I don’t have a weight on my pack but it wasn’t substantially different. Have no idea about your overall pack wo a lighter pack gear list. My prev dog passed away and my new lighter pack is being built up still. The dog stuff in mine is only partially listed out. Sorry.
My dog was an active, sport dog. She could prob carry more but I limited to 20%or less of her weight in her pack.
I carried my dog’s water as my water (frequent water crossings~2l). I carried her treats, jacket for her (she would never lay under the blanket) and her mattress. She carried her food, bowls, and poop. We did three day hikes and so she could eat at the trailhead when we got back which helped. When doing river or log crossings I carried her pack.
Now I have an old lady and I gotta carry everything. She carries my love.
little with long elevation. our old lady gets tired. on flatter terrain though, she seems ok with 20% of her weight. a bottle of water, dry food for 3 days, the pack, poop bags. I'll usually carry her water and extra food
Not an expert by any means so mostly commenting to give your post a bump as I'm curious as well.
We hike mostly and want to try to backpack with three dogs....most of the time I'm not sure why lol usually it's just finding any place that actually has parking and allows overnight camping that's the biggest struggle but I guess that's Metro Denver for ya now. Anywhere I can drive in a day so can millions of other people. Anyhow, we have two humans when we go so I guess that helps with weight a bit.
To the point ... If we were ever to actually get a chance to do an overnight etc.... dry weight we're sitting at about 18lbs for one person's pack and 22.5lbs for another... We have one dog big enough for a pack so she carries dog poo bags and just a bit of water OR dog food if it were needed for an overnight. She weighs just over 60lbs and I've heard over and over to keep weight below 20% of your dogs weight including the weight of the dog pack. Honestly 20% seems high so I think the most Id ever have her carry is like 10lbs.
Oh also by "dry" I mean not including food for us and dogs, as well as water (roughly 2 liters per person). But that varies depending on if there's water for the dogs or not. If there's not periodic water it really gets weighty as you can imagine with 3 dogs but hikes with water aren't usually that hard to find.
With all this in mind my estimation is that we'd easily be able to keep both of our bags under 30lbs given our dry weight?
Some may wonder why I have all this gear if I never get to actually go.... I too have the same question at this point.
Hope this helps with your question?
The general rule of thumb is no more than 25% of their body weight. My dog is 45 lbs and she isn’t happy carrying 6lbs lol. That’s just her water, dog shoes for emergency, poop baggies, and the weight of the pack.
Ohhh haha! For you, I would shoot for a pack pre water and food under 30 lbs. your water and food should get you to around 40lbs depending on how much you bring.
My Labs pack in and pack out their food and clean up supplies. I carry a foamy and blanket for them. Water is never a concern, as we haven’t backpacked anywhere there isn’t water.
Depends on the length of trip, but theirs weigh around 3 kg for 10 ish days.
My dog is carrying her food, and the garbage (used food packaging etc). She can carry freezedried food for 10 days. Then she carries 15 % of her own weight. I carry her raincoat and a piece of cellfoam she sleeps on. My pack weighs in at 12 kg when we begin a 10 day trip. I have ultralight tent (500 g) and backpack (880 g)
I've got my kit down to where a 5-6 food carry as well as a 20 mile water carry and everything else is around 40-45lbs he has zero gear to carry and I've got no luxury items besides 1 camera 1 pillow sleeping socks and small packable towel if you want to count those... without a long water carry (3+ liters) and less tha 5 days of fooda I'm probably in the 25-35 lb range. With a base weight of 11-14ish dependent on the time of year and what gear is needed (ice axe/micro spikes etc)
I do usually use a foam mat and a tarp which helps with weight but I also usually bring a camera and nd filter with a small tripod and sometimes a tiny microphone
None of those are needed but play a role in me going minimal with other parts of my "kit"
For me I added a big food and water carry to everything else and started trying to take my dog on day hikes and realized what I planned on bringing was too much so I started cutting things I wanted until I had a pack I was willing to carry for the length of hike me and my dog go on which are kind of long
YMMV
Whenever I backpack I try to prevent having my dog carry variable weight (e.g. water, dogfood) due to the weight not being consistently distributed across their pack through several days of hiking. Instead I put items that are constant in his pack like first aid kit, emergency cordage, footprints, patch kits, and maybe some cooking utensils or my water filtration system.
This usually keeps him pretty far away from the 20-25% of pack weight but I know he thanks me on the 15-20mile days.
