14 Crucial Tips for Camping With a Dog in a Tent

Last updated on April 14th, 2021 at 05:03 pm

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For those of us wanting to camp with our best friend it may require additional planning, especially if that friend happens to be a dog. Camping overnight with a dog in a tent can be rewarding, but it can also present its own unique challenges. In this post, we provide a detailed guide with 14 tips for camping with your dog to ensure your tent excursion is a huge success.

1. Can your Dog Handle Camping?

When we think of camping we often think of ourselves lounging in a tent casually, dog by our side. While the vision of camping might be accurate at times, most of a camping trip is a lot more physically demanding than this picture describes.

Take your Dog to the Vet Beforehand

Being in the middle of the forest at a campsite when your dog has a physical ailment is dangerous for your dog. Even small issues can become larger when the comforts of routine are removed from a dogs life.

Bring your dog to a professional veterinary doctor and describe any of your worries to make sure the won’t develop into a bigger issue that you won’t easily be able to fix at a campsite.

Vaccinations Should be up to Date

Making sure your dog is up to date on all required vaccinations is extremely important. Think of how much wildlife there will be out there. Even if your dog is leashed as required while camping, your dog could get bitten or scratched.

Making sure your dog is up to date with all vaccinations will help protect them against unlikely animal encounters.

Your Dog Should be Able to Hike With you

Camping often includes hiking as a part of the experience, which means you and your dog will be walking long distances through difficult terrain. If your dog has trouble hiking more than a mile or two you should take time to carefully plan your camping excursion so hiking isn’t a major part of your trip.

Taking an Anxious Dog Camping

It may sound odd, but dogs can become very anxious in certain scenarios. Not all dogs are the same, often each has their own triggers. If your dog gets anxious easily try to bring the best coping mechanisms to put them at ease. Whether this is a familiar dog bed, or a favorite toy, mitigating your dogs anxiousness is important when trying to determine whether your dog can handle camping in a tent.

2. Get a Tent that Fits your Dog Too

To pick a tent for you and your dog you must first have a general idea of how many people (and dogs) you need the tent to fit. If you and your dog have never been camping in a tent together it is likely best to limit the number of guests that can fit in your tent. In other words, keep your tent modest.

This is for you, but mostly for your dog; if your dog is familiar with everyone their sharing a small space with they will tend to act better, sleep better, and be less bothersome to you. For this reason, it would be my suggestion to select a 2 to 3 person tent as a good starting spot for your dog camping efforts.

Unless you have a giant breed of dog, 35 square feet of tent space will be plenty large for one to two people and a dog.

3. Acclimate your Dog to the Tent

This one might sound too worrisome, but if your dog has never been in a tent before it is a must.

Just imagine driving 4 hours to your favorite National Park. You have a great day hiking with your best friend, you set the tent up for sleeping, and your dog is afraid to get into it. Or worse…your dog barks at the tent like it is a possessed demon.

This is a nightmare scenario, but it is a nightmare scenario that can easily be avoided if you take the following steps:

1. Set your tent up in the back yard (or a part if you don’t have a yard)
2. Play around with your dog around the tent
3. Get in the tent and try to get your dog to follow you in
4. Lay in the tent for a while with your dog
5. If your dog seems like they want to take a nap in the tent, LET THEM

If your dog takes to the tent you will have a much easier time camping with your dog in a tent when the time comes to do the real thing.

4. Camp Nearby Before Tenting Out of State

It would probably be wise to camp with your dog somewhere relatively close to home before taking a risk on an out-of-state excursion that includes a tent.

The next step to acclimate your dog to tent life is by spending the night in your tent. I would recommend leaving your house for this, but simply find a nearby campground.

The goal is to go camping locally so you aren’t far from home if your dog reacts poorly to the camping environment. This would include hauling in food, a cooler, firewood, etc. If your plan is to take your dog camping out of state or on long trips in the future you should definitely go through this effort locally first. This will decrease the likelihood of surprises when you are far from your (and your dogs) comfort zone.

5. Keep your Dog Leashed During the Trip

I get it…you want to let your dog run free and experience the joys of the countryside. This is only natural, and I am sure 90% of the people reading this could do this without a single problem. That said, it is a danger to other creatures, and letting your dog run off the leash is a danger to your dog. Just imagine a run-in with a porcupine!

All National Parks require your dog be leashed. Some National Parks require leashes 6 ft. or less in length, but check with the specific park you are visiting since some have different requirements on leash length (source).

6. Select a Campsite Where Dogs are Allowed

Thankfully, our National Park System (NPS) is pretty open to allowing dogs into its campsites. The NPS has a very useful map that will allow you to locate dog friendly campsites across the United States.

