Going hiking with your dog can be considered a fantastic adventure because it has its thrills and fun. This article provides you with tips on how to safely enjoy your hike with your furry friend, so we hope you’ll learn a great deal of the do’s and don’ts.
Do you love having a great time with your canine friend? There are various methods of having fun with your furry friend, and hiking is one of them. Taking your pet along dog-friendly trails in the countryside can be a fantastic adventure. As much as this is fun, your furry friend can easily succumb to diseases or get hurt worst of all, get lost during a scavenger hunt.
Lucky for you, in this article, we will give you simple tricks on how to keep you safe as you go hiking with your dog.
Find a Dog-Friendly Trail
Not all trails are suitable for hiking with your dog. Therefore, you need to keep off the tracks with sharp rocks, steep slope, and better yet, the routes that are mostly used by mountain bikers. These tracks are considered a rough terrain and it won’t agree with your pet’s soft paws.
You can easily research various trails in your state using websites like “Hiking the Appalachian trail with a dog” if you’re not conversant.
Make Sure that Your Dog is Ready for a Long Walk
It’s considered unwise to bring your puppy along to the hills untrained. Though, there is an alternative to carrying your puppy along during the whole time. Therefore, if it interests you to bring your puppy along despite how young they are, then invest in a dog carrier for hiking.
Have Health Precautions in Place While Camping With a Dog
Before you go hiking with your dog, make sure that it’s well vaccinated against diseases like rabies and distemper because these diseases lurk somewhere in the wild. Therefore, it’s considered wise first to visit your vet before you go, especially if it’s the first-time hiking with your furry friend.
Carry a First Aid Kit
Ensure that you’ve packed a dog’s first aid kit before going out for hiking. Another caution is that your dog shouldn’t go hiking with open wounds because this can cause an infection for your furry friend.
Therefore, as you go camping with a dog, make sure that your first aid kit, has the following:
- Bandages
- Painkillers
- Betadine or spirit
- Topical antibiotics
Keep Your Dog on a Leash as You Go for Hiking
Keep your furry friend on a leash at all times and make sure he/she doesn’t tug your rope. This is accomplished through training before the camping day. Though a harness is considered the best leash for hiking with a dog.
Ensure Your Dog’s Well Trained
Your German Shepherd should respond to basic commands such as coming and stay. It would be wise before hiking with your dog, to teach them an emergency recall to drop whatever its doing and come back to you. This command is efficient when your dog wanders off for far too long.
Carry Enough Food and Water
How much food and water you carry as you go hiking with your dog, depends on many factors some may include: The weather, the area which you are planning to visit and how long your hike will last. Search for the best dog food for labs to get the best meals to pack as you go hiking with your dog
Estimate the amount you’ll be needing before setting off and pack something extra for safety. Purchase dog water bottles for they’ll come in handy, especially if your hike takes some time.
Watch Whatever Your Pet Eats
As you hiking with your dog, be cautious about what it eats. This is because, out there in the wild, he might just eat something toxic or drink from a bacteria-infested pool. To avoid this, train your canine friend to follow the command “leave it.”
Watch Out for Wild Animals
There might be those times where your dog comes into contact with a hare and chases it out of instinct. Such cases can lead your dog into more trouble like getting lost or worse.
Stay on Trail
Getting lost is something easy, especially if you choose to venture into all the wrong places. If there’s a trail stay on it for it will guide you through the safest road possible.
They say the dog is a man’s best friend; therefore, it would be fun to go hiking with your dog. We hope that this article has given ideas on how to hike safely with your canine friend.
With that, do you know of other tips for hiking safely with your furry friend? Please leave your comments below.
Author’s Bio: Chele from Sweden loves camping and hiking with dogs. Having owned German Shepherds for the last decade, she has both studied the breed and has discovered they are excellent hikers. She began blogging in the year 2007 and has won several awards for blogging in the canine industry.