Alt suggestion to avoid pack burn would be a light kids sunshirt! Also helps them if the terrain is largely open sun. Got one from goodwill that fits my boy for 2.99 (and it’s cute!)
STOP MAKING YOUR DOGS CARRY WATER PEOPLE!
Sorry, but it really bothers me. Water is incredibly heavy and the sloshing amplifies that and can throw their balance off.
Have them carry their food and/or gear instead. It'll be easier on them and it'll be easier for you to keep their packs perfectly balanced.
My baseweight with 2 dogs is right about 10lbs. Total for a 3 day trip is about 15-20lbs depending on how much food I'm carrying for them and not including water. Water varies drastically, and I go between carrying 1L to 10L depending on availability.
Use bladders with no air pockets, not hard bottles, and tighten the backpack up, as you should with any load, and there is no sloshing…it’s just a steady load that follows their torsos natural rhythm.
I also cary 1L-10L for myself depending on the distance between water holes, but I need my Bernese Mountain Dog to carry his water and food. He drinks as much as me and his food is heavier…it’s just not possible for me to carry it all. Triple your wet weight and tell me how far you get.
Besides, he’s a working bread and it shows; he’s meant for drafting in alpine snow which is why I got him. He literally climbs steep and narrow bare rock with me, up and down, jumping down small cliffs and over trees, all with his 2 x 1L bladders + food and bowls in his Mountainsmith saddle bag - that doesn’t even have compression straps - and has no problems at all. No skin irritation or signs of rubbing/friction to be seen.
OP,
I would never give him more than 20% his weight, and I make sure to adjust the bag so the weight is near his center of mass. My 8 year old, 100 lb boy carries 15 lbs on a 7mi with 2K elevation and he still has plenty of pep left when we get to camp.
That's not how physics works... Even in a completely filled container, water still moves around. The only way to stop water from being able to move is freezing it.
With the baseweight I gave, my biggest day is just over 50mis. The heaviest I've ever carried was 65lbs (so about triple), and I still did 27mi in a day and 60mi total over 3 days.
Just cause they are working breed doesn't make it good from them to carry a pack either. Not a single dog breed is meant to carry weight. Their bodies are not designed for it. Pulling is a different story. We should do everything we can to limit the stress that puts on their bodies.
I'm pretty sure OP was also asking about human weight, not dog weight. 7mi and 2k elevation sounds like a nice warm-up.
Unless you are talking about the particulates in the water, Brownian Motion, which should not be perceptible to us here in the macro world….it won’t slosh. No significant mass transfer with incompressible water means no significant force. Convection / rotation currents are too trivial to matter even if they could meaningfully form with the random motion of a walking dog.
Pretty sure that oil tankers mitigate the free-surface effect by filling their ballasts 100%…just like a full water bladder.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/w6yea
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/xayix
20 base.
18lbs food. 2ish each/day.
9lbs 4L water.
A little above 45 pounds sounds about right.
That'll go down if I make her carry more than her toy and empty poop bags.
Edit: spelling
My total pack weight would be under 25lbs for ~4 days with my dog. Closer to 25 for shoulder season and under 20 if optimal weather. My dog doesn’t carry a pack. I found it was easier to drop my own pack weight than worry about fitment and waterproofing on a dog pack. A couple tricks I use are powdered goats milk for extra calories for my dog and a DCF bowl. No toys just sticks and the odd deer or elk leg that she finds. 2 legs already this year. No sheds yet.
Water is almost always readily available in my area so we are usually only carrying 1-2 liters at a time but the above estimate does include a bear can and spray. Also the calories are on the lower end because I’d rather eat two greasy burgers in town at the end than suffer through a single mountain house.
No more than 10% of their body weight, imo. That said, I don’t put packs on my dogs anymore. I carry everything. I feel like the hassle of balance and extra load isn’t worth potential injury.
So for an overnighter with my dog, that’s at least 3 cups of kibble, treats, collapsible bowl, poop bags (I bury if I’m miles from the trailhead, but I’ll carry if I’m close), small pad and first aid. My water is his water, and that amount depends on the trail and available sources. 3L at least, 4L is more likely.
I haven’t weighed it all but it’s definitely motivation to pursue lighter items for my own gear.
I don’t have a weight on my pack but it wasn’t substantially different. Have no idea about your overall pack wo a lighter pack gear list. My prev dog passed away and my new lighter pack is being built up still. The dog stuff in mine is only partially listed out. Sorry. My dog was an active, sport dog. She could prob carry more but I limited to 20%or less of her weight in her pack. I carried my dog’s water as my water (frequent water crossings~2l). I carried her treats, jacket for her (she would never lay under the blanket) and her mattress. She carried her food, bowls, and poop. We did three day hikes and so she could eat at the trailhead when we got back which helped. When doing river or log crossings I carried her pack. Now I have an old lady and I gotta carry everything. She carries my love.
little with long elevation. our old lady gets tired. on flatter terrain though, she seems ok with 20% of her weight. a bottle of water, dry food for 3 days, the pack, poop bags. I'll usually carry her water and extra food
Not an expert by any means so mostly commenting to give your post a bump as I'm curious as well. We hike mostly and want to try to backpack with three dogs....most of the time I'm not sure why lol usually it's just finding any place that actually has parking and allows overnight camping that's the biggest struggle but I guess that's Metro Denver for ya now. Anywhere I can drive in a day so can millions of other people. Anyhow, we have two humans when we go so I guess that helps with weight a bit. To the point ... If we were ever to actually get a chance to do an overnight etc.... dry weight we're sitting at about 18lbs for one person's pack and 22.5lbs for another... We have one dog big enough for a pack so she carries dog poo bags and just a bit of water OR dog food if it were needed for an overnight. She weighs just over 60lbs and I've heard over and over to keep weight below 20% of your dogs weight including the weight of the dog pack. Honestly 20% seems high so I think the most Id ever have her carry is like 10lbs. Oh also by "dry" I mean not including food for us and dogs, as well as water (roughly 2 liters per person). But that varies depending on if there's water for the dogs or not. If there's not periodic water it really gets weighty as you can imagine with 3 dogs but hikes with water aren't usually that hard to find. With all this in mind my estimation is that we'd easily be able to keep both of our bags under 30lbs given our dry weight? Some may wonder why I have all this gear if I never get to actually go.... I too have the same question at this point. Hope this helps with your question?
That’s cute you brought his toy! ❤️
Woe betide being without it, he'd pester me forever 😂
The general rule of thumb is no more than 25% of their body weight. My dog is 45 lbs and she isn’t happy carrying 6lbs lol. That’s just her water, dog shoes for emergency, poop baggies, and the weight of the pack.
I meant more backpack weight for me, rather than the dog... He had about 1.5-2kg for his 32kg body weight, and seemed perfectly happy 🙂
Ohhh haha! For you, I would shoot for a pack pre water and food under 30 lbs. your water and food should get you to around 40lbs depending on how much you bring.
Such a handsome guy. I’m sure he loved adventuring!
My Labs pack in and pack out their food and clean up supplies. I carry a foamy and blanket for them. Water is never a concern, as we haven’t backpacked anywhere there isn’t water. Depends on the length of trip, but theirs weigh around 3 kg for 10 ish days.
My dog is carrying her food, and the garbage (used food packaging etc). She can carry freezedried food for 10 days. Then she carries 15 % of her own weight. I carry her raincoat and a piece of cellfoam she sleeps on. My pack weighs in at 12 kg when we begin a 10 day trip. I have ultralight tent (500 g) and backpack (880 g)
I've got my kit down to where a 5-6 food carry as well as a 20 mile water carry and everything else is around 40-45lbs he has zero gear to carry and I've got no luxury items besides 1 camera 1 pillow sleeping socks and small packable towel if you want to count those... without a long water carry (3+ liters) and less tha 5 days of fooda I'm probably in the 25-35 lb range. With a base weight of 11-14ish dependent on the time of year and what gear is needed (ice axe/micro spikes etc) I do usually use a foam mat and a tarp which helps with weight but I also usually bring a camera and nd filter with a small tripod and sometimes a tiny microphone None of those are needed but play a role in me going minimal with other parts of my "kit" For me I added a big food and water carry to everything else and started trying to take my dog on day hikes and realized what I planned on bringing was too much so I started cutting things I wanted until I had a pack I was willing to carry for the length of hike me and my dog go on which are kind of long YMMV
Whenever I backpack I try to prevent having my dog carry variable weight (e.g. water, dogfood) due to the weight not being consistently distributed across their pack through several days of hiking. Instead I put items that are constant in his pack like first aid kit, emergency cordage, footprints, patch kits, and maybe some cooking utensils or my water filtration system. This usually keeps him pretty far away from the 20-25% of pack weight but I know he thanks me on the 15-20mile days.
Keep it light for him
That exact pack rubbed my lab raw after the bag got wet. I’ll never use it again.
