Ultralight Dogs?

Wow! No base weight needed for that girl. She sleeps on your pot cozy, in a spare sock, and eats and drinks out of a platypus cap! When she's being unruly, simply tie her to your trekking pole with some spectra!

Is that an eVent tu-tu?

And who said rain skirts were uncool…?

I think the biggest place to save weight and bulk is if you are using ordinary supermarket dog kibble, such as Purina or Alpo. By switching to a premium food (do the switch very gradually and weeks, maybe months, before any trips to make sure he tolerates the new food), the dog gets the same amount of calories with a lot less bulk/weight. I've seen studies of this–your cost ends up being about the same as the cheaper stuff because you feed much less of it. Best of all, using premium food also results in less residue to clean up at the other end of the dog's digestive system! Talk to your veterinarian about this the next time your dog goes in.

After watching my dog bash his pack into rocks and trees, I don't think I'd want a lighter pack for him. You can teach a kid to take care of a silnylon or dyneema pack, but a dog is another story!

I use a quart yogurt container for food and water. Far easier to keep clean than one of those nylon gizmos, as well as lighter and cheaper. My dog doesn't like to catch frisbees (he has an overbite) so no dual use as in your case!

There are lighter weight tie-outs and you might want to investigate in your pet store. It of course depends on how much stress your dog puts on them or whether he chews it! That being said, I never go off and leave my dog tied. Not only would he annoy everyone in the neighborhood with barking and whining, but he'd be too vulnerable to predators! If I leave camp, he goes with me on leash.

The dog in the picture wouldn't need a pad or a jacket; (s)he would fit nicely into the bottom of a human sleeping bag as a foot-warmer!

I didn't mean to give the impression that I leave my dog tied up. The reason I take a tieout is that I never let him off leash when we're out in the woods, simply because I don't feel like his "come" command is strong enough. When we're stopped for the day, the tieout gives him a bit of room to stretch his legs and explore without running off. It also lets me set up camp without holding onto the leash.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to cast aspersions on you, just pointing out to the general reader about not leaving the dog alone when tied. My dog also regards the "come" command as optional, although "heel" seems to work 100% (so far). Since, like you, I'm with the dog while he's tied, I generally use a 40' length of lightweight cord. In the past I've used a polythelene tie-out, but the cord has multiple uses–I could use it to pull him (by his pack harness) across a creek, or attempt to hang my ursack higher if a persistent bear comes along. My dog doesn't either test the strength of the tie-out or try to chew it, so I don't need a strong one.

I feed my guy Orijen.
http://www.orijen.ca

Another good one is Evo
http://www.naturapet.com/brands/evo.asp

I'll save you months of research and just say get it. My dog prefers Orijen and loves the fish. This is a subject I'm really passionate about as I've researched it quite a bit.

I'll even go as far as to say if you're feeding your dog Iams, Pedigree type food you're either unaware or you're just an effin' jerk. (exception being they're on a BARF diet).

As for packing. Ruffwear has some great gear.
– Palisades is awesome and comes with 2 h20 bladders.
I am thinking of replacing it with this lower profile version for shorter trips
http://www.ruffwear.com/Singletrak-Pack?sc=2&category=24

I don't bring dog bowls with me. Pouring water in my hand works just fine. I taught my dog "drink" so any time I yell that out on the trail if he's thirsty he runs right up and I either pour water in my hand for him out of a bottle or just squirt water from my h20 bladder and he can drink it faucet style.

Being a Pit Bull my dog doesn't do well with cold as he doesn't have an undercoat. I swear by his Ruffwear Cloud Chaser and Sun Shower jackets.

At night even if it's warm I'll throw on his Sun Shower jacket with the hood tucked away as the reflective strips really help you see what he's up to.

My dog drinks straight out of his Nalgene bottles, my g/f's dog drinks out of the nalgene cap.

Mine is a Husky/Lab mix and her's is about the size of a large SiGG bottle (and yes, sleeps with her feet in her bag). He carries the gear for both, he hasn't complained about it yet, he's a trail dog, and I'm pretty sure his smile muscles are more sore than his legs at the end of the day when we're backpacking.

Here's what I pack in his REI Adventure Dog pack:
-1 or 2 Nalgene depending on conditions
-food in a zippy
-snacks in a zippy (including a couple "check-ups" which are teeth cleaning chewies)
-1 or 2 lightweight 6ft leashii
-tweezers
-vaccination papers in a zippy
-mushers paw, volume depending on condition
-poopie bags

+1 Alex's food recommendations, mine also likes "Taste of the Wild", here's a good link with caloric density values:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=grain_free

Ooh Check Ups I never thought to bring those. That would be a nice thing to bring. Thanks for that.

yea, they get a half Check-Up every evening on the trail (mine gets a whole one at home). they love them, they keep their teeth clean and it takes the little one at least 30mins to chew through which gives us time to cook/etc without her annoying us.

Costco has them for just under $12 a bag too.

lol @ 30 minutes. I think if it lasts 20 seconds with my dog it would be a miracle. He loves those things and you're right Costco has a great deal on them.

