How do you get your dog in and out of your RTT?

laxtoy

Adventurer
Dog in the tent?! 😳 I understand if you have a little dog, but with a lab that seeks water and dirt at every available opportunity, no dogs in the tent. Lifting a dog into the tent sounds like a chore enough, but harder still would be getting her out, Lola is a squirmy worm.

She has her own platform with her air sleep pad similar to a thermarest in the back of the extended cab of the truck, so she's plenty comfy, she rides back there daily so she thinks of it as home. We let her sleep on the bed at home sometimes, but I don't think I could deal with her prima Donna ways trying to hog the bed in the tent, it'dbe a lot of work to boot her out in the middle of the night!
 

Lucky j

Explorer
75 lbs malamuthe here.

2 scenarios.

She does not like my girls friend autohome for any reason. She spend one night with us ans decided the folowing night that she would sleep on the back seat of the Rav4 toy.

She loves the arb pilbara. I think she likes the fact that she can lean against the side w/o the door poping out.

But any how, same technic.

She put her for leg on about mid higth on the later, and I grab her by behind the leg. She walks the front leg as I push her up.

To come down, use to stand up at on the ground, and she would jump on my shoulder and take her down. Was not always pretty. So decided to try something esle, I get on the floor, bend over and hold my self at the later and she jumps on my back and down. Best way I found so far.

But tent is about 5 ft high.

She like the tent so much, that I have to wake her in the morning and tell her it is time to get off.
 

VictorSmalls

Observer
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Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
 

Viggen

Just here...
I let mine do his front legs and I do the rear for him, he's 63 lbs but really only lift his rear about 2 ft before he's got his front on the bed.

Weimies don't sleep alone !
DSC01757.jpg

DSC_0172.jpg
If that your second gen? What front bumper is that? It actually looks really good. Most I have seen do not look great, design wise.
 

m1ashooter

New member
I'm thinking annex also. I haven't tried it yet since my annex is on back order. I like the annex as extra room where kids or the dogs can sleep and still be protected from bad weather and all the creepy crawly things that are gonna try to to kill them in their sleep (according to the kids).
 

KRP

Observer
I have 2 dogs. 48 pounds and 58 pounds. My rtt sits on top of a lifted 4th Gen 4runner and is about 6ft8in off the ground. I carry both dogs up myself, and very awkwardly carry them down. The up is easy... The down is ridiculous, but I'm 6ft tall, so it's not too far down if the big one gets panicked. . The 2 dogs LOVE it in the rtt, and are usually whimpering to go up around for 7pm, and we don't hear from them the rest of the night.

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Scoutman

Explorer
I'm considering a rtt and one of the things I am working through is what to do with the dog. We have 2 kids (5 and 8) and while I could heft our Australian Shepherd up there I would probably prefer in the annex on a dog bed if she'll tolerate the separation and not get upset at every little thing happening outside.
 

yotes65

Observer
My Three Dogs....

I've always enjoyed camping with my kids. Before when I was done to just one dog, a 35 lb Chow/Lab/Cocker mix we would sleep in the FJ. She was the last of 3 from the same litter that I had.

I am now back to having three dogs... a 3 yr old 90 lb Female Rottweiler, a 1 yr old 50 lb Coonhound, and an 5 yr old 80 lb Catahoula. Have yet to take this set camping. Before I do I will be switching to a RTT with an Annex. Having those 3 in the tent won't leave much room for me. If need be, I will let them sleep in the rig. Looking forward to see how this is going to work out.
 

alia176

Explorer
The back of my 80 is like a crate for my dog. There's a Milford barrier and he feels safe back there, no matter what. So, that's where the Border Collie sleeps while I'm in the RTT/Kamparoo/ground tent. He has slept in the Kamparoo maybe twice in his lifetime and there's usually a fair amount of pacing and a general sense of unrest for the poor guy. He's been trained to do this since he was a puppy so he travels well and sleeps comfortably in the cargo area.

I'm now dating someone with a Boxer and she too sleeps in the cargo with my dog.

My nine year old daughter sometimes wants to sleep in the cargo area with him but I won't let her!
 

cs0430

Member
Taking our 4.5 month old Wirehaired Griffon camping for the first time in a week. Wife and I will be sleeping up in the RTT and would like to have the pup somewhere below. I think the small annex would be better (we have a CVT tent with the ladder on the outside of the annex) but the wife thinks the back of the 4Runner would be warmer/more familiar for the pup. She does really well and sleeps in her crate in the back when we've gone on long road trips with her.

Might be a dumb question but do you guys leave a window partially open when you leave them in the back area for the night or would an SUV have enough ventilation? Thinking about bugs and bad weather primarily. Don't want to wake up to a pup that's been bitten all night or a wet 4Runner.

Picture because puppy:

 

ttengineer

Adventurer
I think the rug on the hood is the best idea as well as the safest and most practical. Once my RTT is mounted I fully planed on buying a extra thick piece of astro-turf and throwing it over the hood and windshield of my truck as shown in the previous video. I may even go as far as building a small collapsible set of steps so the dog can get on the hood by herself too.
 

AbnMike

Observer
Taking our 4.5 month old Wirehaired Griffon camping for the first time in a week.

We have a Wirehaired too that we got free off Craigslist because someone dumped her in the forest. We also have a Yorkie we adopted. They both just do whatever they want at night. If it's raining I'll put them inside the Discovery while we're in the tent, and during the day they'll stay in the annex but at night when we're sleeping we just let them wander, they usually end up jumping back into the annex if we have it set up and sleeping there, or sleeping under the truck.

My Irish Setter, too, before I had a RTT, used to just stay outside and I'd wake in the morning with her laying against the door of the dome tent.
 

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