February 17, 2025 • 32 mins
How do you take your fur babies on a camping adventure?
Listen in while Britt and John educate us on wrangling multiple leashes, food storage, pet first aid, reactive pets, introducing them to a canoe and so much more!
https://thekaspack.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thekaspack
https://www.instagram.com/thekaspack/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0iDVMNUMhWgjl9QGEBvT0Q
https://www.tiktok.com/@thekaspack
CONNECT WITH US AT SUPER GOOD CAMPING:
Support the podcast & buy super cool SWAG: https://store.skgroupinc.com/super_good_camping/shop/home
EMAIL: hi@supergoodcamping.com
WEBSITE: www.supergoodcamping.com
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqFDJbFJyJ5Y-NHhFseENsQ
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/super_good_camping/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/SuperGoodCampin
FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuperGoodCamping/
TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@supergoodcamping
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Hello and good day.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Super GoodCamping podcast.
My name is Pamela.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
I'm Tim.
SPEAKER_03 (00:04):
And we are from supergoodcamping.com.
We're here because we're on amission to inspire other people
to get outside and enjoy campingadventures such as we have as a
family.
Today's guests are a couple thathave a slew of fur babies and
love to camp with them.
They know all the ins and outsof camping with pets and
document those adventures ontheir website, YouTube channel,
and Instagram.
Please welcome Dawn and Britt ofthe Cast Pack.
(00:27):
Hey, nice Nice
SPEAKER_02 (00:30):
to see you.
Thanks for coming out and havinga yak.
SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
Yeah, no problem.
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
Just put my phone on do not disturb because I always
forget that.
All right, so you guys arecertainly, for my money, you're
the biggest pet-friendly,pet-oriented outdoors folks that
I know of.
What's the origin story?
How did that come about?
Did you just have a bunch of furbabies and go, we like to camp,
(00:53):
we're going to take them withus?
What's the deal?
SPEAKER_04 (00:56):
So we've been camping and hiking and spending
time with our pets like that.
Well, my whole life, like I grewup, we used to bring the dog and
the cats with us when we campedwhen I was a little kid.
And so it was just kind ofsomething that I naturally did.
And then he actually came intoour relationship with like no
camping experience.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15):
No.
SPEAKER_04 (01:16):
John had been camping once and it was a cabin
and that's what he calledcamping.
So when I introduced him, Iintroduced him to camping, but I
also introduced him to the factthat camping included my pets at
the time.
And he just kind of fell in lovewith being able to be outdoors
with them and spend that timewith them.
There's something so rewardingabout seeing them so happy and
(01:37):
they enjoy being outside too.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:40):
And there's not that many resources either.
So if you go on YouTube and youtry to search for like pet
family travel for camping, Imean, there's a lot of,
YouTubers that touch on it, butthey don't go in depth for it.
SPEAKER_03 (01:55):
Yeah, I think we touched on it in an episode as
well about camping with our dog.
But yeah, certainly not withcats.
We have no experience withcamping with cats.
SPEAKER_02 (02:04):
Well, there's a good question.
So I know I've seen you doingoutdoorsy things with the dogs.
Do you take the cats with you onoccasion?
SPEAKER_04 (02:13):
We do.
So we currently have three cats.
Two of them are adventure cats.
They have experience going outand spending time outdoors.
One is relatively new to us.
She actually just joined thepack at Christmas time.
Literally showed up at our cabindoor here and hasn't left.
So...
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
And
SPEAKER_04 (02:35):
for those who don't know, we're in the middle of
nowhere in a cabin in the woods.
And at midnight, this cat showedup at our front door.
So we tried searching for ahome.
Nobody's looking for her.
So Thea's now joined the pack.
But yeah, our two older catshave been camping with us for a
long time.
They each have their ownpreferences.
Some cats do really well in theoutdoors and some not so much.
(02:55):
Jinx, our younger cat, she...
You know, she likes sunbathingon the campsite.
She likes being carried in herbackpack when we hike, like the
princess she is.
But Pippin, our little diva, Ithink she thinks she's one of
the dogs because she'llliterally hike right alongside
the dogs on her leash.
And she just has a great time.
She enjoys traveling everywhere,going out.
