Maybe you love your dog like a family member. Maybe you love a family member who loves the dog. One way or another, you’ve got to bug out and the dog’s coming along. Are you, and the dog, ready for the special challenges that brings?
Does the dog alter the plan?
There are some roads that (wo)man and dog can’t travel together — the road into many emergency shelters, for example. Many shelters don’t take in pets. Others don’t take in pets they consider to be particularly troublesome. That may include large, ‘scary’ dog breeds such as Rottweilers and Pit Bulls. (Don’t shoot the messenger folks; I think those discriminations are messed up; but they do exist.) It may also include un-neutered or un-spayed dogs.
In a less formal way, the dog by your side may alter people’s reactions. That may be a positive, such as other dog people being more kindly inclined. It may be a negative, such as people who are afraid of the dogs or have dogs of their own and don’t want a canine war. I have one friend who’ll never have another ‘scary looking’ dog, as she got so much more negative reactions when she tried to travel with her Alastatian (basically wolfy looking) as compared to her standard poodle (an equally sweet and about equally sized beastie — but who’s afraid of a dog with a hair cut like an 80’s rock band?)
Here’s the podcast we recorded to accompany this article:
Infectious diseases are abundant in the dog population
My friend is concerned her poodles may have Giardia. How could she be so careless as to let her dogs get a nasty intestinal parasite? Well, have you ever tried to keep a dog from ever drinking out of any ditch, puddle, or stream? How’d that work out for you in the long term? Have you tried to stop them from sniffing and licking at each other, or even stepping in somebody else’s poop and later licking their paws? It’s much harder to protect a dog than even a small child from infectious disease (and toddlers are notorious for their germ sharing).
Keeping the dog up to date on his vaccinations will help a whole lot. There aren’t vaccinations for every problem, but there are for many of the most contagious and/or dangerous problems. Might as well do what you can, right?
You might also think about talking to your vet about what to look out for and what to do about it. Maybe your vet gets the idea you’re contemplating an extended trip in the boonies, which is really rather true.
A dog on the move is more likely to get lost
I spent the weekend out at The Place with my friend Doc and her two dogs. Although they’re well behaved and level-headed enough to let them run around the cabin in the day, we were careful to keep them leashed when we left the cabin at night. Why?
C’mon….if you were a self-respecting dog and discovered a fox, or raccoon, or opossum daring to invade the territory your pack had claimed for the night, wouldn’t you feel obliged to run that impudent lesser mammal off? Wouldn’t that overwhelm your ‘come when called’ training? It’s really too much to expect; that a dog would resist that temptation. And after seeing the intruder well off into the woods …. um, which way was home again?
Don’t trust the dog will automatically follow its scent back, either. Frankly, dogs that have never followed a scent trail in their lives don’t appear to be any good at it. Also, the dog may have a feel where ‘home’ is and head there. If that’s your old home, that’s not going to work well.
Can the dog walk that far?
Being an animal doesn’t magically confer athletic ability and fitness. A lot of dogs are as unfit and sedentary as a lot of humans; and equally unable to walk any great distance. I’ve been in the situation of having to carry a tired dog up a mountain, and I assure you, the sentiment “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” is wild hyperbole. (Here are some more things I learned on this trip.)
Dog carriers are an option, but they do get heavy by and by.
If your furry friend is a miniature poodle that whole ‘carry me’ thing might work; you’ll want a sling to make it as comfortable as possible for both parties. If it’s forty-pounder, well, you might like to take the dog for more walks so it’s capable. If you’re planning on bugging out by bicycle, I can tell you I’ve seen very many very happy dogs in kiddie trailers behind bikes on trails; and there was room for gear in there too.
On a related note, you might look into booties for his paws, particularly if you’ll be traveling a lot on tarmac, sharp stones, or gritty surfaces that act as sandpaper. Think that sounds weak? Tell that to this team of hard-core sled dogs:
Sled dogs are often given booties, to allow them to run so long on sharp ice.*
If it is a big dog, fitting him with his own backpack or giving him a little cart to pull might extend your carrying power. Backpacker’s dogs are often tasked with carrying their own water and food. This article has some advice on topics such as fitting and training.
Dog specific trouble
There are some kinds of trouble dogs will get into that people generally won’t. They’re far more likely to be jumped by randomly met dogs, for example. It does no good to reason with them as to why they must be quiet and pretend no one’s home if strangers come knocking. And in many parts of the country: Skunks. Almost every country dog learns the hard way not to hassle skunks. Slow learners may take multiple lessons.
A dog generally learns to avoid the ‘striped cats’ the hard way. **
It can be really hard to share space with a skunk victim; and they’re just about as inconspicuous as a neon sign. Pro tip: Doc, who once shared a home with a particularly slow learner, assures me that a mixture of dishwashing liquid, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide will actually remove the odor. I can assure you that tomato juice only does so somewhat. Those items might be worth stocking at a rural retreat you mean to share with your dog, although the hydrogen peroxide will have to be re-stocked every year as it’s got poor shelf life.
Dogs can be great companions, but it’s up to you to prep for them
In times of trouble, is not a stalwart friend worth more than gold? Especially one that makes a good guard and can dissuade many attackers! But with their strengths come weaknesses, and it’s up to us to be ready to deal with those to make the partnership a success.
A final word
People who just leave a dog running loose and tell themselves “Dogs are natural hunters” are lying to themselves. The dog is very likely to starve miserably or become a feral menace that may end up killing someone’s child. Dogs raised as pets do not magically gain hunting skills; those are laboriously taught in wild packs. They do, however, lack the fear of humans that gives people some protection against wild canids such as wolves and coyotes. In other words, just abandoning a dog is a truly lowlife move and I hope you never consider it.
* By Frank Kovalchek from USA (Dogs with mixed booties) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
** By http://www.birdphotos.com [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons