Camping with puppy for the first time.

[TinCup]

Coming to the Fort in a couple of weeks for a long weekend. We have an Aliner popup and are planning on bringing our Pekingese puppy with us to see if she likes camping. We have never taken her camping before.

Does anyone have any dos or don'ts, or anyother advice for camping at the Fort with a dog?

 

[jbrostek]

Standard do's and don'ts apply. since your in a popup I would hope you are crate training the pup, otherwise the pup could do damage to the soft sides and possibly escape. Do you know how the pup is when your away? Mine at first would yip a bit and settle down, as she got older that stopped. With soft sides that will won't hold back the noise as much, and being considerate to other campers is always a nice thing.

 

[KristinU]

An Aliner is a hardside pop-up I still kinda miss ours...but with two labs and a growing boy we just wouldn't fit anymore, and now we have our big behemoth

Anyway, we took one of our labby boys to the Fort when he was about 10 months old. TinCup, how far is the drive? Has your baby been on long car trips already? That was a big factor for us, making sure he would do OK on long car rides. Some dogs get motion sick or simply don't love being in the car. Our boy did great and has been on many trips since then, now along with his brother. Make sure to stop and stretch her little legs every so often on the drive.

Has she stayed on her own in the camper before? Is she crate trained? You'll want to just be sure she feels secure and comfortable when you're not there. Maybe leave a t-shirt for her to cuddle with that you wore the day before. And remain flexible with your days. There was one day on that first trip where we started leaving for one of the parks and Kansas (or dog) was barking...so DH stayed behind and hung out at the Fort with Kansas while DS and I went to the Studios. Not a big deal to shift gears (and DS and I had some fun "mom and me" time), but it would have been a big deal to our neighbors I'm sure had we left him barking...and we didn't want him stressed either.

You may want to take along water for her from home. I know some dogs have tummy trouble switching to different water. My guys don't, but something to consider.

Since she's a small fry, you might not be interested in the dog park at the Fort, but Kansas loved it there! Plus it was nice to meet and chat with other dog parents.

 

[jbrostek]

I had no idea the aliner meant hardsided popup. Learn something new every day. That is true on the dogs for the ride too, I forget about that as my pups are great in the car. Once we are out past the traffic they settle down for the ride. My aussie shifts between sleeping and watching the road. My minpin just gets under her woobie and snores till we slow down or stop, then she must see whats going on. In the end the stops work great for me and the dogs, I am a good 3-4 hours between stops and that seems to be OK with them.

 

[KristinU]

I had no idea the aliner meant hardsided popup. Learn something new every day.

Google them, they're A frame hard side and the coolest little campers ever...well, I'm a little biased since we had one, but still way cool

We keep a blog for each camper, here's the Aliner one: www.alineradventures.blogspot.com

OK, sorry to get off topic!!!

 

[Born 2 Fish]

Basically you are not spose to leave a pet alone in any camper -pop up or any tent ,campers with cloth/soft sides..Nor are they permitted to outside on your site hooked up to leashes etc, while unattended. (crated or not,, this rule is what it is)

Any camper with all hard sides as I understand it, are fine.
Sounds like you are good to go,

 

[TinCup]

Thank you all for the responses. This will be our puppy Ming’s first time camping so we figured we would do a weekend trip to see how she does. We will be camping at the Fort the first week of December, and then for a week over New Years. We would like to take Ming with us for both of the trips, but we figured we better to a weekend test run first.

Ming is crate trained and we will be bringing her crate. She has never been in her crate in our camper. We have done the T-shirt in the crate when we have boarded her at the kennel, and we will be bringing scented T-shirts for her on this trip. We are hoping that she will be fine in her crate when we leave the campsite without her. She never has a problem when we crate her at night or when we leave for work.

Ming doesn’t really bark (usually to annoy the cats), but that is something that I hadn’t really thought about. I know that we were planning on spending most of our time at the campsite with Ming. Probably the only time we will leave without her will be to get something to eat. Now I know that it is a good idea to hang around a bit outside our camper to make sure Ming has settled down before we actually go somewhere. We certainly don’t want to be poor camping neighbors. If she doesn’t settle down we will just come up with plan B.

The water from home suggestion is truly inspired. At home we drink filtered bottled water from a service. I usually bring a case of bottled water when we go camping so now I will bring a little more to make sure Ming will be covered.

We were planning on walking Ming to the dog park and then deciding if it will be a good fit for her. She is very social and loves playing with other dogs, and saying hello to the dog parents. She is small so my concern would be her getting overwhelmed by bigger dogs while playing off leash. Ming does well with the bigger dogs in the neighborhood during our walks, but all the dogs are on leashes.