(03:16):
She's flown with me.
We went to Colorado for a petevent in November.
She flew with me down toColorado.
She's just this little adventurejet setter who loves everything.
Yeah, I
SPEAKER_03 (03:26):
was curious about that.
You said you had the cat on aleash.
So that's how you just make surethat they don't...
get lost somewhere you're whileyou're camping
SPEAKER_04 (03:35):
yeah yeah both our cats um well the both our cats
who already have experience arealready leash and harness
trained we're currently leashand harness training thea um in
addition we do have some pensthat we set up like when we're
at the campsite um we havethey're almost like little mesh
tents that you can put out andthere they have a place that
they can go that we can takethem off the leash if for
(03:57):
example you know we're cookingor kicking back and reading a
book or enjoying a campfirebecause five leashes between
them and the dogs would be alot.
But they're pretty much likehaving dogs in that sense.
Like where a dog needs to be ona leash, the cats need to be on
a leash.
And they wander around andrespond the same as the dogs for
(04:18):
the most part.
SPEAKER_03 (04:20):
I remember this is an anecdote from way back, but
having a cat and thinking, oh,it'd be great to put her in the
backyard, but put her on like aharness and attach it to the
clothesline and she could just,you know, wander around the
backyard.
Well, she put her in, seemedlike the harness was secure.
And she did this Houdini kind ofthing where like dislocate my
shoulder and I'm going to getmyself out of the harness.
(04:40):
And she did.
So anyways.
Oh, yeah, that's super,
SPEAKER_04 (04:44):
super common.
Most harnesses actually arefairly easy for them to get out
of.
There's no such thing as anescape-proof harness, so there
is a bit of training that'sinvolved in that, too, to teach
them not to escape.
We actually really, reallyheavily rely on the RC Pets
Adventure Kitty Harness foranyone who's considering harness
training.
From our experience, that's theone that's the hardest for them
(05:05):
to escape early on.
So while you're teaching them,it's the most secure.
And a bonus, it's Canadian.
RC Pets is Canadian.
So it's a great product.
It's a great place to start ifsomebody is trying to harness
train.
But yeah, there's no such thingas an escape-proof harness and
cats are masters of it.
SPEAKER_03 (05:23):
That's good to know.
It wasn't a mistake that I madewith the
SPEAKER_02 (05:26):
harness.
How do you...
I can see that it's asemi-doable thing.
Five harnesses, that's a lot,man.
How do you...
Okay, let's just assume thatthat's wrangleable front
country.
I can't even imagine how youwould do that in the back
country.
Like, what's that secret?
How do you pull that off?
SPEAKER_04 (05:45):
So the biggest thing when we're going anywhere that
we have to hike into or walkinto or anything is the
backpacks for the cats.
So we each carry a backpack, onecat in his backpack because he
gets the big, we have one bigcat, two smaller cats now.
So he gets the big cat and Itake the two smaller ones.
And that way they're on yourback, they're away.
Or if you're carrying a pack,let's say you're carrying in
(06:06):
your gear, you can put the catbackpack on the front But that
way they're contained and you'reonly juggling the dog leashes
until you get in and then theycan still have their outside
time once you're there andyou're set because then you
could, you know, eitherdepending on where you're at,
you could either let the dogsoff leash if you're on crown
land or you could secure the dogsomewhere so that you can then
(06:28):
focus on getting the cats outand letting them have some on
the ground, paws on the groundtime too.
SPEAKER_02 (06:33):
Cool.
Wow.
That's a, that's a lot of work,man.
SPEAKER_03 (06:37):
And how do you find, like with prey drive with both
cats and dogs, like if asquirrel or a chipmunk or
something's nearby, do they notlike...
I know they're on leash, so theycan't obviously go too far.
But still, it must be difficultto wrangle.
I find even just here in thecity on the leash with our
current dog, she's got astronger prey drive than our
(06:57):
previous one had.
But she would go aftersomething.
SPEAKER_04 (07:00):
There's definitely some additional training
involved with that.
We have actually one of our dogsis a German Shepherd Australian
Cattle Dog.
So his need to herd the secondsomething moves is very strong.
So there's been a lot oftraining, even to be able to
coexist in the house of cats.
There was a lot of traininginvolved early on with him
(07:21):
because he's just instinctually,he sees movement and that means
work.
Right.
On the same note, kind of footthere's also training involved
with the cats to teach them thatyou may see and want to watch
the squirrel or watch the birduh but you can't just go take
off after it and cats actuallytrain very similar to dogs if
(07:42):
you do um positive reinforcementwith treats and responding that
way
SPEAKER_02 (07:47):
interesting i would i would have just assumed
because cats can be What's anon-swear word?
Goofs.
They would be more difficult totrain because they're generally,
yeah, I don't care too bad.
I'm doing whatever I want to do.
More indifferent to what youwant.
Yeah, there you go.
Indifferent, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:08):
They are definitely a little harder to train.
Some cats are different thanothers.
Yeah, yeah.
Some are easier to train.
Like I said, Pippin thinks she'sa dog.
So she responds to pretty mucheverything like a dog.
She trains like a dog.
She comes when she's called.
She plays fetch.
SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
Very cool.
One of the things that I foundreally interesting with what you
guys do is pet first aid.
It hadn't really occurred to mebefore.
We do all kinds of human firstaid stuff, wilderness first aid,
all that sort of training.
But what's...
I don't know, share some of thedifferences in doing pet first
(08:51):
aid and what kind of a kit doyou drag along with you?
SPEAKER_04 (08:54):
Yeah, so one of the biggest misconceptions that we
found was that people assumethat if you have a fully stocked
pet first aid or human first aidkit, sorry, that you're good for
your pet.
And there's certain things thatjust aren't going to work
without some additional petfocused things.
John can speak to the importanceof styptic powder to stop
(09:17):
bleeding.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
Yeah.
So if you, I mean, that's thestuff that you use for like, if
you catch a quick on, if you'retrimming your dog's nails,
right?
UNKNOWN (09:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:27):
it actively like stops it um so yeah i don't
think we have had an occasion incamping
SPEAKER_04 (09:34):
no but you had the incident at home
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
yes yes uh our old dog dav back and i this is going
back years ago uh brit wasworking in insurance i was
working on a farm and um idecided to you know trim her
nails right So then like, youknow, I got her paws up and
she's really good.
She'll just put her hand out andit's just like clip, clip, clip,
(09:58):
clip.
And she's over and done with,right?
But the one time I clipped,clipped.
And then by the time I got tothe third one, the first one
started bleeding.
And then I was like, oh.
And then the second one.
started bleeding and like noresponse from this dog
(10:20):
whatsoever so of course igrabbed this stuff and you know
just dab it in and all thatstuff and basically it did what
it was supposed to do right um
SPEAKER_04 (10:30):
you tried the alternatives first yeah he tried
the flower first so i came homefrom work and just to kind of
speak to people about theimportance of having actual
styptic powder instead of theflower the flower can work
however i came home from workand there was Flower everywhere
and blood everywhere.
Him sitting in the middle of thepile.
So that's something that I mean,the containers like this big,
(10:53):
it's not a major addition toyour kit.
But if your dog happens to cracknail, break a nail, even get
like a little cut.
That instantly stops thebleeding and their nails in
particular bleed really bad ifyou do have a nail injury.
So that's one that that wereally, really heavily recommend
(11:14):
everybody add.
The other thing I would I wouldencourage everybody to add to
their first aid kit that mostpeople don't think about is just
a basic bandana.
And it's because it can serve somany purposes for a dog.
You could use it to holdbandages in place because it's
not like a human bandage.
You can't just stick it on.
(11:35):
There's fur there.
Fur makes that ineffective.
So the bandana helps to holdthat in place if you happen to
run out of or not have vet wrapor vet bandages.
It can be used as a sling.
It can be used as a makeshiftmuzzle because even the nicest
dog might snap if they're inpain.
It can even be used as amakeshift collar.
(11:56):
If the collar gets broken in anemergency, you can wrap it up
and tie it as a collar.
So that's one thing that'sreally, really small, but
really, really important.
SPEAKER_03 (12:05):
Yeah, very versatile to be able to use that for so
many things.
And certainly I've had thosethings happen.
I've had a leash break.
I've had, uh, I've had a dogthat was bleeding and we had to
try to keep the drug frombleeding.
And I've, I've nicked a nailbefore too.
And so I know you're, I knowyou're paying time with it.
I think every parent has
SPEAKER_04 (12:23):
nicked a nail at one point or another.
Oh,
SPEAKER_03 (12:27):
and I, I cried.
Like I just, I felt so awfulthat I had done
SPEAKER_02 (12:31):
that.
Okay.
So I'm, I keep thinking of like,I watch a lot of your, your
social media, uh, And I see, youmust not always take the entire
brood.
Like there must be times,because I'm sure I've seen, I'm
sure I've seen, or maybe it wasolder stuff, but I know I've
seen just you and the dogs out.
(12:54):
Do you occasionally leave thecats, like I said, if it's a
short trip or how does that workout?
SPEAKER_04 (13:00):
Yeah, we have a few different ways that we decide
who's going and when they go.
When it comes to trips thatinvolve a longer drive, like
when we headed up to LakeSuperior, we tend to leave the
cats at home with a sitter justbecause Jinx doesn't do very
well on car rides.
And she also doesn't like beingalone.
So Pip stays with her just to,you know, give her that
companionship while we're gone.
(13:21):
Versus if we go to a closer bypark, then it's easier to bring
the cats because you're notpushing it.
Anything over about a four hourdrive is a no go for Jinx.
She'll start to panic.
And that's kind of an importantthing to remember, too, if
you're considering bringing yourpet is understanding their
limits and being okay to workaround those limits.
The other thing that we do thatis really important to us is to
(13:42):
do some one-on-one trips withsome of the pets.
So, for example, last August, Iactually had my nieces came to
stay with me, my little nieces,and we took just the cats.
And it was just nieces, thecats, and I out on a trip.
And like this April, I'm goingto be heading into a backcountry
site for Lucifer's first timebackcountry, my little guy.
(14:04):
So he's only done frontcountryto this point.
We've only had him for threeyears, and part of that was
COVID.
So he hasn't had a chance to getout and learn kind of the ins
and outs of true backcountry.
He's done like walk-in sitesand, you know, that kind of
halfway measure.
So he and I are taking a week atKillarney and just going out and
(14:27):
enjoying that, just the two ofus.
And that's also important forbonding.
Cool.
SPEAKER_02 (14:31):
Where in Killarney?
SPEAKER_04 (14:33):
We're doing the backcountry hike in right on the
La Classe Trail.
SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
Oh, cool.
Nice.
The hiking that I get is usuallywith a canoe over my head.
SPEAKER_04 (14:44):
It's a poor time.
The canoe thing was really greatwith our older dogs.
They were both really awesome inthe canoe and we could canoe
into sites.
lucifer is determined he needsto eat the paddle we're still
working on that um but in hisattempt to eat the paddle as
we're paddling that tends toshake the canoe a little bit and
i worry a bit about gear and wehaven't actually introduced
willow to the canoe yet becausewe just got her last june that's
(15:07):
our big anatolian and she wasafraid of water at first so
we've gotten her past her fearof water now now she'll go into
water and hang it at the beachum but now that we've kind of
crossed that bridge we're movingon to the next one of
introducing her to a canoe thisyear
SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
Cool.
Yeah.
I mean, I've seen, you know,sort of like Dennis Rogers, he
takes his dog one in the canoewith him and there's, there's
other people that do the samething, but it's one.
Like, I don't know.
I don't know that I've ever seenanybody try to take two or more.
Like just, I would, I would forsure be.
SPEAKER_04 (15:43):
Our older two were amazing.
When we had Dav and Indy and weused to travel with Dav and
Indy, Dav just liked to sit andlook around and Indy would fall
asleep.
He'd sleep the whole time wewere paddling.
We did have one canoe adventurethat shortly after we got
Lucifer that we took Lucifer outand it went really well.
I actually have photos of thetwo of us and three dogs in the
canoe.
SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yikes.
SPEAKER_04 (16:05):
But that's also when we discovered that he likes to
try and eat the paddle andrealized that we needed to kind
of take a step back with him onthat.
And luckily, it wasn't a paddleinside.
It was just like an introduceinto the canoe, take the canoe
out in the lake.