Oh I forgot to add that since I don't bring a dog bowl. I just roll the sides down of the freezer bag and let him eat from the bag. When he's eaten what I believe to be his share for the day. Just give them a "leave it" roll it up and save for tomorrow.

Or just bring smaller freezer bags with predetermined portions.

haha yea, well like I said, she's the size of a large sigg bottle, so it takes her a long time to eat anything (and a cup a food lasts a few days).

my boy will take a whole checkup easily in under a minute, and he gets ~2-1/2 cups of food a day.

I do the same with the food, he doesn't care what he eats out of, as long as he gets food. The problem is the lab in him wants to eat it all at once, so I do the two-bag system, 1+ to store, 1 to eat out of.

I bring a set of paw booties. I started that when I had a dog with tender feet who sometimes burned her pads. Once she realized the relief they provided she took them with aplomp. They are a good idea if the dog injures its paws. My dogs are too big to carry out. They also carry a 2" wide roll of stretchy self adhesive first aid tape and some enteretic aspirin. The rest of the stuff I carry in my own first kit.

For bowls they carry empty margerine tubs. The same kind I eat from myself.

I am still trying to find a decent sleeping pad for cold weather that they can carry and are willing to sleep on. I just bought a very thin high density yoga mat that I plan to cut into two sleeping pads. It is not the lightest but it can be folded to fit into their packs. For tie outs I have made up some leashes with nylon cord and about 2 feet of very thin steel cable at the dog end. Typically my dogs will try to chew through the part of the leash (tie out) within easy reach.

This guy gets homemade, dehydrated doggy food, plus he gets some of ours. The only other extra weight he costs us is a MontBell sit pad ~2oz which we use in camp as a sitpad, then he uses it as his sleeping mat when we go to bed. If it's really cold he gets a MontBell UL inner jacket as a "sleeping bag" (mine usually coz I'm a hot sleeper).

Occasionally we need to carry him over tricky bits, like swing bridges and rock scrambles, or deep river crossings. He weighs 4kg which is not really UL, so we carry him as little as possible!!

That little guy is cute!

I like the idea of a MYOG tieout with cord and a steel cable. That might do the trick. The cord will need to have a high test strength, though, because he's pretty strong and has broken both a collar and a leash in the past. The steel cable should prevent the chewing, unless he figures out that he can just chew through the cord a little further up. He is pretty smart…

I think if he is determined to chew his way free then he'll probably figure it out. My dogs seem to chew it out of some sort of compulsion. The one time I had to leave them tied up in camp for a couple hours my girl chewed herself free, or the male chewed her free and then they just stayed where I left them. After that I added the steel leader, though I haven't had to test it.

Try working a bit more on your recall. I don't ever tie my dog out. In fact I hate to admit this but as soon as we're out of the populated areas he's off leash all the time.

When we are in camp he just roams around marking and sniffing all within a 300 foot bubble. As soon as I whistle or call him you hear him bolting through the bushed to get front and center. At which point he gets a piece of jerkey or some other treat. ALWAYS reinforce the recall. It needs to be more interesting than what he's doing at the moment.

Yeah, we're working on it. He's a super high-energy rescue dog that had little to no structure for the first year of his life, so we're trying to bring him back from that. He's new to the family — we've only had him for a few months — but he's come a long way so far.

I'm confident that he'll become obedient to the point where I don't need a tieout, but for now I'd rather take him with me than leave him at home, so the tieout comes with us.

Very cool. Mine is a rescue also, and I couldn't agree more he's better off hanging with you tied out than sitting at home.

Great job with your rescue. Both of my dogs are form either a shelter or rescue.

It will take time to break them of old habits. Dogs generally respond very well to training. They want to be able to work and giving them the ability to learn will only make them happier.

I also agree that trying to make an UL dog pack is not a good idea. Your dog will bump his pack into trees, rocks, and thorns.

Congratulations on your rescue dogs! There are so many out there that need loving homes!

I personally don't let my dog run loose when I'm busy with something else. He's liable to pee or p**p (why is one profanity and the other not?) just where someone else would want to set up a tent (one of the big complaints against dogs in the wilderness, BTW). I certainly don't want him visiting nearby camps, and trying to beg (or steal) food, either, or bothering people who are nervous around dogs (another common anti-dog complaint). Or getting into trouble with someone else's dog (since mine is a real wimp, he'd be the one to get chewed up). Or becoming a predator meal. It's like having a small child around–when your attention is on something else, the kid is best off playing inside a zipped up tent (can't tie up the kid, lol)! In other words, I don't want my dog doing anything that might give anyone an argument to ban dogs in that area in the future! It's happening all too much!

I also take the leash off my rescue dog as soon as we get away from the crowd.
Heel also works better. She connects loud yelling to being bad so I always tell her good dog when she comes after yelling "heel" or get your a** over here.

I am going to start bringing a 1/4" 20×20 pad and her own 9 ounce sleeping bag though.
She's a bed hog.