How many of you have tent camped with your dog? We are considering trying it up north this summer, but I have a few logistic questions. Does your dog sleep through the night? Normally, Bode doesn't sleep in close quarters with us, he prefers the couch. I'm also concerned about all the exciting noises that would keep him distracted. Also, if you are doing something that you can't take the dog, what do you do with him? Obviously a tent is not a good container and a kennel would be fairly large to set up inside the tent. Just leave him in the car? Or just don't do anything without the dog?

I have camped with Zoe. She tends to go to sleep when we do and lays in the bed with us. So she is fine in the tent. The noises didn't keep her up, but she is a real "state of mind dog" and she was in sleep mode.

One thing you could do is buy a stake to stick into the ground with a 15 foot leash or so and and just let her stay outside the tent tied to the stake.

We did it on the SFL Snowdogs camping trip last year. The dogs stayed in the tent with us and we wrapped their leashes around our wrist. Totally paranoid, I know...lol. The noises woke them up maybe once or twice, but other than that they slept through the night. They were exhausted! We didn't leave them at all. They came with us everywhere.

I want to do this so bad. I just terrified they're going to hear something outside and tear out of the tent (literally) lol. I'd be like Melissa and have their leash attached to me somehow during the night.

I have. I kenneled them and put locks on the crate door just incase. I even left them in the tent while we left the camp site. They were fine the whole time.

Mine slept loose in the tent. Took awhile for them to just chill out and go to sleep and Mishka liked pawing at the tent sides the first night... But they were fine. We took ours everywhere or had them tied up to a tree around the campsite since we were all together. Never left them alone in the tent.

I was very nervous too at first, I thought that all things that can go bad were!
Nope, I was wrong, both mine did excellent! They slept outside the tent on a tie out, right next to eachother and right next to our tent. They did pretty well with the noises.
Yes, a couple of times they'd bark if they heard like the neighbors get up, but that was it.
We never left them alone, we took them with us for walks, swims, everywhere we went they came...overall it was a good time.

i know we have a thread somewhere with this info, i know i have posted answers before. i LEARNED real fast the first time we went what NOT to do camping. DONT show up at dark with crazy huskies that have not been able to explore the area first and think they will sleep in the tent. DONT take the leashes off them and leave they out side the tent, DONT try to open the tent to get leashes for the dogs, they went running out of the tent in the middle of the night with coyotes running around! thank god we were able to tackle them and get them back in the tent, no sleep for us that night.

what you DO do to go camping.
arrive with plenty of time to check the area out with the dogs
buy a cable tie out and stake for hanging outside the tent with you during the day, cant always know if a tree will be near by
do not leave dog food and treats in the tent at night
buy a clip to "lock" the tent zippers so they do not get out of the tent at night
keep the leashes on them in the tent at night
i have small travel dog beds i got from costco, they know to sleep on them in the tent
i would NEVER leave them outside the tent at night, to many animals in CO that would try to eat them.
we have a water dish in the tent for they to drink
we only camp to hike so they are always with us, would never leave them alone
um that all i can think of for now..... we did not camp at all last season because of fires hope to this yr.

At husky camp I put my two in a soft crate in the tent with me. Mine were not tired at all and I was not going to let them keep me up all night! lol. Oh and one word of caution with leaving them loose in the tent, I wouldn't advise it if your dog is afraid of thunderstorms. My dad went camping with his samoyed mix like he's done a few times before. He kept him loose in the tent with him. Well around midnight a big thunderstorm hit and his dog freaked out and went right through the side of the tent! My dad spent the next half hour chasing him around with lightning hitting all around in the mountains of Wyoming. He finally caught him and waited out the storm under a big rock until it cleared enough for him to go find his truck and tent again. Needless to say, they spent the rest of the night in the truck. lol. But I think for the most part, dogs do fine loose in the tent, I just prefer to keep them in a crate in the tent to make sure they are fully safe and so they don't bother me!

I've camped with my dog, but she was much older when we went camping so she was already mellow and used to sleeping through the night. She sleeps in the tent with me, easy.

We are planning to take Q for his first camping trip this summer. Fortunately for us, we've finally graduated from tent camping, to a pop-up. Still, we are worried about all the same things as the OP. It'll be an interesting venture, that's for sure!

Our friends whom we've been camping with for over 10 years bring their two Chow Chows every time. The dogs, albeit not the friendliest, are tied on tie outs and actually just keep to themselves. They sleep in a pop-up too and have no issues.

We're planning on doing a fair amount of tent camping as well, and had that in mind when we upgraded our tent last year. We wound up getting a 3 person tent to give the dogs some room, and fully intend on letting them sleep free in the tent. We only plan on going to dog friendly areas, but plan on leaving them on a tie out with supervision when we're just hanging out in the campgrounds.

blueeyedghost wrote:

We only plan on going to dog friendly areas, but plan on leaving them on a tie out with supervision when we're just hanging out in the campgrounds.

Yep, we all did that and they did great on the tieouts while we were just hanging out. I'm super paranoid and did freak a bit when it was so dark I coudln't see them so I moved the tieouts closer to the fire...lol.

Mannnn, that was fun! Sucks it didn't happen this year I wouldn't have been able to go anyway because of Ivans leg issues.

Speaking of chow-chows. I had a german shepherd- chow-chow mix growing up and we used to go camping all the time. One day we went for a short hike and came back to find him inside the tent......he had torn through the tent door so he could lay inside the tent. LOL

blueeyedghost wrote:

We're planning on doing a fair amount of tent camping as well, and had that in mind when we upgraded our tent last year. We wound up getting a 3 person tent to give the dogs some room, and fully intend on letting them sleep free in the tent. We only plan on going to dog friendly areas, but plan on leaving them on a tie out with supervision when we're just hanging out in the campgrounds.

only a 3 person tent..... wow thats what i use when its just me and the pups, we have a 5 person tent for the 4 of us and thats just enough room for dog beds our crap and us to sleep with just some room at the doors for moving around! let me know how that tent works for you