So we weren't worried about geargetting tipped in the process.
But that's also an importantstep to consider for anyone
who's considering taking theirpet is don't go out the first
(16:27):
time in the canoe with all yourgear because you're probably
going to regret it.
SPEAKER_03 (16:31):
Well, I know with our previous dog, we went on a
back country trip last fall andhe was a little restless in the
canoe, but I think it was, hewas thirsty and he kept kind of
wanting, cause the water's rightthere.
So why can't I just stick myhead over and get some water,
but it would tip the canoe.
Cause I don't want to get wet.
That's why you can't.
SPEAKER_04 (16:50):
Yeah.
That's also a concern withLucifer.
We've had to work on, we've beendoing a lot of place training
with him because he's such awater lover that if we don't
give him some sort of command toget him to settle down in the
canoe, he's going to get wet.
over the edge and he's going fora swim there's water there he's
swimming
SPEAKER_03 (17:06):
yeah why can't i go swimming And do you have life
jackets for your pets?
SPEAKER_04 (17:11):
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
We're strong believers that ifyou're ever in a situation where
you have to wear a life jacketor you need any type of safety
gear, your pet does too.
So we bring life jackets foractually all of the pets if
they're out in the water, we'llhave life jackets.
Even the cats can be fit withthe smallest dog life jackets or
there's specialized cat lifejackets you can get from a
company called Surfer Cat.
SPEAKER_03 (17:32):
That's
SPEAKER_02 (17:32):
awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
I know I saw, we're going back afew years, but I remember the
first time I saw Salas put out alife jacket, a pet life jacket.
I was like, hey, brilliant idea.
Never even thought about it.
That's excellent.
So I also read something aboutpresentations, what you do
presentations.
How does that play out?
(17:53):
Like you said you went...
what, California at some point?
And I think recently, maybe eventhe day after the day we're
taping this, I think yesterdayyou were putting a presentation
together.
SPEAKER_04 (18:06):
Yes.
So I actually work in themarketing space.
I'm a digital marketing,specifically SEO.
So Google and how to make surethat your business is found on
Google specialist.
And because of that, I made alot of connections kind of all
over the world.
which grew as we started takingour actual pet related business
(18:28):
seriously, because I already hadall these connections to kind of
take that step.
So I do a lot of travelingbecause I do a lot of talking
about the marketing side ofthings.
But also because I am somebodythat people tend to come to for
the reactive dog side of things.
So there's been a really badmisconception for a long time
(18:51):
that reactivity is aggressionand they shouldn't be allowed in
public.
And I've made it my mission toget out there and share what
reactivity is truly, which isjust an overabundance of
emotion.
And it can be fear, it can beanger, but it can also be
excitement.
A dog can be reactive becausethey're just so excited at the
sight of people or dogs.
(19:12):
And to also try and share withpeople how to include even a
reactive dog in their travelssafely and responsibly.
And that's what I was talkingabout yesterday in an online
symposium.
SPEAKER_03 (19:22):
So how do you?
SPEAKER_04 (19:24):
The biggest thing is just to know their limits, know
their triggers and take steps totry and create a safe place.
So, for example, when we'recamping and hiking, Lucifer, he
came to us from a really badabuse situation.
It's just a young pup.
He was four months old.
and had some severe injuriesfrom his past.
So he's afraid of people,specifically men, any man he
(19:47):
doesn't know.
So when we're camping, we haveto set up our campsite to make
sure we block any visuals so hefeels like that is his safe
place.
Sometimes we can do that bysetting up our tents in a way
that creates a barrier.
If that doesn't work, we canalways put up a bit of a tarp
wall.
He's fairly small, he's only 30pounds, so it doesn't have to be
a really tall tarp wall.
It can even be just a shortthing that's tall enough for
(20:08):
him.
um and through commands you canhelp to mitigate that when
you're on the trails things likelook can draw his attention away
from catching a trigger in thedistance or leave it can tell
him to disengage with thetrigger um a lot of counter
conditioning introducing atrigger at a distance while
giving treats and praise andencouraging him for being calm
(20:31):
even though that triggers at adistance and the big thing that
I think needs to be talked aboutmore in the pet space is muzzle
training.
