You are a hiker and a dog owner, surely destined to be life partners and of course you like to walk with him everywhere. But, especially at the beginning if it is a hiking partner you will need a lot of care. To begin with, dogs (especially if they are puppies) are not ready to carry their backpack, nor is their immune system prepared to assume certain risks that are in nature, therefore, we have to know when our dog is exactly prepared to be our companion.
Visit Your Vet in Advance
Before doing a hiking trail with your dog you have to take it to the vet and ask them some key questions:
- Is my dog physically ready? If it is a puppy we will have to wait until the bones fully develop. This happens when they are approximately one year old depending on size, breed and other factors.
- Is my dog's immune system ready? Take into account the development of natural immunity and the vaccination schedule of our dog. The veterinarian can advise us about the safe age for us to go hiking.
Train Your Dog in Obedience
We have to maintain control of our dog at all times, which is why we must teach him to give way to other walkers, riders or cyclists. Having the dog tied is not enough; we also have to teach him to remain calm with the passage of other people or animals.
Walking Training – Start from Short Distance
Just like we cannot do a 6-hour walk without training, the same thing happens to our dog. We have to go with him little by little, we can start walking for an hour and gradually increase, and then monitor the state of energy he has afterwards.
If your dog is still active, we can increase the training walking time, the goal has to be to work until the amount of time is the same as the route or trekking we want to do in the future.
This helps you harden your legs for the future!
Prepare a Dog GPS Tracker
To prevent your dog from getting lost in the woods or mountain, it is essential to pack a GPS tracking device. A hiking tracker for dog can keep track of the location in real-time, even when there’s no cellular service. By setting up a wireless fence, you will get alerted if the dog walk out of the geo-fence itself.
Leave No Trace
You cannot forget the NDR principles, always collect the feces of our pet, that is, use the same rules with your dog as with you when it comes to waste.
Keep reading on the following infographic to get more tips of hiking with your dog.
This is a contribution from one of our contributing writers.
This tips are helpful to me. As a dog lover and a dog best friend, I planning to make a adventure and exciting plan with my dog. Thanks to this tips because it helps me to what I supposed to do when I bring my dog to make a hiking.
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