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We have taken our beagle camping with us since she was one (would have taken her earlier but she's a summer birthday so it was too cold by the time she had had her jabs etc and was ready to go)

She seems to really enjoy it.  We have a corkscrew anchor (from pets at home) that we screw into the ground and is really solidly in there and a house line from her early training days that is about 2 metres long which clips on her and the anchor.  I do put her in a harness when attached to the anchor as worry about her running an jerking her neck forgeting she has limited line to move on.  A friend of ours uses a metal tie out cable (again available at pets at home) as her JRT chews through normal leads

We take Mabel's crate for her to sleep in though when we go next time at the beginning of April I am trying to persuade the other half to let her sleep in with us as am worried about it being that much colder than our previous summer camping trips.

We upgraded our tent to one with a fully sewn in ground sheet so Mabel can wander freely round the living area without making a break under the sides and away (in typical beagle stlye).  We haven't managed to successfully use wind breaks to make an enclosure for her due to this too.

The only issue we have had taking her is the first few trips she was very reluctant to go to the toilet at all (assuming as it was an unfamiliar place) and I spent many hours walking around and around the dog walking areas "encouraging" her to go, which she eventually did the next day!!  Sure she must have had cramp from keeping her legs crossed all that time!!  She's fine now but won't go when attached to the anchor and so needs a pre bed time wander etc.

Love ahh...fresh..air's idea of making a straight tie out cable by peegging both ends and threading lead handle through it as you do have to be careful where to position anchor to stop them getting tangled in guy lines.

We also make sure we take plenty of doggy towels, a second collar (with mobile number on both) and baby wipes for if/when she gets wet or dirty.

Never had the desire to camp before being a dog owner and now love it!

Some great tips and advice on here... Just to add..

 We took our two retired greyhounds camping for the first time last year. We used the ground stakes (cheap from wilkinson) which were fine. I'd be a bit worried just relying on a windbreak penn though with lab's.

 We had to be a bit careful whilst cooking as our dogs got a bit excited!!. We also made the mistake of leaving them in the tent for five minutes whilst we played frisbee with the kids. When we came back all the sausage rolls had mysteriously disappeared!

A few things I would say would be to keep water bowls inside at night, take a spare lead/collar.make sure the tags have mobile phone numbers on, and get your dogs microchipped if you can!

Dogs enjoy camping too!!

We're also very excitedly looking forward to introducing our Springer puppy, Mr Higgins who is not quite six months old to the delights of camping. 

I think it's called 'cosmic ordering', when you just visualise him behaving angelically whilst we're away, so he will!  He has a hard act to follow as our old Springer, Paddy, who went to the Rainbow Bridge in October, was always very nicely behaved, especially when camping.  So we're cosmic ordering as well as doing lots of basic obedience training now, in preparation.  He's completed a very thorough puppy course and will continue with his education at the local dog school for months to come, just because I love to teach him and he loves to learn I call him my Scholar Spaniel as he's so keen.  I'm sure it will stand him in good stead and can highly recommend you enrol in a puppy class with your young Labs if you've not already done so to help you take them away confidently knowing they'll respond to your guidance.

I think/hope in our case, it will also help that Higgins' first camping trip will be to a site we've stayed at before, so we know it's ideal for how we are with our pooches.

Wishing you lots of luck...and FUN with your pups!

Just wanted to wish you all a wonderful camping holiday.  I'm sure your boys will love it & you will love seeing them so happy & content!

We started taking our two minature yorkies camping when they were 6 months old.  Up until their first camping experience they had been waking up every morning around 3am & then again at 6am whining to get out (or so we thought!).  We were knackered but assumed it was because they only had wee bladders & couldn't hold it, so just thought it was part of house training.

On their first night under canvas they slept from 9:30pm - 8am the next morning.  We couldn't believe it & felt like right mugs Lol!  They had been playing us for fools all this time, just wanting our attention but in the tent they knew we were sleeping nearby so were quite happy snoozing.

Taking them camping turned out to be the best thing we ever did as they now sleep straight through the night...bliss!

We bought our boys a SIG for fresh water as the SIG keeps the water cool & if we go out for the day we just fill it up & take it along with their collapsable bowl & some food.  We take their bed & some fleeces for night but don't bother with any toys (other than a bone to chew) as they're always so excited just being in the tent with us & normally tired out after walks.  They generally have a coat of some sort & if we feel its really cold they just sleep in their coats.

The windbreak is a good idea, we use ours so that the boys don't bark at everything that moves & it also stops kids running over to pat them if they've just settled down for a snooze.

Enjoy many happy camping trips together!

Mrs MacP

Quote: Originally posted by Dinkydeb on 05/3/2012

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Rainbow Bridge (see Fluffydogs above). To all of you dog lovers, if you haven't come across it before, Google it. It never fails to make me cry and I'm not going to apologise! I have a few friends I hope will be there for me some day ...

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I just googled it & I'm sat here  thinking about my doggies Peppy, Sandy & Nicky who are all waiting for me at Rainbow Bridge.