In the past, my dog Fritz, has saved me many uncomfortable nights.  Fritz was a small 20 lb.dog that loved to sleep in the foot of my sleeping bag, this was nice to add extra heat to my bag.  Duff, my new 30 lb dog, is too big to sleep in my bag, but he is a walking space heater.  I can feel a big change in my tent's heat when Duff is in it.  My neighbor, an avid backpacker, has a Newfoundland that sleeps in the tent with him and on cold nights he has his dog sleep on his legs for heat. I think the outcome of the lost hikers on Mt. Hood would have been tragic if they didn't have Velvet a Black Lab with them to share heat.  

 

Photo of Velvet taken by Dove Lewiskgw

 

     On one short overnight trip with a friend new to sleeping in the woods, Fritz saved us again.  My hiking companion was scared and at midnight woke me up telling me that she wanted to go home.  After trying to talk her out of a night hike with only one light, we packed up and headed back to my truck.  About 3 miles from the truck, my light died.  I had Fritz go first to show us the trail.  I'm glad I did, as we were going along I walked onto what I thought was the trail and didn't see Fritz, I looked around for him and saw him, on the reel trail, stopped, looking at us.  He looked at us like "hay dummy you're going the wrong way".  If we didn't have Fritz we would have been stuck in the woods until the next day.  I use my eyes to get down the trail my dog smells his way down the trail.

 

     When my neighbor's daughter goes hiking by herself she brings her dad's Newfoundland for protection, not too many people are going to bug a girl with a 130 lb dog by her side.

 

     My dog is small, so it can only carry his own things at the start of the hike, as he eats his food, he there is more room in his pack.  I use the spare room in Duffs pack for any trash that I collect on the trail.  So, Duff is a walking garbage truck. 

 

     At camp a trail dog is there for companionship and entertainment but, my dog has camp chores just like any other backpacker has.  Fritz was the best at camp chores,  Duff still has to learn how to do chores.  Some of the chores that Fritz was good at were getting fire wood,  finding where the mice at the shelters and cleaning our cooking pots.  When we got to a shelter the first thing I would say is "where's the mouse" Fritz would sniff all around the shelter and show me the mouse's nest.  After we found the mice Fritz would go out and bring sticks back for the fire.  After dinner Fritz's last chore was to clean the cooking pots.  He would get every but of food off the pots and all I would have to do is rinse his spit off the pots.  He is a walking dish washer.

 

     My neighbor's Newfoundland, being a huge dog, is a good pack animal.  That dog carries the 2 person tent when its two of them and has carried a 4 person tent for a group of 3 plus the dog.  When my neighbor's daughter was small, the dog would carry all his own stuff, a tent for all, a pad for himself and a pad for the little girl, and all the baby things needed. 

 

     My favorite thing to use my dog for is as a pillow to rest my head on at rest stops.

 

     This is just some advantages with having a dog with you on a hike.  I'm sure I left out a lot of things that a trail dog could be used for, so please tell me in the comments what you use your dog for on the trail.