Camping Tips if You Have a Pet?

[buckland]

JaSan Those are important and smart ideas especially the sign with #.

 

[Happyjax]

Frank I am with you 100%! Leave no trace. Nor dog poo. Civil such a good word.

They probably do that so their discarded masks won't be lonely....

 

[JaSAn]

. . . Predator pee is a major deterrent to wild animal behavior...

I will disagree.
My back yard is full of dog, fox, and even occasional coyote pee. Doesn't affect the deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoon, et.al. from visiting. They will even come up in the back yard when my dog is in his kennel raising a racket.

 

[Smokecreek1]

Then there are those of us who , rightly or wrongly, mark the our own camp boundaries with a combination of our own and our dogs pee !

Smoke

 

[DavidGraves]

Yep you both are right and I am wrong.

I still leave me dog home.

My dog is not my child...it is my pet.

David Graves

 

[buckland]

I was raised with the belief if you love it and can take it with you, you should. Companionship on the road or in the outback is good.
But to each his/her own. I just would like folks to be courteous in shared spaces... something American who have had so much open space don't realize like folks in other more developed countries with parkland there has to be strict rules. We too are starting to get to the point where we have to as a people share what we have, more ...not think it is only for me. It goes against the grain of many who believe they can do what they want wherever. More folks are wanting to get back into a natural place. We need to all get along.

 

[Smokecreek1]

I should have prefaced my comment with the following: when I an dry camping in the back country and not in so-called "civilized campgrounds", I usually mark my camp boundary by---! Where and when I learned to do this I don't remember (family-boy scouts??) but I have done it since I was a wee lad growing up in small country town during much simpler times . Again I have no proof that that it worked other than after 60 years of camping I am still here and have not been eaten by some creature of the night. As I noted before , I have as a part of both work and play probably back country camped/back packed (with a dog and w/o a dog ) more than most folk (people on this site excepted) and I also understand when to mark and not mark my camp. And yes lot's of our back country today has been trashed by unthinking and uncaring campers and vandals and these activities and possible solutions have been debated here many times and camp boundary marking is not (yet) a major cause. Each to his own, and sorry if I offended anyone!

Smoke

 

[DavidGraves]

Hey Smoke

Neither of you folks offended me....sorry if it came off that way.

I just get tired of having to argue every point in a web forum.....

So here goes, in a wild environment ( not my garden or yard...or the county park ) many animals react to predator scent by altering their own behavior......this might mean taking a different food route, etc etc.

If one visits a WILD area and brings along ones pet you are leaving more than your own footprints.

IF you care about impacting the area your are visiting, remember your pet will impact it also.....perhaps more than you.

David Graves

 

[teledork]

Everyone will think I am an old grump.

Dogs (and cats) are predators.

Predator pee is a major deterrent to wild animal behavior...

If you are visiting an actual wild area you might consider leaving Fido home.

Campgrounds, parks etc are already contaminated so anything goes.

David Graves

If dog pee altered wild animal behavior gardening would be soooo much easier. I live on the edge of a "wild area". I did not bring the squirrels and rabbits and deer and bear and skunks and foxes and coyotes and bobcats and cougars with me so I think it is safe to say that the wildlife comes from "wild areas" to visit my home and garden in spite of many dogs over the years.

And my 50 years of backpacking in designated wilderness with dogs has been full of wildlife like deer, bear, cougar, badger, squirrels, mice, ptarmagin and many other birds as well as reptiles including a desert tortoise or two.

Also - I have never met a dog named Fido.

 

[teledork]

Yep you both are right and I am wrong.

I still leave me dog home.

My dog is not my child...it is my pet.

David Graves

My dog is not my pet. He is my very best friend.

 

[DavidGraves]

Hello Again

I think we have demonstrated here that one can take any group of friendly, like minded friends and put them on social media and the result is....an argument.


David Graves

 

[teledork]

Hello Again

I think we have demonstrated here that one can take any group of friendly, like minded friends and put them on social media and the result is....an argument.


David Graves

different opinions and different experiences do not necessarily equal an "argument" unless one wishes to frame it that way

and IMO attempting to impugn the character of people you don't really know by stating "IF you care about impacting an area...." is a great way to instigate an argument

 

[teledork]

Then there are those of us who , rightly or wrongly, mark the our own camp boundaries with a combination of our own and our dogs pee !

Smoke

the latest advice about camping near marmots is to pee further away from camp - supposedly the marmots come for the pee (salts) and stay for the cork handle on the fly rod (personal experience - ate part of the line too) or shoes or .........

and that was even with a dog sleeping right next to me beneath a tarp

 

[teledork]

I believe dog owners need a license to be able to take their pet off their property and must annually pass an obedience test.

A medium to large sized dog which is kept confined and not adequately exercised is going to be a dangerously unhappy and unsocialized animal. There was a Rottweiler up the road who terrorized the neighborhood any time he got out - which was frequent. IMO the license needs to happen BEFORE the owner gets the dog.

And to be fair I feel exactly the same way about human children.

 

[smlobx]

I don’t have a dog in this fight (pun intended) as we do not have a dog but this discussion has been interesting from an outsiders view. Thanks to all who have contributed.

 

[Jack]

Cats?

We have had a number of cats over the years, but Louis Catorze is the first for which it might be possible to take with us. He is unusually people focused. But he is a cat, and if frightened, will take off. He does well with a harness and leash, but I'm not confident that that is sufficient. We did meet a couple a few years ago traveling with a cat, and decades ago I uncounted a family on a 3 day hike on the Long Trail in VT with a cat.

Anyone had experience with traveling with a cat?

 

[DavidGraves]

Hi Jack

Cats are predators and .... ...they might get ate by larger cats.

Incoming !

 

[Jack]

Hi Jack

Cats are predators and .... ...they might get ate by larger cats.

Incoming !

Contrary to his wishes, he is an inside cat. He is indeed a predator; we have an upper deck that has been the final stop for several squirrels. When camping however, outside of the camper he would only be in a harness on a short leash and not on trails.

As to large cats, he would stand a much better chance than us.

 

[JaSAn]

...they might get ate by larger cats.

And raptors. A cat is about the size of a rabbit. Eagles can take a 30# dog.

 

[ntsqd]

The "So what?" comment reminded me of this. Dogs roaming in the farm area where my grandparents lived (not all that far from MarkBC) usually didn't survive the suddenly acquired acute lead in-deficiency. I might add that it was not administered by my grandfather, but rather likely the owner of the cattle they were chasing.

I like the sign on the dash idea, I'm going to mention that to Mrs. ntsqd.

11 years ago we moved to a house that had a large, actively farmed field behind us. Our male feral rescue accounted for 39 known gophers (including one in a trap!) before prematurely succumbing to kitty leukemia.

Some friends had a cat that loved to go for car rides. They took him camping too. He was hopeless at not winding his lead around everything. Finally his dad realized that while he could outrun him, he couldn't do it by 30 feet. From then on Scooter merely trailed a 30' lead around the camp. It was not tied to anything. If we needed control for some reason the procedure was for anyone close to the trailing lead to step on it and the person nearest would scoop him up.

All of our cats equate car ride with Vet, no hope there. Too much trauma under the bridge.