OH decided he would like to take our son (age 5) camping this summer so bought a tent, being a bloke he bought one A LOT bigger than necessary - it is HUGE!!! - now he is saying that we should use it for family holidays (he will buy a smaller one for weekend camping with said child).  I do not mind too much the idea of camping, but I find the thought of camping with 2 children (5 and 3), another one planned in the near future and 3 dogs.  Could you actually do anything on the holiday, the dogs couldn't be left in the tent for outings with the children, so they would have to come everywhere with us, or be stuck in the car, then if it is hot....................  sorry to ramble but I find it all a little daunting

Any thoughts gratefully received!

Hayley

You can NEVER have too big a tent IMHO - especially if camping with kids and dogs.....  It's a matter of management.  As a kid I grew up with two dogs and parents who had a touring caravan from the age of 7 - the dogs came everywhere with us, and one parent or the other stood outside with the dogs, while the other took us kids round.....

I went to the CLA game fair last year with 19 & 9yr old son.  It was the first time we had camped and it all went swimmingly until I awoke in the middle of the night to find the small cocker spaniel who started off the night tightly curled in my sleeping bag had gone walkabout!  It was 3am and I was trying to find her in the dark on a campsite with hundreds of people and thousands of dogs!  Eventually a security patrol drove by with said spaniel happily sat on the front seat, tied with a piece of string and looking excitedly out of the window - and there was me in my jim jams!

Don't be convinced that your dogs will stay IN the tent all night.

PS she slept in the car from then onwards!

Reminds me of the night the dogs DIDN'T spend all night in the car.....  A tremendous thunderstorm was rumbling round the hills oustide Ventnor on the Isle of Wight - my dear Dad had to get dressed in his swimming trunks and raincoat to go and rescue them - I'm told I woke up, said 'what about the dogs then' and rolled over and went back to sleep.........

Hi Hayley,

We've spent 4 of the last 5 weekends camping (though we only have the one dog at the moment not three like you do) We bought a tent with a big outer porch so she could sleep in there but she much prefers to sleep outside :rolleyes: We tend to go for long walks during the day, stopping off at a pub for lunch. When we went over Easter we had several children with us (as 8 families met up) and all the children came walking with us (though the youngest was 5).

We've had great fun camping and are hoping to go again very soon :)

ps:- On a different note, I was at a breed seminar on Sunday and there were 4 lovely 9 week old ACD pups there. They were gorgeous :)

We are going away next weekend in our caravan (only 2 berth) with 3 adult GSD's and four 8 week old puppies!!!!! Don't know how we will get on, but I am really looking forward to it, as soon as we start packing the caravan up the dogs go ballistic.

omg we were full up with no room, in a two berth van with us two and two ickle staffy pups.good luck!!!:)

We have a huge tent just for the two of us and eventually Fagan. We are going away this weekend but leaving him with my mum because at 9 weeks old he will be a bit of a tie as we cant walk him far, we are taking our bikes instead :)

When we take him with us I am going to get him one of those fabric crates to sleep in at night so he doesnt go walk about.

Well when i take my 2 camping, I take their crates with me, so I know that they are safe....if you dont, they always sneak out under the tent walls! I choose somewhere that is dog friendly.
Only you can decide if it is inconvenient to take your dogs with you.
What you need to think about is ....If you werent camping, what sort of holiday would you be taking? Would you take the dogs then? You can always decide to place them in kennels if its too much for you, or get a sitter etc. Personally I'd take the dogs and leave the kids at home, LOL
Cathy (child hater :) )

I just love camping - husband takes the kids away for the WHOLE WEEKEND and leaves me at home alone with the dogs - TOTAL BLISS. :-)

Thanks everyone, we decided to return the large tent and get a smaller one just for Steve and eldest boy, is large enough that he will able to take daughter too when she is a little older, unfortunately not big enough for me as well though ;)  We decided it would be far too difficult to manage the two (maybe three sometime soon) kids and three dogs, particularly as the 2 older ones are not crated, and then have the hassle of having to do only kid/dog friendly activities every day.  Also seems unfair on the kids to never have any dog free time!

Have never been camping with dogs :) When the children were small, we used to go camping in France. As the children got a bit bigger, we bought a small tent for them to sleep in, which gave us more room in the bigger tent, particularly if it was wet :) One morning it was pretty quiet - about 6.30 - when there was a big shout from the other tent 'MUM !!!' - it was my son (about 7 ). I rushed as best as I could (given the difficulties of getting out of a sleeping bag, walking over an airbed and unzipping several 'doors'). Thoughts were going around my head as to what might be the trouble :( :( I got to the small tent, unzipped the door and asked quickly 'What's the matter ?'  Unbelievably, the answer was 'My toe nails need cutting !' :D :D

Daisy