Muzzles have this really badstigma for some reason.
And I don't understand why,because it's no different a tool
than a collar or a harness or aleash.
If you introduce your dog to amuzzle very carefully and
casually, you can create apositive experience with it.
(20:54):
Like when we pull the muzzleout, Lucifer gets excited.
We have a custom vinyl muzzlefrom Mia's Muzzles.
And when we pull it out, he getsexcited because he knows it
means adventure time.
And anytime that we know thatwe're going on a trail that is a
little bit more popular andthere's any risk that we might
be in like a narrow part of thetrail with people he doesn't
know, I always make sure he'smuzzled because if he felt he
was cornered and he had todefend himself, he's never
(21:17):
landed a bite on somebody ortried to land a bite on
somebody.
But I know that the risk ispotentially there and it's
better to just be prepared andput those safety measures in
place before something happens.
SPEAKER_02 (21:26):
Yeah, that sounds like a smart move.
Yeah.
All right.
social media time tell us aboutall your content creation and
your amazing facebook group
SPEAKER_00 (21:35):
okay so uh the facebook group's been around for
a few years um and we're justunder 25 000 members active
members um which is that
SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
that's
SPEAKER_00 (21:51):
crazy crazy there we also do have the uh camping and
hiking ontario cats group aswell which i mean there's not
that many people in that one butit's growing um but uh yeah uh
youtube youtube is our uh wejust started doing that like a
couple years ago um we justreleased a video about rasul and
(22:17):
Probably this week we'll bereleasing a new video for
Fairbank.
SPEAKER_04 (22:22):
Yes.
So we also have a blog where wedo written content and it's
educational content largely forpeople who are interested in
trying to learn how to camp withtheir pets or who maybe want to
try different experiences ortaking it to different levels,
tips and tricks.
And that's the Caspac.com.
And that's also kind of like acentral hub for us.
So if you go to the website, itwill lead you out to all of our
(22:44):
socials, which includesInstagram and TikTok, where we
share little short videos aswell, just showing what it's
like to be out with pets andoffering tips and tricks and
advice for people who want toinclude their pets in their
outdoor adventures.
SPEAKER_03 (22:59):
Cool.
And you're a big advocate forrescue, I see, too, from your
website.
SPEAKER_04 (23:04):
yes yeah all of our pets are rescue pets um while i
don't condone breeders orbreeding i do believe there's a
space for that um for theaverage family pet i think there
are so many incredible pets outthere in shelters and rescues
that are looking for a home andthey have so much love to give
like all of ours have eithercome from a rescue organization
(23:24):
or like the case of thea gotrescued in a different way um
she never made it into a rescueorganization but if we didn't
keep her she would have becauseshe had been dumped and um
needed a home so like these areamazing incredible trainable
well-behaved pets that have somuch love to give and can be the
(23:45):
perfect adventure buddy
SPEAKER_03 (23:47):
well we can speak for that for ourselves that we
rescued a a dog in November fromToronto Animal Services.
And she came to us very, veryuncertain, very afraid, like
every little thing scared her.
She was cowering.
We assumed she'd been abused inher previous
SPEAKER_02 (24:06):
home.
She was abused by a man, forsure.
Because as she started to openup, she bonded with Pamela way
sooner than me.
I mean, I tend to be a talk withmy hands kind of guy.
And she would just cower, getdown on the ground, she was
terrified of me it almost mademe cry it was just it was so so
so saddening to see that thatthat
SPEAKER_03 (24:29):
she'd been mistreated so badly
SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
yeah and then yeah
SPEAKER_03 (24:33):
so anyway she's a wonderful dog and as you said
she's trained up beautifully sheshe we've had no issues she's a
wonderful sweet Sweet nut bar.
Sweet nut bar.
SPEAKER_04 (24:45):
She's hit the jackpot having such a loving
home that'll take her out andhelp her adventure and spend
time and give her thatopportunity.
SPEAKER_03 (24:53):
Well, we kind of feel like we hit the jackpot.
That's our first experience withrescuing a dog.
And it just felt like, wow, Ididn't know it could be such a
good experience.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (25:03):
Yeah, they are such incredible, incredible pets.
We got Lucifer actually fromTennessee.
