Hi, im going camping in delamere forest this weekend with my other half and my 4 dogs.
I.m not sure how well it will work with 2 ppl, 4 danes and a 6 man tent. :( im hoping it stays nice and the tent survives!!

eeek!  sure it will be fun though.  i'm planning a camping trip with my dogs - do you keep them in a crate in the tent?   or in the compartment with you?  my tent has 2 sleeping bits, and i was hoping the dogs could have one to themselves, but i just have visions of them trying to dig their way out through the tent floor :-o

well its my first trip as trying to find a cottage etc.. that will accept 4 giant dogs is like trying to catch a blue flying monkey.
i dont think i will crate them as it will take up more room, and they tend to curl up quite small when they wan anyway.
And i would be concerned about their antica in a seperate tent. im trying this 6 man tent this weekend if its too small i think it will have to be a 8 or 10 man tent, not sure if you have ever seen one that size but they are like little palaces!!!!
Glad i wont be the one putting it up though...
think i will play the girl card :)

Lol! Good luck you will need it!

We have a dog that steals the sleeping bag - he walks over the top of you and crawls down to the bottom of the bag and sleeps at your feet.  I can imagine a GD giving it a good try :-)

> We have a dog that steals the sleeping bag - he walks over the top of you and crawls down to the bottom of the bag and sleeps at your feet.  I can imagine a GD giving it a good try

like you wouldnt believe, they do it with a kingsize duvet so why not???

Please set the camcorder up :-)

> Please set the camcorder up

ive always fancied doing this when i leave the house

Can't wait to see it on YouTube. Mind you don't you get £250 from You've Been Framed. Could pay towards a bigger tent.

I should imagine the size of your dogs you will have great fun :-D

The maximum number of dogs I have taken with me when camping, when the boys were small is two, and to be honest it wasn't too bad. The boys had one dog in their side, we had the other on ours.

But we did have the problem of getting kicked out by them, we were on camp beds and the dogs just treat it the same as bed at home and laid in the middle snoring!!!

Just make sure you take the extra bedding it is bound to get stolen by dogs :) and it can be quite cold at this time of year :-D

Have fun, and I too am looking forward to seeing the results on YBF or something similar :-D

I have a mental image of Disney's Robin Hood, the scene where the rhinos are charging under the tent, only the rhinos have been replaced by danes :-)

Mahonc, I am right next to Delamere Forest and usually go walking there at the weekend with my 'Dog Walking Club' - but this weekend I have a show, otherwise we probably would have bumped in to each other! I'd have loved to have seen you with your 4 Danes!

aaahhh well i will be there all weekend if you have time! i will be the tired muddy looking one.......
i use another forum for my breed and we regulary organise walks but i tried to organise this one too late.
it would be good to do organised walks on here

I use my Facebook to organise walks with my pals - it was just one of my hare brained ideas but it really took off and I have 20+ members in my dog walking club now!! A CD walk sounds like a great idea! :-)

Will you be there tomorrow?

A dog is vital camping equipment.. Better than any hot water bottles...

GOOD LUCK.
YOUR ARE MUCH BRAVER THEN I AM.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL

So brave, yes so brave. :-p  At least you will have a large duvet or is that dogvet to keep you warm. Photo's please, we would all like to see how NOT to go camping. I suggest get a caravan, a VERY VERY large caravan. Have fun ;) You must be kidding :-D

Oh, no.  It's lovely sleeping in the fresh air and a lot of these frame tents are as bit as a small bungalow :-)

> lot of these frame tents are as bit as a small bungalow :-)

Chuckle chuckle, this must be one heck of a bungalow frame tent :-D

But yes the fresh air is good :-p

well an update on our camping trip!!

we lasted 1 yes 1 whole night! i could possibly have tolerated the hard ground, coldness and lack of duvets (3 duvets were taken 1 sleeping bag all taken by the dogs) but BUT, i could not handle the wetness inside the tent. 2 people, and 4 dogs inside a tent creates A LOT of condensation. it was hideous, dripping down the sides, my pillows were soaked as was EVERYTHING in the tent (including my phone)
I woke up in the morning after hardly any sleep and looked and couldnt see the O.H then realised he was curled up in the corner like a cat whilst the dogs were under duvets lying on his pillows snd as i was so tired just literally started laughing and crying at the same time as i was so exhausted.
I think we should wait till its warmer......

