Wilderness & Survival Companions

Here is two companions

 

Here is my wilderness companion...

I inherited him when I got my new girlfriend... I've never had a big, capable outdoors dog before, but this guy goes with me on as many hikes as I can take him on. I've never taken him on an overnight yet, but I'd love to if I can convince his momma to let me.

What do most of you guys do with the dog at night at camp? I am assuming most of you leash them, but is it a long leash or a short one or do you use something else? What temperatures are ok for a dog to be outside in overnight? If I can get my Clark Jungle Hammock, I want to do some hammock camping overnights and I want to make sure the dog is comfortable...

Thanks,

JGON

 

When I have gunner with me I hook a carabiner to my belt and hook the leash in when i go to sleep. he doesn't ever go far, but since i don't typically use a tent its nice to have him close. When its cold out he will get in the sleeping bag with me. He has short hair so the cold gets to him. even if i leave him a wool blanket next to the fire, I am typically woken up by him trying to wiggle his cold nose into the opening at the top of my bag. its a little tight, but if its really cold i don't mind the extra heat. If the big dogs are with me they don't need to be leashed at night. They are never more than 15 feet away. Their breed just likes to be close by to make sure everything is ok. It needs to be said that the big dogs only come out on an adventure when I won't be moving around. They are too slow., however, there is nothing warmer than sleeping between two Great Pyrenees.

As for the hammock camping...I have an ENO double nest hammock. Again, only when its cold, Gunner will get up in it with me. I don't usually take the hammock when its really cold so I will only have a wool blanket and the cloths I am wearing, but he likes to snuggle. When its warm he will sleep under the hammock with his lead clipped to my belt.

not a dog, but my best survival companion in the woods and life:
(Ashley)


second on the list, and very jealous of the fact:
(Gunner)




These guys don't get to come out too often. they usually stay at the farm and watch over the house and animals, but they do love it when they get to come along. The smaller one, Bodie, is allot bigger now (I wish I had some more recent photos on hand). The larger of the two is Willow. The picture with my dad in it is to give perspective on how large these guys actually are. My dad is a little over 6'2'' and weighs about 230 lbs.
(Bodie and Willow)


(With Dad)

 

My Blue Heeler at Terminal Velocity;



Wilma saying,, Lets go Old Man, I aint gots all Day!

 

My old woods buddy.


My new woods buddy, just got her last week.

 

Here is my woods buddy...he is a man track'n fool! He is now 9 months old and 90 pounds (he was 7.5 months old and 70 pounds in these photos) He has a 100% success rate in finding simulated lost people and is now locating them at the intermedate level of difficulty. This is really good considering he is still a snot nose pup!





Here he just finished a series of tracks locating articles - yes he found them all!

 

I use a tent, and my Rotty sleeps inside with me. As he is older now, he even gets his own blanket. Used to be that he'd get as close to the cold as he could, but no more.

It sucks watching your best friend get old.

 

This is Sabbath when she was about 8. She is 13 now and has Cushings disease and arthritis. But she still goes on hikes, short ones, only 3 miles or so. but like you said.....it's tough watching your friend get old.

 

Here are Hero and Gracie from our snowshoeing daytrip last week. THey're getting big!

 

Sadly I had to part with my companion, a pure bred Golden Retriever, when I split with my ex a number of years ago. :'(

I still think about her sometimes. The dog, not my ex.

 

That's great that she can go with you, even just three miles. I got Kona on a day hike earlier this year, but we only went a couple of miles. He made it fine, but he wasn't as happy as he used to be. Now, he'll play in the yard for a couple hours, but walks and hikes, he just isn't as into anymore.

My in-law's Rott, one of them, made it nearly 14 years. But our first died just 2 weeks short of her 10th birthday, of osteosarcoma. Kona is 8 now, and slowing down. Primarily due to a persistent shoulder problem from a puppy injury (from the other Rott, playing). So he is slowing down quickly.

Sorry to drag the thread down. But enjoy them while you have them.

 

Here I am a couple of years ago in the Snowy Range with our trail dog, Foxy Brown.


He's camp clown -




A couple of Lili, who is new to hiking and camping. These were taken last year when she was still a puppy -




Unless we are on a very isolated trail the dogs stay on leash. The dogs sleep with us in the tent, as they aren't very big and don't take up much room.

Andy

 

Here's my hiking buddy. He's 12 years old. He's done a lot of hiking in his life but not enough lately. I've been too busy and lazy!

 

Here is my Trail Buddy Benson....He will strait mess you up!



Lol actually I am leash training him and he responds, comes, talks much like a dog. I have trained him like a dog as thats all I've owned. My other dogs love him and he purrs/talks all the darn time. At night its tough to shut him up as he wants to play. But darned if he doesnt like going outside and on walks with me.

 

Great thread!
Here is my partner. Zoe, my 9mo old fawn Boxer.

 

Lost my hiking buddy earlier this month. I'm finding it hard to get back on the trail without him.

 

Hiking buddies in my woods:





On backpacking trips I really don't like to take my dog because I sort of dislike seeing dogs on the trail.

My friend has a little dog that's a great hiker and sweet dog but when she goes with us she'll often take off after deer or other wildlife and that sort of bugs me.

However if I'm backpacking alone, or we are doing a day hike, which is rare, we will sometimes take Bear Henry

 

May I ask, what happened? Just old age?

It will take a while, or at least it did me. And the Rott we lost just short of her 10th wasn't even really my dog. I mean, she tolerated me, but she was my wife's. But I still miss her sometimes, and that was 2007.

 

Our little “Mini-Lab Boy” Moose. Wife and I adopted him back in June. I won’t lie, he’s a ball of fire and runs 100 mph all the time, but he’s starting to calm down a little bit. There’s just so much to see! I just bought him a Ruffwear Approach pack for his first birthday coming up and went ahead and started trying to get him used to it. At first, I just put a .5 L water bottle on each side and except for nipping at it the first couple times I put it on, he does great with it. Give him a job to do and it really calms him down.

On the couch after a day hike.



Helping dad look for tinder for our lunch fire. I used to keep him on a check rope to drag behind him. Some of the places we hike have bluffs and I always liked to have a way to grab on to him if I needed to, but don’t need it much any more. He’s a trailblazer through and through! We were supposed to be out hiking today, not working! Oh well, sleeting anyway.

 

He would have turned 10 in November this year, which would make him not "quite" old- even for a large breed.

His end came rather suddenly, so I take some comfort in knowing he didn't suffer long. He had a torn nail on one of his paws, so the Vet gave him an antibiotic for it- one he had taken before for a similar injury a couple of years ago. He had been on the Rx for a couple of days when he suddenly lost any interest in walking with me. He had always LIVED for a walk, so we immediately took him back to the Vet. His vitals all checked out fine, so it was surmised that he was reacting badly to the meds. We took him off the meds, but his condition worsened and he lost interest in most food and even water. Finally, I saw him get up to try to go somewhere (I hoped to get himself a drink) and he collapsed. This was in the middle of the night, so I woke KatClaws up and we headed to an after-hours Emergency Clinic with him. The Vet there offered us no hope, and suggested that Code had cancer, rather than a bad reaction to the Rx. After consulting with our regular Vet again, the best guess is that he had a tumor on his spleen that may have leaked or ruptured.

Sorry about your Rott, too. I know the only way to get "over" it is to go "through" it. I just need to re-learn how to walk without him.

HD- Man, I love your cats! I wish ours were that "dog-like" in their behavior.