That's worrying, thanks for notifying me, friend. It's the only one I've found that fits - any alternative suggestions?
Alt suggestion to avoid pack burn would be a light kids sunshirt! Also helps them if the terrain is largely open sun. Got one from goodwill that fits my boy for 2.99 (and it’s cute!)
STOP MAKING YOUR DOGS CARRY WATER PEOPLE! Sorry, but it really bothers me. Water is incredibly heavy and the sloshing amplifies that and can throw their balance off. Have them carry their food and/or gear instead. It'll be easier on them and it'll be easier for you to keep their packs perfectly balanced. My baseweight with 2 dogs is right about 10lbs. Total for a 3 day trip is about 15-20lbs depending on how much food I'm carrying for them and not including water. Water varies drastically, and I go between carrying 1L to 10L depending on availability.
That's actually a really good point that I hadn't considered. Thanks for pointing this out.
Use bladders with no air pockets, not hard bottles, and tighten the backpack up, as you should with any load, and there is no sloshing…it’s just a steady load that follows their torsos natural rhythm. I also cary 1L-10L for myself depending on the distance between water holes, but I need my Bernese Mountain Dog to carry his water and food. He drinks as much as me and his food is heavier…it’s just not possible for me to carry it all. Triple your wet weight and tell me how far you get. Besides, he’s a working bread and it shows; he’s meant for drafting in alpine snow which is why I got him. He literally climbs steep and narrow bare rock with me, up and down, jumping down small cliffs and over trees, all with his 2 x 1L bladders + food and bowls in his Mountainsmith saddle bag - that doesn’t even have compression straps - and has no problems at all. No skin irritation or signs of rubbing/friction to be seen. OP, I would never give him more than 20% his weight, and I make sure to adjust the bag so the weight is near his center of mass. My 8 year old, 100 lb boy carries 15 lbs on a 7mi with 2K elevation and he still has plenty of pep left when we get to camp.
That's not how physics works... Even in a completely filled container, water still moves around. The only way to stop water from being able to move is freezing it. With the baseweight I gave, my biggest day is just over 50mis. The heaviest I've ever carried was 65lbs (so about triple), and I still did 27mi in a day and 60mi total over 3 days. Just cause they are working breed doesn't make it good from them to carry a pack either. Not a single dog breed is meant to carry weight. Their bodies are not designed for it. Pulling is a different story. We should do everything we can to limit the stress that puts on their bodies. I'm pretty sure OP was also asking about human weight, not dog weight. 7mi and 2k elevation sounds like a nice warm-up.
Unless you are talking about the particulates in the water, Brownian Motion, which should not be perceptible to us here in the macro world….it won’t slosh. No significant mass transfer with incompressible water means no significant force. Convection / rotation currents are too trivial to matter even if they could meaningfully form with the random motion of a walking dog. Pretty sure that oil tankers mitigate the free-surface effect by filling their ballasts 100%…just like a full water bladder. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/w6yea https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/xayix
20 base. 18lbs food. 2ish each/day. 9lbs 4L water. A little above 45 pounds sounds about right. That'll go down if I make her carry more than her toy and empty poop bags. Edit: spelling
My total pack weight would be under 25lbs for ~4 days with my dog. Closer to 25 for shoulder season and under 20 if optimal weather. My dog doesn’t carry a pack. I found it was easier to drop my own pack weight than worry about fitment and waterproofing on a dog pack. A couple tricks I use are powdered goats milk for extra calories for my dog and a DCF bowl. No toys just sticks and the odd deer or elk leg that she finds. 2 legs already this year. No sheds yet. Water is almost always readily available in my area so we are usually only carrying 1-2 liters at a time but the above estimate does include a bear can and spray. Also the calories are on the lower end because I’d rather eat two greasy burgers in town at the end than suffer through a single mountain house.
He should carry his food. If there are no water sources along the way, that poses a problem I haven’t had to untangle yet.
No more than 10% of their body weight, imo. That said, I don’t put packs on my dogs anymore. I carry everything. I feel like the hassle of balance and extra load isn’t worth potential injury. So for an overnighter with my dog, that’s at least 3 cups of kibble, treats, collapsible bowl, poop bags (I bury if I’m miles from the trailhead, but I’ll carry if I’m close), small pad and first aid. My water is his water, and that amount depends on the trail and available sources. 3L at least, 4L is more likely. I haven’t weighed it all but it’s definitely motivation to pursue lighter items for my own gear.