Shoestring Travel: Rules For Camping With Your Dog

I'm not going to lie. My dogs are not always the most well-behaved or friendly dogs on the planet. I know that, and so I try and be aware and always err on the side of caution. I do like to take my dogs with me, sometimes out of necessity, and sometimes just because they mean the world to me. Red and I definitely could not have taken this trip if the pooches weren't coming with us.

Both of my dogs were rescues, adopted well into their lives. I like to think of it as they spent a few mean years on the streets, and they learned the tricks necessary to survive.

My number one complaint when I take my dogs camping is other dogs who are off leash. I can't tell you how many times I've been holding on to my dog's leashes, only to have a strange animal run up to the dogs. Often the owner is 30 feet or more away, yelling nonchalantly at me that their dog is friendly.

NEWS FLASH: MY DOGS ARE NOT!

The leash law is not necessarily to protect others from your dog, it's sometimes to protect your dog from others. Not to mention protecting indigenous plants and wild animals. Not everyone will agree with me, but I think it's just plain rude to let your dog wander off leash in a busy campground. (In certain back country camping situations, however, these rules may not apply.) Once, I was hiking Mount Whitney when a dog came crashing through the bushes and hopped out just two inches from the face of my older dog, Chance. I reacted as quickly as I could, but the dogs still got into a minor scuffle. Chance was on a leash, but the other dog was not, and the owner was a good two minutes behind the dog. I was able to quickly pull Chance off, but then the other dog came back again. The owner actually asked me, "What, is your dog not used to meeting dogs on a trail?"

I was livid. First of all, the other dog was off the trail. Second of all, I had my dog under control, and you were nowhere to be found.

Please peeps: it's not fun for any of us if a dog gets hurt, and I guarantee that if my dog is on a leash, and yours is not, you will be held responsible.

Think of all the things that could go wrong when your dog is wandering off leash in a crowded camp site:

• A small child could frighten your dog, and your dog could bite back. A child could be seriously hurt, and your dog could get put down because of it.

• Mountain lions, tigers and bears, oh my. (Well, probably not tigers, but large cats, definitely.)

• Your dog could attack or be attacked by a wild animal. Mount Whitney has an huge population of marmots. Those suckers have big teeth, and they don't look friendly. I was in Joshua Tree National Park when and Chance once came inches away from a rattlesnake. If he hadn't been on a leash, he probably would have been bitten. If your dog does kill a wild animal you could be liable for poaching fees — possibly jail time — if you're in a national park, especially if that wild animal is edangered. (Ask Melissa about her close call once with her dog, Dante, and a dead piping plover when Dante was off leash on a  fishing trip out on Chappaquiddick...some other animal, luckily, was the culprit there.)

• Hell you could even face fines just for letting your dog off the leash. When dogs lumber off the trail, plants are destroyed. Sure, it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference, but when you think about the thousands of dogs passing through a park on a yearly basis, it can really add up.

• Pick up after your dog. I get it, animals crap in the woods, but your dog is exposed to totally different diseases than wildlife. Your dog could have tapeworm, or any number of nasties, living in their crap. Any new disease could be potentially dangerous for native wildlife, not to mention that if their crap gets into the water it can be harmful or sickening to people.

I would hope that most of the people reading this are the more responsible type of outdoorsy dog owners, but if not: Shape up, dammit! I don't want to go camping and be turned away because of the damage done previously by irresponsible people and their pooches.

Story and Photo Copyright 2009 Shoestring, LLC.