You will notice that most items highlighted on the map are green, which indicates pets are allowed. You can then click through to any Nation Parks’ specific pet policy.

Keep in mind that camping and hiking are two different, albeit related, activities. Just because a National Park lets you bring a dog into a campground doesn’t mean that same park system allows dogs on their trails. I know this seems like a contradiction, but it is important you check in advance because there could be fines involved.

7. Pack Enough Water for Your Dog

Your dog will likely be expending a good amount of energy during the camping trip, and as a result will require a lot of water. Bring enough water for you AND your dog. Even if the campsite has a spiget for potable water you should consider bringing a couple of gallons as a backup, and to make filling up a water bowl easy in the middle of the night.

If you are looking for a good water bowl to take on your camping trip, consider a collapsible water bowl. If you get one that is collapsible it will pack-down easily when not in-use.

8. Maintain Food Routine During Camping

Sure, you will be hiking around, setting up fires, and pitching tent, but don’t forget how important routines are. This goes for a food schedule as well. If you feed your dog once a day in the evening do your best to maintain this schedule

The main benefit of maintaining a food habit is partially in keeping your dog from whining or barking during night hours when other campers are sleeping. Another reason to maintain a normal feeding regime is that it will ultimately affect your dogs’ bathroom schedule. May not sound like a big deal, but just wait until you have to take your dog out of the tent at 3:00 am to poop.

9. Stake and Lead; Don't Leave Dog Alone on Lead

Spending the entire night packed tightly in a tent will make anyone crave more space. Your dog likely feels the same. For this reason you should bring a stake, and a longer leash called a lead. Set this up in your campsite to give your dog a bit more space to roam around.

10. Know Where your Dog Will Sleep in the Tent

If your dog has a favorite bed (you know they do) consider bringing it along for the camping trip. While it may seem like a huge frustration dragging along a doggy bed when you’re already packing a ton of camping gear, but if your dog will sleep better with their favorite bed you will sleep better too.

Unless your dog is a huge breed you should have space to accommodate your dogs bed in one of the tent’s corners. The doggy bed will also help keep your dog warmer during cold evenings as it acts as an additional barrier between the ground and your dogs body.

11. Pack Waste Bags and Pack-out Dog Poop

When camping your dog must follow many of the same rules you do. One of those rules is that dog waste must be properly disposed of. This means you will need to plan ahead and bring poop-bags so you can easily pick up and dispose of your dogs waste.

If you run out of waste you can dig a small hole, and bury their poop in the ground.

12. Reduce Dog Barking While Camping

Practice the best dog camping etiquette you can and take every measure you can to prevent your dog from barking at night. This is particularly true for campsites where many other tents are within earshot.

Keeping your dog barking to a minimum can be particularly important if those in the other tents are complete strangers. Preventing your tent neighbors from getting sleep is a great way to have an uncomfortable conflict with them the following day (or that same night if you’re unlucky enough).

If you need to tire your dog out during the day, be sure you play with them plenty, walk them, etc. Just make sure they aren’t barking at the moon keeping the entire campsite awake.

13. Dogs Can Overheat in Tents - Vent Properly

Tents are made to hold in heat during the cooler evenings. This is great for you and your dog when it truly is cold out, but in the dog days of summer (pun intended) tent heat can be a major issue for your dog.

Dogs tend to overheat before humans, and if you don’t vent your tent properly during the evening hours your dogs temperature will rise.

Make sure you remember your dog fur, which will keep them warm. Don’t put your dog in a scenario where they can overheat.

14. Bring First Aid Kit that Works for Dogs

If you go camping with your dog make sure you bring a first aid kit that can provide them some value as well. There are countless mishaps that could happen during any camping trip that could require first aid.

Your dog could step on something sharp, get sprayed by a skunk, escape from their leash and get cut in the brush, or any one of countless other scenarios. While there are plenty of first aid kits perfect for a dog, you will at the versy least want your kit to include:

1. Benadryl for allergic reactions (yes you can use this with dogs as well)
2. Saline bottle / eyewash, for clearing anything that gets stuck in your dogs eyes.
3. Tick Nipper for removing ticks

There are other valuable items you may want to include in your dog first aid kit, but if you only have the ability to bring a few items, the list above is a good start.

Camp Successfully with your Dog

If you love your dog then you want to take it everywhere. Hopefully with the tips in this post you will feel more confident than ever before camping with your dog in a tent.

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Image Credit: Brittany Woiderski |https://www.flickr.com/photos/75912135@N05/ | Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)–reduced file size and image