Okay, I need to vent a little. I recently read an article in an RV magazine about camping with your pets. The man who wrote this article doesn't appear to be much of a dog lover at all. He wrote that the number of dogs allowed in any campsite should be limited to one or two because they are a nuisance.
Now, his article did have one or two good points. Not everyone cleans up after their dog. That is not good, no one wants to go out for a walk and step in or look at dog poo among other reasons. I also agree that dog owners should respect all other campers and do their best to keep their dogs quiet in the early morning hours. I have three dogs that I camp with and find it really annoying to be woken up first thing by a dog barking because it was put outside by itself and ignored. The author also said that he was threatened by dog owners when he approached them about cleaning up after their pets. Not all dog owners get defensive about this and someone should say something to them when they don't pick up after them. They may get angry about it at first and later may understand why they were approached and be more careful about where they leave messes behind.
I have found, in my years of camping, that there are campgrounds who prefer that you camp with out your dogs. Of course, I have never stayed at one of them, but there are also campgrounds that welcome dogs and don't even charge extra for them to stay. These are the ones that I enjoy staying at. One such campground, Dean's Creek RV Resort in Redway, CA, even has a man everyone calls "Uncle Cookie". Uncle Cookie is a groundskeeper at the campground who always has dog cookies in his pockets and it is fun to watch all the dogs get excited when they see him coming. They know he loves them and has a treat for them.
I guess the point of this is to say that dog owners should be more concerned about controlling their dogs when camping so campgrounds don't start listening to people like the one who wrote the article. So many people have two or more dogs that are very well behaved and if campgrounds begin limiting the number of dogs you can have in them not only will the campgrounds lose business but it will make it harder for dog owners to find good campgrounds to visit. Most places have a doggie run area where you can let your dogs run off the leash. I have used these occasionally but prefer to just walk my dogs around on leashes. One of my dogs is very well behaved and stays right with us when he is not on the leash but we have been told that regardless of his loyalty and good behavior, we must keep him leashed at all times. So even if you have one of these well behaved four legged friends, always be prepared and have a leash or tie out with you. You will probably need it.
I plan to continue camping with my dogs and hope that campgrounds continue accepting multiple dogs in their facilities. I don't want to have to leave them behind. They are part of my family too!
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