And like I said, he came from aquestionable situation down
there.
And he was only four months old,which is just heartbreaking that
at that young an age, he wasalready that afraid of people
because what he had beenthrough.
And then after we unfortunatelyhad to say goodbye last year to
(25:24):
both of our senior pups, whowere also both rescues, we
recently rescued Willow from alocal rescue.
And she was once a Turkishstreet dog.
and then got brought over toCanada, and now she's living the
high life here at the cabin as aspoiled daddy's girl.
SPEAKER_03 (25:41):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I read your story aboutLucifer, and that was just
heartbreaking.
I cannot imagine anyone doingthings like that to a dog.
SPEAKER_02 (25:50):
Don't make me sad.
I don't like this.
All right.
All right.
How about tell us a story?
Tell us a camping story thatwent, phenomenally well or was
it absolute disaster and you gotto learn a bunch of things?
SPEAKER_04 (26:07):
Do you want to tell them about the time you tried to
introduce Lucifer to the canoeand he dove off the edge as soon
as you got Dab in?
SPEAKER_00 (26:19):
Let's see.
Actually, that's...
SPEAKER_04 (26:22):
Oh, tell them about when you took Dab and Indy
hiking at
SPEAKER_00 (26:27):
Lake Superior.
Okay, so...
this was our big Lake Superiortrip.
She took Lucifer out on a trail.
I forget which
SPEAKER_04 (26:38):
one.
We went on the big Nokomistrail.
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
Yeah.
And I took the older two on, Iforget what trail it was, but it
was more of like a casual typeof thing.
Right.
Anyways, I got the two olderdogs and there's these various
lookouts on this, on this traillooking on the water.
And so then like, I got the twodogs, go check out this view,
(27:03):
and take a couple pictures, andturn around to get back onto the
trail, and Andy bumped into Dav,and Dav fell into the water, and
she was, like, it was probablyabout, I mean, for me, I'm 6'3",
so it was probably about waistdeep for me, but for her, I
(27:25):
mean, she was, like, neck down,so...
Of course, you know, I actuallyhad to like they have harnesses
and thankfully the harnessesactually have like a handle on
them.
So I just go in there and justyank this 70 pound dog out of
the water as fast as I could.
And yeah, she was just like,yeah, well, whatever.
(27:47):
No big deals.
SPEAKER_04 (27:47):
He says she was knocked in, but I know from
previous hiking trips that thisdog has been known to try to
jump off boardwalks.
She was always a problem withthat.
She believed that, kind of likeI said, Lucifer is like, there's
water, I get in.
Well, Dav believed, there'swater, I get in.
And in that trip, for kind ofcontext, she's 15 years old.
(28:10):
Yeah.
And even at that age, she'slike, there's water, I get in.
SPEAKER_00 (28:13):
which when we got back to our campsite we
basically you know just put herright back into the water where
it was actually not marsh waterit was like superior water so
yeah
SPEAKER_04 (28:27):
i think she kind of won in the end because she got
to not only play in the muddywater she wanted to play in but
then we got back to ourwaterfront campsite and she got
to play in the lake And thenwhen she was done playing in the
lake and rinsing off, she got todry off by the campfire.
So she lucked out.
But yeah, she even the reallywell behaved ones and 15 years
old, you'd think she'd be calm.
(28:47):
And no, she's still decidingwhen she needs to go in places
and not always listening.
SPEAKER_03 (28:54):
It reminds me of taking our previous dog in a
paddle boat at Ontario Park.
So we rented a paddle boat overthere.
He was sitting on the back and Ithink he slipped off the back
right into the water he had hisharness on so it's similar to
you john just like reach downgrab by the harness
SPEAKER_02 (29:13):
but he wasn't 70 pounds
SPEAKER_03 (29:14):
no he was not 70 pounds
SPEAKER_04 (29:15):
yeah we've used the harness a couple times the
lucifer too because he'll justlike right off the side of a
boat or a kayak or a canoe andlike even the the life jackets
have handles on the back andthere's it's a good thing now
luckily with him he's only 30pounds he's a smaller pup but he
gets lifted back into the boatquite often.
(29:36):
We're still working on that one.
SPEAKER_02 (29:41):
It would be boring if there wasn't a challenge,
right?
