As far as dogs go inside a pop up, our dog is kennel trained and does well when we are going to be away for the day - we simply unzip the canvas on
the bunk end and place the kennell on the bed, works great. A barking dog in a pop up will be mildly more annoying than a barking dog in a hard side, but considering the hard sides are just a few millimeters thicker than canvas
, I would not think the difference is really that great, just turn on the AC and or the radiio and let you dog sleep the day away in comfort...also with a pop up, camping is cheaper many places including the fort
Now - we love pop up camping, actually on our third pop up. the first was basic, small and could be towed by anything - pro - bought for $1500 and mpg difference was negligible - con it was small, 4 people could sleep and eat in there but that was about all and it was nothing more than a place to sleep off the ground
Our second pop up was much larger but still light weight, mpg diff was noticeable but it could be pulled by our minivan - large enough to sleep our family of 5 and 6-8 I suppose but you would want to be a pretty tight nit crew, con was we thought we needed more amenities, in hind sight - it was the perfect camper for us
Our current pop up has most of the amenities of a travel trailer including a slide out, hot water, oven, microwave, decent sized fridge and 4 sleeping areas which is perfect for our family of 5 as each kid has their own space to sleep. Con is it is quite a bit heavier and mpg is a factor on longer trips, 12.2 mpg on the last trip to the fort
If you get a pop up and want to go to the fort- definitely get AC.
the pop up for us was the right choice due to budget, mpg savings, ease of storage in the garage and just the camping experience around home in the spring and fall, nothing like getting a nice breeze through the pop up on one of those rare but perfect weekends. a hard side would be nice for some of the reasons mentioned but for our young family, we don't camp to be comfortable indoors, as we get older and the kids move away - certainly that may change