> I think we should wait till its warmer...... <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif">

Or get a caravan and stick the dogs in the awning !!

> Or get a caravan and stick the dogs in the awning !!

i know but they are ever so expensive... i looked at some of the caravans, motorhomes etc.. and i swear they cost more than i paid for my house.
i would much prefer to hire a cottage to go away but with 4 dogs there is nowhere that will accept us. so thats where the tent came in.
I think perhaps maybe a more expensive one and maybe a little larger although room wasnt so much an issue.

I needed something to make me laugh this morning.. and this did it :-)

If you can set up near a power point.. would a small portable humidifier help?

> If you can set up near a power point.. would a small portable humidifier help?

yes i was thinking about that, that could work.

NEVER EVER underestimate the miracles a shower can do aswell. i felt like death in the morning but after a shower elt so much better.

> I think we should wait till its warmer......

Yes have another go when the weather is better, I'm sure you'd have more fun and less wet in the tent.

You could get a cheap second-hand van, that's how we started, we bought one for £1995 it had an awning with it, we wanted to try it out to see if we liked it before investing too much money. It was great fun and our then just 2 dogs loved it too. We've up-graded and increased our van size over the years to accomadate the now 6 dogs :)

Did you enjoy the forest though Mahonc? We went there on Friday with my friend and her baby, it was a beautiful day. I think we stopped every single dog owner to chat to them :-)

yeh the forrest is great, we didnt get there till late as my partner has to do 2 trips for all the gear and dogs so he left me with 2 dogs and we went around the lake, it was about 5 or 6 so quiet and lovely dogs loved it, they went out  for about 3 and a half hours on the sat, the pup 9well i say pup shes nearly 2) can go on for hours and hours and had loads of energy left but the others were shattered. nobody wanted to get up for their dinner when we got back home i had to shake them awake and put extra yummy tuna and eggs on to encourage them to bother to eat rather than sleep.

I'll never forget doing a residential camping trip with the army as part of my college course. We were told not to leave the tents under any circumstances. Keen to prove how hard we were we stayed there all night ann froze - woke up in the morning to snow and the so called hardened army corporals were toast warm...inside the van!!! On the second night when the tent blew away we joined them :-)
In all seriousness though camping is great providing you have decent weather

oh LAUGH OUT LOUD you have made my day.
Might be a cottage that takes dogs next time then??

> well its my first trip as trying to find a cottage etc.. that will accept 4 giant dogs is like trying to catch a blue flying monkey.

I have a friend that goes away for breaks in this country with her 3 large boys. Will check with her if she stays in a cottage and if so where is the place so i can pass on details. Don't see they would turn down you with one more large(ok giant) breed dog.
Think it would be somewhere in the west country, will speak to her later in the week and will ask. Something i am interested in as well, though i do love camping.
A couple of years ago my work all went camping, in our tent we had 4 adult females and 2 Labs, 8 man tent and we had heaps of room and this was in April, ground so very hard but never got any condensation though.

That is so funny my first try in a tent lasted half a night I got up left OH and the kids and went home!!
First night on our canal boat ended up 4 in a bed until we set the crate up night two.
OH in the corner like a cat, Danes in the duvet LOL :-) :-).

We then had a caravan about £1K basic no shower but a chemical loo and it was great, I can imagine dog breath condensation !!!!!

We took two dogs with Clifton cruisers in Rugby and they have big GSD's so may take 4 (narrow boats) great fun!!!

Great post!!!