I live in a condo, and I didn’t even have a yard to practice our tent set up. I decided to do these few things while she was young. I’m lucky, Liberty and I have been adventuring since she was eight weeks old. If you have an older dog who is set in their ways or if you aren’t the alpha when it comes to the pack, there may still be some hurdles to tackle. The biggest thing is patience. Patience for the training, patience for you, and most importantly, patience for your dog. This is supposed to be a great adventure full of fun after all!
TENT ACCLIMATION
- I started with having my tent bundled in its compression sack sitting out. By the door, next to the water and food bowls, and all around the house. I did this for a week.
- The following week, I opened the tent up. Had it loosely sitting in the main room next to the dog bed. I prevented any play happening on it. This tent stuff was serious business after all!
- Then the fun happened. I rearranged my Livingroom and set the tent up there. It’s a free-standing tent, so I didn’t have any issues. I then spent the next week sitting in it with Liberty. Her dog bed was in there along with my sleeping pad and bag. I put my backpack in there and my hiking shoes. I pretty much had it set up the way I would when I went hiking.
- A week after that, we spent some nights sleeping in a tent. I left my windows and sliding glass door open so that ambient noises would be present. After a few days of this, we were as prepared as we were going to be.
If you don’t have a month to spare, you can shorten each part down as necessary. Liberty isn’t much of a barker, but when she does, I use the leave it command and tell her thank you. 🐾RELATED ARTICLE – COMMANDS YOUR HIKING DOG SHOULD OBEY – TRAIL ETIQUETTE 101🐾 This acknowledges her guardsmanship, and I finish up with a rewarding thank you. At this point, she will not mess with it anymore.
One of the things I found, that when Liberty is tired she is less concerned about our surroundings. I always try to get her tuckered out, even if that means throwing the tennis ball around before bedtime. Then I let her cool down, drink some water and hit the sack.
If she gets up, it’s a simple lay down, and she goes back to sleep. We did our first hike in the early fall, so we didn’t have to worry about ground pads or beds, or other sleep systems for Liberty. She had just hit a year, so she was still growing anyway. I didn’t want to splurge for a dog sleeping bag and find out she had outgrown it.
Trail Tails
Now that you can get an excellent nights sleep don’t forget to work on fire avoidance. With hiking, camping, and backpacking comes fires and fire pits typically. For the first couple of times keep your pupper leashes, so that way they can learn that fire is HOT! If this article was helpful, please share it on Facebook or some other outlet. It would mean the world to Liberty I, as we continue to grow this site. If something was missing, please leave a comment so we can help our community grow.
