any of the above would fail in being respectful, she stays home just the same as she would if hiking with a friend who has allergies to them as, out of respect, I would leave her home. Stranger, wildlife, wilderness, or friend, it (in my opinion) should not make any difference.

On the subject of the issues being in GA, please, as the wife of a north GA man, accept my apologies for the way pet owners handle their animals. I asked him if that was just a general theme up there even off trail and he confirmed that it was. His dog is one of the best behaved animals I have ever seen. He said he is adamant that his dog never be a nuisance.

[T.Bates]

I know this is AT related, but felt like sharing this: I'm not a dog owner. Found a story about a new trail, so a friend and I decided to hike it last week. The trailhead is at this store, about 9 miles up a narrow, winding mountain road. We got there, parked, and these two dogs started running up to us excitedly, barking, while we were getting prepared. We were both a little nervous and very annoyed, especially with the fact that whoever owned them was ignoring the situation.
It turned out, the dogs were excited because they knew they were going hiking. They ran off down the trail ahead of us, but kept coming back to "check on us". So they kind of led the way and kept us from getting lost. And there were no other hikers out there, so they couldn't bother anyone. in this case, I kinda liked having them along.

Are you saying that these random dogs just accompanied you on the trail? with no owners? or anything? Did you ever find the owners? That is terrible and irresponsible on their part to just completely let their dogs go free like that.

[doingtime]

I know this is AT related, but felt like sharing this: I'm not a dog owner. Found a story about a new trail, so a friend and I decided to hike it last week. The trailhead is at this store, about 9 miles up a narrow, winding mountain road. We got there, parked, and these two dogs started running up to us excitedly, barking, while we were getting prepared. We were both a little nervous and very annoyed, especially with the fact that whoever owned them was ignoring the situation.
It turned out, the dogs were excited because they knew they were going hiking. They ran off down the trail ahead of us, but kept coming back to "check on us". So they kind of led the way and kept us from getting lost. And there were no other hikers out there, so they couldn't bother anyone. in this case, I kinda liked having them along.

I'm glad you had this experience. This is exactly how I feel when I'm hiking with my dog. I love how excited she is to be on the trail, to be with me, and when she runs back to see where I am. Actually I do believe, if she could talk, she would say HURRY UP, LET'S GO!!

[Slo-go'en]

Are you saying that these random dogs just accompanied you on the trail? with no owners? or anything? Did you ever find the owners? That is terrible and irresponsible on their part to just completely let their dogs go free like that.

He said the trail head was at a store, which might also be where the owners live and hence the dogs. They apparently know the area well.