Camping with a dog ⛺
Stephie Guy 
Sleeping in a fabric bubble and being so close to noisy nature at night can be a scary experience for a dog. This is how we prepared for our trip.
Last week I had the amazing opportunity to add more layers to my own learning with the wonderful Sarah Fisher at Tilley Farm. And of course, being a dog training course, Mickle came too.
This was SO exciting for me and I've been looking forward to it for MONTHS! I really didn't want any potential Covid outbreaks and hotel closures to put a stop to me going. What to do?
I have a small touring caravan, but 5 hours towing on my own, plus the navigation and set-up on arrival was too much to even think about.
Luckily my daughter has a little 3 man tent, and we have two vintage 1970's camp beds, so a plan was hatched....
New, Novel and Noisy
It's at least 15 years since I went camping, and Mickle has never been in a tent, so we had some work to do before we went.
- At night, sounds are magnified because all the background noise has gone away. The birds are sleeping, traffic is quieter, and the general hubbub of the day is still.
- Tents move in the wind, they sound very different in the rain, and they smell different.
- My ancient camp beds creak and squeak every time we turn over.
- We'll be staying in a new area, with new dogs and new people.
Preparation
If I'd just set off and hoped for the best then my sensitive boy Mickle would have had a really difficult time. And that would have meant that I'd have had a really difficult time too.
We all know how trying it is when our dogs bark at every little sound, don't we?
So these are the steps I went through. I took each element, and worked through them with Mickle separately.
When I say worked, I don't mean worked, I mean played. Training is fun!
Camp Bed Sounds
This one was fairly easy for us because we regularly use one of the camp beds as a sun lounger in the garden.
The Tent
We had two goes at this. The first was an epic fail.
I thought that if I put up a tiny beach tent first, we could have a picnic, a play and a nap together in it. What I hadn't accounted for was that the beach tent is a pop-up one so it shoots up very quickly, and then blows in on itself in even the tiniest breeze.
Mickle shot off to watch from the other side of the garden and woof at the neighbours dogs.
I didn't take any pictures of that as I was too busy putting it away again!
A couple of weeks later I got the actual tent out of the loft, and put it up in the garden. Mickle and I had a little play in it, ate in it together, and then I brought in the familiar camp bed.
Night Time Sounds
At home Mickle chooses where he sleeps, and he invariably chooses to sleep with me, in my room, on my bed.
A few nights before we left for our trip I gradually opened the windows until they were wide open. We got used to hearing the pre-dawn chorus at 4am, and happily slept through it.
Camp Safety
I made sure to have Mickle's settle mat with us, and I also packed a waterproof base to put it on so that I wouldn't be asking him to settle on a wet mat.
If you would like to follow my free Settle on a Mat training, join my facebook community group Calmer Canines here.
The camp site rules meant that I had to keep Mickle on a lead at all times. He has a huge aversion to the harness that we are working through at the moment, so I attached the lead to his collar. I know that if he's not afraid, he will stay settled on his mat, so had no issues with this for him. We'd worked through his potential fears before we set off, and I was never going to be far away from him on the trip.
Anchoring him to a post and keeping the little stove out of his reach kept him doubly safe.
Why is he standing? I don't dictate how he stays on the mat, as long as he's on it. Sometimes I like to stand up too.
Noisy Nights in the Middle of NoWhere
Night time was a dream! Even when the farmers were bringing their crops in from the field next door at 3am, and it sounded like there was a jet plane, a helicopter and an old fashioned by-plane overhead, we just turned over and went back to sleep.
We had a wonderful trip, we slept well, and we didn't eat too much trash. And that meant that I could learn so much on my course, and come back re-invigorated, with new ideas for how to help my shouty barky dog and separation anxiety clients.
Want to know more?
I'm Stephie Guy, Dog Trainer, Canine Mindset Coach, and Owner of Thoughtful Paws Dog Training.
Join my free facebook community group here
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