I would like to get my GSDs out hiking a bit...need a few opinions.

My girls are 1 and 5 years old, very active...and we travel to Northern Michigan often in the summer. Looking for something fun to do together when up there...haven't yet mastered taking two dogs in the canoe yet!

What would be a good distance for a starting hike?
We currently walk about 2 miles a day.

What about backpacks? What is a good weight to begin with?

Anything else I should be thinking about? Any links?

Thanks,
Melissa

My husband and I hike up the mountains here in Oregon during the summertimes with our three dogs. Usually it is us who carry all the equipment but lately I've been eyeballing the dogs running around so carefree and unencumbered thinking I am going to make some packs for them. I think it's only fair they share in packing some of the load, if not their own food at least.
I looked at the packs online for dogs and find I can make them myself. I suppose depending on how big your dog is you probably don't want to weigh him down more than about 10%-15% of his body weight at most unless your dog is pretty strong.
Anyone else?

Melissa, hiking with dogs can be wonderful and I'm sure you'll have a great time. One thing to consider - if one of your dog's is only one year old A. I wouldn't start loading her with a pack just yet and B. I might hold off serious hiking (more than an hour or so) until she were a few months older (some say a year is old enough to start routinely exercising a dog, though with my guy - a big 90lb goofball - I waited until 15 months, some would wait till 18). What I was doing was trail RUNNING, so I wanted to be extra careful about the stress on his joints, but plain hiking is probably a bit easier... still would wait on the pack though.

Also take into account the difficulty and altitude of the terrain - the steeper and more challenging (rocky, etc.), the more conditioned your dogs should be. Running down steep trails and jumping down off of ledges or boulders can put a lot of strain on elbows and knees (thinking of the young dog...). Important thing would be start slow with easy hikes and build up over the course of the whole summer.

When you do start with the backpacks, I'd begin having the dogs wear them EMPTY on your daily walks, just to get them used to wearing a pack. Once they've done that a few times, you can start putting weight in the pack. An easy way to work up weight is to use water bottles - start by filling them (one on each side of pack) either a quarter or half-full, then increase up to two full water bottles. Don't know what you'll want them to carry once they're conditioned, but water is always a handy thing to have on hikes - for everyone!

And ONE more thing - don't know if you'll be hiking with dogs on lead, but make sure you consider the wildlife/prey aspect. I trail run with Oscar OFF lead (very safe, unpopulated area) and he takes off after anything he sees, which usually isn't more than squirrels and birds, but was a porcupine once (made it up a tree JUST in time), and 2 nights ago in fact we met a COYOTE! This was HIGHLY unusaul given our area, and hopefully not to be repeated (there was a chase, a few snarls, and Oscar actually lost a chunk off fur off his rear end - could say it should have been out of MY rear end for not having him on leash... but these things happen). Oscar will come back after a short chase, but some dogs won't, and if the animal is a runner, like a deer, you might have a hard time getting your dog back. Only thing I can say to that is - work on a solid recall, or have them on lead. I wouldn't run Oscar off leash in an area where I knew there were regularly DEER present because that's one animal that will just keep going and going and going... and so would he. All that said, he's happiest when he's charging around in the brush, and he gets a much better workout when not teathered to me, so most times we just take our chances (of course I always CARRY a leash, should I really need it...).

Good luck and enjoy the outdoors with your girls!

~Natalya

Thanks Kristina - I know what you mean about the dogs having the easy job I'd like my girls to at least carry their water and any "presents" they leave.

Natalya - Thanks especially for the advise re: backpacks. I'd like to get her used to wearing one, so I think I'll stick a few towels in the packs for now. I think size matters in this case too...she only weighs about 65 lbs and really seems to be mostly done growing. She has only grown about 1/2 inch and about 2 lbs in the past 4 months. They will be on leash though, as the areas I have available to hike in are public lands. Plus only my older girl has a reliable recall...Kira, the pup, is a work in progress lol.

Thanks again!

Correct ... when we went snowshoeing, we let the dog off leash, but kept it with us. I also brought fruit with me. Yes the dog is a "fruit loop". The pup gets a better work-out and a bit more self directed off leash. Our pup kept running back and forth between my son and I, so he ran three times as much as we snowshoed. :-)

Also, I have used with success the "oh what's that" and start pawing at the ground on the two occassions that I dropped the lead while juggling other items on the way to the vehicle, and puppy thought that perhaps there was a game of chase coming. As soon as I started pawing at the ground, he came running. He wasn't going to be left out of the fun.

Helpful hint. Camelback type packs, once you drinking from them, if you squeeze the water nipple, you can squirt the water from the pack, to the dog. He does not touch the nipple. Ruger learned to drink from it, and now he will come in front and look up when he wants a drink. A 3 liter bladder will last us about 8-10 miles.