I am going camping over Thanksgiving for about 5 days with my dog, and I have a few questions that I hope you all can help me with:

1. One of the people who will probably be there always brings his dogs, and he lets them run free. I won't be letting Bella run free, and I really don't want her to meet other dogs too much. Am I off-base here, and how do I remedy this situation? Should I just keep a "walkin stick" nearby to keep them away?

2. When Bella is at home, she sleeps in her crate, and in the living room. I only have one tent which will fit my GF, Bella, and myself, but I don't know if it is a good idea for us all to sleep together. I know at home it would never happen, but I cannot figure out any other solution to this.

Thank you all!

Shoot, yeah, I'd let Bella sleep with you in the tent. It's best, IMO, since there can be other critters out there if you get my drift.

As to the other problem, can you just ask the guy to leash his dogs because you don't any possible dog fights to happen? Besides, if it's a campground, dogs are required to be on leash. But I'd choose the above, just ask him. If he wants his dogs to run free, fine, he can do that away from the camp.

Is this car camping(campground) or wilderness camping? When I camp in campgrounds, I have a big tent and set up crates in the tent.

--Dan

You might want to find out if there will be any bears nearby the camp ground. I went to Laketahoe to camp with friends. We didn't bring our dogs, but one of my hearing friends said that she can hear bears walking around outside at night.

If you are with your dog, maybe you want to bring a crate too.

Are you hiking in to a campsite or will your vehicle be right there? She could sleep in the car if it's there. We always use crates outside the RV and cover them completely at night because you have to think about the various wildlife. At the very least they make your dog bark enough for people to complain.But if you are in an area with bears like Lindsay said I think she should definitly be crated inside with you. At the different places we go we don't come accross many loose dogs but when we have our dogs behave well so we havent had a problem.

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies!

We will be car camping, but I don't have a big enough tent to put the crate in. Perhaps a friend has a spare tent I could borrow. Do you all think it would be okay to give Bella her own small tent with her crate in it? Or, I may just borrow a big tent from a friend that would hold all of us including the crate.

More importantly, I want to make sure Bella is warm at night, because it does sometimes get down to freezing when we go on this trip. Her crate is one of the wire crates, so it is pretty breezy if the wind is blowing. For that reason, I will be keeping her inside. No bears to worry about, but there are coyotes around here--another reason she will be inside. If she is in her crate, would putting a thick blanket be enough for her? She will be inside a tent, so the wind will be blocked. On the other hand, if she is sleeping next to me, we will be keeping each other warm. What would you suggest?

As far as the other dogs go, I will follow your advice and ask the other person to leash them. I am sure he will understand. Thanks again, all!

I'd vote for her to sleep in the tent with the 2 of you. We did that with my last Shepherd and it worked fine.

Ditto. We camped this summer with my pup (then 6 mo.) we put his dog bed in the tent with us and he never moved off it. He did bark once when someone went by with flashlights, but it worked fine.

I camp with two GSDs about every other weekend in the summer. We have a pop-up camper now, but we used to tent camp (though we only had one dog at the time). I always allowed my dog to sleep freely, just made sure I secured the tent door openings so they couldn't get out. I just clicked the leash through the zippers.

Now, in the camper, both dogs still sleep freely, even Kira who is normally crated at home. Only problem we ran into is that Kira is a bedhog and wakes up too early If she needed to be crated, I'd probably leave a crate in the car for her, but I think that dogs probably will feel more comfortable in a strange place with you.

Also, allowing her to sleep with you for a few nights isn't going to create any dominance problems

Enjoy camping with Bella...it is truly my one of favorite things to with my girls!

i've done several trips w/luc wilderness and car camping, and he's always been very well-behaved in the tent. he doesn't display any of the obnoxious behaviours that he did when he was allowed on the bed once upon a time.

i would definitely ask the other person to leash his dogs - common courtesy, not only to you but to other campground users. also, you should be able to find a nice long tie out (if you don't have one already) that bella could be on at the campsite.

have fun!