Camping With a Dog: The Trip Where Everything Takes Longer

Check the rules before you book anything

Check three things on the campground's own page before you book: whether dogs are allowed at all, whether they are allowed on the trails you were planning to walk, and whether there is a breed or number limit. A site that welcomes dogs in the campground and bans them from every trail is a common and disappointing combination if you find out on arrival.

The tent gets a size smaller

A dog is a sleeper, and the site's usual arithmetic applies: 20 to 25 sq ft per person for car camping, and a medium dog occupies roughly the space of a small person once it has stretched out sideways at 3am, which it will.

The practical answer is a tent one size up from what you would otherwise buy, and ideally one with a large vestibule so muddy paws and wet gear have somewhere to live that is not the sleeping area. A Kelty Wireless 6 publishes two vestibules at 19.5 sq ft each on an 86.5 sq ft floor, which is exactly the shape that suits a dog: the dog sleeps inside, the dog's things do not.

Claws and tent floors are the other consideration. A dog turning circles on a 68D polyester floor is fine; the same dog on a 20D backpacking floor is a hole waiting to happen. Put a mat or an old blanket down as a dedicated dog area — it protects the floor, it gives the dog a defined place, and it can be shaken out and left outside. The floor argument is in do you need a tent footprint.

Dogs get cold from the ground too

Every argument this site makes about sleeping pads applies to dogs. A dog lying directly on a tent floor is conducting heat into the ground all night, and short-coated breeds in particular get genuinely cold in conditions their owners find mild.

A closed-cell foam pad is the ideal dog bed: a Therm-a-Rest Z Lite Sol publishes R 2.0 at 14 oz and cannot be punctured, which matters when the user has claws. Add a camping blanket over the top in cold weather. Never give a dog an inflatable pad; it will be a flat inflatable pad by morning.

Water and food

Bring the dog's water, do not let it drink from streams and ponds if you can help it, and add its needs into the trip total. Giardia and other protozoa affect dogs as well as people, and stagnant water carries risks that a filter on your bottle does nothing about because the dog is not drinking through it.

Practically: a collapsible bowl, water offered every time you stop, and a share of the family supply counted into the arithmetic in how much water do you need camping. Portion the food into daily bags at home so nobody is measuring kibble by headlamp.

The leash, the line, and the noise

A six-foot leash is the standard requirement and it is not enough on its own for a campsite, because you cannot hold it for eight hours. The usual setup is a tie-out cable and stake giving the dog a defined area around your pitch, with the short leash used for walking. Attach the tie-out where it cannot wrap around a tent guy line, which is the classic first mistake.

Barking is the reason most campgrounds that ban dogs banned them. A dog in a new environment with people walking past all evening will bark more than at home, and there is no fix available at 10pm. If your dog is reactive to strangers, a pitch at the edge of a site with less foot traffic is worth requesting when you book.

What goes wrong on a first trip

1. Nobody brought a towel for the dog. Then the dog swims, and the towel that gets used is somebody's.
2. The tie-out wraps a guy line and the tent comes down. Anchor it away from the tent.
3. Paws in the ashes. Cold-looking fire rings hold heat for many hours. Keep the dog away from the ring the morning after, as covered in campfire safety basics.
4. Ticks. Dogs collect them from vegetation and bring them into the tent. Check the dog every evening, and note that permethrin clothing treatment is toxic to cats but is used on dogs in veterinary products — ask your vet rather than improvising. The human layer is in bug protection.
5. Heat. Dogs cannot sweat and cope with heat far worse than people. Shade, water and no midday walking, per how to stay cool camping in hot weather.
6. Nowhere to put the muddy dog gear. One dedicated sealed bin for lead, bowls, towel, food and mat means the dog kit does not migrate through everybody else's bags.

Waste, which is not optional

Bag it and bin it, including on trails. Dog waste is not the same as wildlife waste: it is higher in nitrogen and phosphorus from a processed diet, it does not break down the way campers assume, and Leave No Trace guidance treats it as waste to pack out rather than something to leave. Carry more bags than you think you need and a sealed pouch to keep them in until you find a bin.

Start small

A single night close to home tells you almost everything: whether the dog settles in a tent, whether it barks at passers-by, whether it needs a blanket, and whether the setup you planned actually works. Doing that before a three-night trip four hours away is the same advice this site gives about every other part of camping, in the weekend camping trip guide and start here.