Packing dog food for a backpacking trip is adventurous in itself. Most dog food is bulky, heavy, and prone to bloating when your dog jumps in the lake with their dog pack on. On a recent backpacking trip I had the chance to put the dog food from Peak Waggers to the test. The meal “Dog-Gone Cottage Pie” was in a vaccumed sealed bag. It’s made of dehydrated natural beef, potatoes, vegetables, and organic bulger wheat and oats.
The first test happened about ½ a mile into the hike to camp when Lucy, our German short hair pointer / blue heeler mix was running recklessly through the woods with her dog pack and her best friend, Piper. She hit a rock with so much force it caused one of the cans of beer in her pack to explode and pour out the bottom. Even though we yelled at her for destroying one of the drinks, the meal was unscathed.
Second, Lucy is a water dog. She will swim for hours in any scummy looking pond, chasing nothing that the casual observer can see. As soon as we got to the lake she threw herself in the water, pack and all. We tried to yell at her to get out of the water, but to no avail. When she finally dragged herself out and we found the camp site, we emptied her pack to find the dog food wasn’t soggy.
Once we were situated we made started making her dinner. We boiled a cup of water and added it to the dog food. We let it sit for about 10 minutes, stirred, and let it sit for another 5 minutes. Before putting Lucy’s food on the ground, we had to eat some and see what it tasted like. Both my husband and I found the meal to be a bit bland but definitely edible.
We sat the bowl on the ground and told Lucy it was all hers. I’m not sure if the food even had a chance to get cold. She snarfed it in a matter of seconds and looked around for more. Had it been her normal dog food it would of sat there, untouched and ripe for the squirrels.
Even though Peak Waggers suggests their food be an intermittent or supplemental meal for normal dog food it worked out perfectly for Lucy. The only problem I found with the food was it seemed a bit crunchy even after sitting in hot water for 15-20 minutes. As for Lucy she gave it 2 paws up and asked for more.
For more information and to buy some backpacking food for your dog, visit Peak Waggers online at www.peakwaggers.com.
How did she handle the food after the fact? I ask because if George gets anything that isn’t his normal dog food you better hope he’s sleeping in his own tent or his gas will wake you up from a dead sleep. Also he tends to get really bad diarreah if I switch his food on him. I do like the idea of dehydrated food though. Less weight in food means more booze!
Lucy didn’t get gassy at all, surprisingly, because she has the same problem when her food is switched.