We live in central Florida and it will probably take us about an hour and a half to get to the Fort towing the camper (I tend to drive slow while towing). We have taken Ming on short car rides around town, the longest being about 20 minutes. She is happy to sit there with the A/C blowing in her face. I don’t think she will have a problem on the drive to the Fort.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Kristin I see that you are from Connecticut. I lived most of my life in CT. I grew up in Greenwich, and when I was married to my first wife I lived in the Danbury area. I still have family that live in CT. Also the Aliner is the perfect size for me and my wife, but I can understand how you would out grow it with a growing boy and two larger dogs. Small world.

 

[TinCup]

Frank, thanks for the heads up regarding the rules for camping with a dog at the fort. We are planning on crating Ming inside our camper. However, she will probably be outside with us while we are at our campsite but on a leash/lead so that she will always be under our control. We are planning to only leave her for short periods of time so we can get something to eat. When we do leaver her she will be crated inside out camper. If its warm we will leave the A/C on for her. Thanks again for the info.

 

[KristinU]

Thank you all for the responses. This will be our puppy Ming’s first time camping so we figured we would do a weekend trip to see how she does. We will be camping at the Fort the first week of December, and then for a week over New Years. We would like to take Ming with us for both of the trips, but we figured we better to a weekend test run first.

Ming is crate trained and we will be bringing her crate. She has never been in her crate in our camper. We have done the T-shirt in the crate when we have boarded her at the kennel, and we will be bringing scented T-shirts for her on this trip. We are hoping that she will be fine in her crate when we leave the campsite without her. She never has a problem when we crate her at night or when we leave for work.

Ming doesn’t really bark (usually to annoy the cats), but that is something that I hadn’t really thought about. I know that we were planning on spending most of our time at the campsite with Ming. Probably the only time we will leave without her will be to get something to eat. Now I know that it is a good idea to hang around a bit outside our camper to make sure Ming has settled down before we actually go somewhere. We certainly don’t want to be poor camping neighbors. If she doesn’t settle down we will just come up with plan B.

The water from home suggestion is truly inspired. At home we drink filtered bottled water from a service. I usually bring a case of bottled water when we go camping so now I will bring a little more to make sure Ming will be covered.

We were planning on walking Ming to the dog park and then deciding if it will be a good fit for her. She is very social and loves playing with other dogs, and saying hello to the dog parents. She is small so my concern would be her getting overwhelmed by bigger dogs while playing off leash. Ming does well with the bigger dogs in the neighborhood during our walks, but all the dogs are on leashes.

We live in central Florida and it will probably take us about an hour and a half to get to the Fort towing the camper (I tend to drive slow while towing). We have taken Ming on short car rides around town, the longest being about 20 minutes. She is happy to sit there with the A/C blowing in her face. I don’t think she will have a problem on the drive to the Fort.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Kristin I see that you are from Connecticut. I lived most of my life in CT. I grew up in Greenwich, and when I was married to my first wife I lived in the Danbury area. I still have family that live in CT. Also the Aliner is the perfect size for me and my wife, but I can understand how you would out grow it with a growing boy and two larger dogs. Small world.

Sounds like you guys are all set for a great visit! Ming sounds cute, and I think since she is comfortable in her crate that she'll be just fine in it in the camper. They get so comfy and attached to their crates, and that's a good thing Her little home away from home!

And yes, small world! We're in the Hartford area. Been here for almost 15 years - transplanted from Minneapolis. We really like it here - so many options: mountains, beaches, cities, etc. Though, long about now FL looks awfully nice when we're prepping to winterize the camper and hunker down for the winter! Last year we took a Christmas/New Year's trip to Fort Myers to see my parents - I think I could get used to more Christmases like that!

 

[jbrostek]

We used to head down during Christmas week, but since noone in our current group of RVers traveling have kids we have been leaving after the new year. For us it means less crowded areas including our Disney visit.

I think you have the best plan for the pup, get her used to the camper and keep her on the crate training. My pups are both crate trained, but no longer kept in crate during the day. But even in the RV they have a crate to share and sleep in. Which they actually use.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Sounds like you guys are all set for a great visit! . . .

1) I fully agree.
2) It appears you have considered all the pros and cons and are doing "trial runs".
3) If all those pass, you should not have a problem.
4) There is only one caveat of which comes to mind.
5) There will LOTS of wild, roaming, tiny, crawling creatures at The Fort.
6) And, no, am not referring to small children.
7) As long as squirrels, bunnies, etc don't upset him, you are home free. *

* I assume the puppy won't be bothered by our 65"-tall mouses or our
frequently seen 5'-tall chipmunks.

 

[jbrostek]

I need to dig up the picture of my sweet little boy having a conversation with a squirrel at the dog park his first year there. This will be my first trip there without him, but hoping the new little girl enjoys it as much as he did.