What is a dog good for, anyhow?
 

OK, here's something I've been wondering about (I wonder about wierd things): Which would be a better way to stay warm on a camping trip?

A sleeping bag rated for 20 degrees, complete with Corgi (or other 30 pound dog) radiating heat inside the bag, down near your feet?

or

A mummy bag rated for down to 0 degrees sans Corgi, since mummy bags are not designed to allow for the addition of a corgi - let it fend for itself.

A dog to keep your dogs warm might result in asphyxiation of one of them. Go with the mummy bag and use the dog for a pillow. Bring a pillow case, your dog will thank you.

Go with mummy bag and trade Corgi for a Chihuahua. ;)

No bag, four dogs, adjust number of dogs inside the tent depending on temperature.

On Saturday, I thought our dogs had gotten out of the yard somehow. Max came in and said he couldn't find them, and sure enough, they weren't in the yard. Mav, Max and I hopped in the car and spent the next hour driving around the neighbourhood looking for them. No sign of them anywhere, so we came home and I was thinking about what to do next.

As we walked up the drive way, I looked at the shed, and remembered that the boys had been in there putting some stuff away earlier in the day, so I told Mav to go open the door. Out came two hot and thirsty dogs. I was so relieved to see them at home safe, but cranky with them for going in there in the first place and cranky at the boys for being so careless.

Anyway, all's well that ends well I guess. Still, they're all dumb.

Well, I've used the Corgi as a footwarmer in my sleeping bag before, and he seemed none the worse for wear. I like the pillow thing, though. Maybe I'll get a second Corgi for that purpose - and pillow case, of course.

@Aliantha - Didn't your dogs bark or anything? Mine would have been barking his head off. For dumb animals, dogs can sure make a lot of noise.

Nope, and there was two of them in there. The mini foxy barks at everything else that moves. I guess it was the dark stillness that caused the problem? lol

I love camping solo with a dog. There is something very primitive and reassuring about it.

For starters, you get no chatter about crap, but a good buddy who'll raise the alarm for snakes or bears or whatever. But there's something deeper.

I have no advice on the sleeping bag, but I can attest that two dogs in cold weather camping are very helpful. The last time my husband and I took our two dogs camping, we figured we'd get one dog each to keep warm. Instead, both dogs chose me -- one on my legs and the other on my neck.* My husband froze his ass off while I stayed toasty warm. :lol:

*Our dogs weigh 40 and 50 lbs, which means that while I was warm I also could not move the entire night.

Warning - Cat-centric post!

With the 'rents away I have been sleeping on the sofa bed in this room.
Mum usually sleeps in here for part of the night.
After the first two nights I figured it was easier to let Diz in, even though my primary objective was to get away from him. Turns out we sleep so much better in a double bed, especially one at ground level.
There have been nights when I've shut him up and allowed Mia the run of the house though, just to be fair. I can leave the bedroom door open and she only comes and pats my face when she wants to go out in the early hours of the morning.

Diz craves heat. He saturates himself in it, gets mesmerised by it, and only occasionally sated by it. Those occasions are when our sleeping schedules collide (as the evil boy has chewed through all the wires on his own heating pad.)

He gets so warm under the covers that I am sometimes roused into sludgy awareness by him pushing himself away from me with his legs, as his furry little body no longer needs the powerhouse of heat I put out.

But when it goes well - as it has pretty much all this week - I love it.
Boy snuggled up against me, twitching in cat dreams. Snorts every now and then as he tries to bury his face in my skin, forgetting I'm not furry (I wear underwear to bed, this is not an animal abuse issue!) And the pure, dear fact of the trust of him, so tiny, sleeping in such abandon next to me.

Take a dog camping?
If you love your dog/s as much as I love Diz then I think it would be totes amazeballs.

My brother's dog is a good campin' dog.

He also started therapy last night. Actually, he's going to school to be a therapy dog (where he'll go to nursing homes and hospitals and stuffs to, basically, cheer people up.)

He's such a sweet gentle guy, a big giant ball of fur and cool...I'm so excited about it.

Infi, am I remembering correctly that was the sweet little golden guy with the snow on his nose?

We were told our dog Tiny was a therapy dog before she was put up for adoption. What an awesome thing to give that patient canine affection to people who need it.

Yes, that's him. That picture is on my monitor desktops here at work! He's so wonderful. I got to see him yesterday.

I know it would make me happy to pet a dog or cat, if I were in the hospital. I'm glad others will get to know how awesome he is. :)

Me too. Especially when my dog and I are sitting around the campfire, listening to coyote song in the distance. I've been camping with Wyn since he was 12 weeks old. He took to it right away, and now he's a camping fool. Wyn's company on camping expeditions seems to add a whole new dimension to them.

@Sundae - Oh, I loves me my kitties, too. I have one who likes to sit in my lap when I read, and they both like to sleep at the bottom of my bed - speaking of foot warmers! I even once had a cat that would go camping with me. True story! He loved to go out and mouse and returned to the campfire each night to wait for bits of hamburger or whatever.

When you camp with a dog, do you put them on a leash? Are you afraid they are going to take off into the woods when they pick up some scent?

Oh here I go again:

Not Jack. He knows where to go and where not to go.

I do wonder about coyotes. My brother's family got home the other night and they were at the intersection of his yard and his field. I don't know if they've counted the barn cats lately.

Ours are leashed. The last time we took them out they almost made off with the picnic table they were tied to in pursuit of a squirrel.

Most campgrounds administered by the Forest Service and/or the National Parks require that dogs be leashed at all times. This is just one more reason why I prefer to camp on BLM lands. They mostly don't care if dogs are leashed or not, and it's almost always legal to camp where you please and leave the official campgrounds out of the equation entirely.

I allow Wyn to go without a leash when there's no rules against it. He has a great time running around. He chases after rabbits, and one time he tried to go after a deer (I don't know what the hell he was planning to do with it if he actually caught it). But he never really goes all that far, and there's seldom a problem with him returning. Having a dog with short legs can make life easier - sometimes.

The second time I broke camp when Wyn was along, he wouldn't come when I called - he must have been hot on the trail of the scent of an elk - screw the deer. So, I got in the truck, slamming the door loudly and slowly began to drive away. Sure enough when I glanced in my rear view, I saw a dog chasing after the truck, running as fast as his short legs allowed. This tactic has worked like a charm every time since.

Depends on the dog and location. I think Benny would stick pretty close, he always circles back around when we hike.