SPEAKER_04 (29:44):
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I mean, just like us, theyhave their personalities and
their preferences too, right?
So you're kind of working withtheir personalities, whereas one
dog, Indy, for example, used toget into the canoe and just
sleep the whole time.
lucifer is like on high edgelike i must eat the paddle i
must i must go swimming and sothat they all bring their own
kind of unique flavor to youradventures too
SPEAKER_02 (30:07):
cool well i'm i'm i'm i'm glad i i tripped across
your stuff because it's it's notsomething we have done a ton i
mean our previous uh farleywould go front country camping
with us but he could care lesslike he just he was a
SPEAKER_03 (30:21):
bit of a diva he'd sit in the car a good good deal
of the time while we werecamping
SPEAKER_02 (30:25):
yes yeah Or lay in the dirt.
That was it.
That was it for him.
He didn't want to know.
I'm hoping our new fur baby ismore adventurous.
Looking forward to getting herout and doing some, well, maybe
some backcountry.
We'll see.
SPEAKER_04 (30:43):
Well, we're looking forward to seeing you share as
you get out with her more andsee how that goes for you.
SPEAKER_02 (30:49):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, your idea of...
don't do it with a canoe full ofgear.
I will remember that because Idon't want to be wet and
watching gear sink to the bottomof the lake.
Not that I don't have enoughextra gear to replace it, but
SPEAKER_04 (31:05):
whatever.
The first time we took Dav out,she completely collapsed the
canoe because she got excitedabout the sight of a duck.
So We're very strong advocatesfor introduce them to the canoe
first and then add gear to theequation.
SPEAKER_02 (31:20):
Yep.
I don't think I'll forget that.
If I do, I'll let you know.
SPEAKER_04 (31:26):
I think for me, the biggest thing that we hope to
get out by putting all of theinformation out that we do is
that while it may change yourtrip a little bit, it might
involve a slightly differentsetup or slightly different gear
or slightly differentconsiderations of what you're
doing while you're camping.
There is something so rewardingabout sharing your adventures
(31:46):
with these pets that hold such aspecial place in your heart and
in your life and being able tosee them, you know, happy and
hiking and swimming.
And it's just it's such arewarding experience that those
minor changes or those littlethings we need to learn along
the way are so worth it.
It's so worth taking the step.
UNKNOWN (32:07):
Awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (32:08):
Love it.
That's it for us for today.
Thank you so much for joining usfor Attack the Kaz Pack.
And please do check us out onour subsequent episodes.
If you would like to reach outto us, we are on all of the
social media.
We're on Instagram, YouTube,Facebook.
And please do subscribe to us onYouTube.
And if you want to talk to us,email us anytime.
(32:28):
We're at hi atsupergoodcampaign.com.
That's hi atsupergoodcampaign.com.
And please do check out the KazPack, the Kaz Pack, K-A-S Pack
on YouTube.
And we'll talk to you againsoon.
Bye.
Bye.
SPEAKER_01 (32:46):
Bye.
Hello and good day.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Super GoodCamping podcast.
My name is Pamela.
SPEAKER_02 (00:04):
I'm Tim.
SPEAKER_03 (00:04):
And we are from supergoodcamping.com.
We're here because we're on amission to inspire other people
to get outside and enjoy campingadventures such as we have as a
family.
Today's guests are a couple thathave a slew of fur babies and
love to camp with them.
They know all the ins and outsof camping with pets and
document those adventures ontheir website, YouTube channel,
and Instagram.
Please welcome Dawn and Britt ofthe Cast Pack.
(00:27):
Hey, nice Nice
SPEAKER_02 (00:30):
to see you.
Thanks for coming out and havinga yak.
SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
Yeah, no problem.
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
Just put my phone on do not disturb because I always
forget that.
All right, so you guys arecertainly, for my money, you're
the biggest pet-friendly,pet-oriented outdoors folks that
I know of.
What's the origin story?
How did that come about?
Did you just have a bunch of furbabies and go, we like to camp,
(00:53):
we're going to take them withus?
What's the deal?
SPEAKER_04 (00:56):
So we've been camping and hiking and spending
time with our pets like that.
Well, my whole life, like I grewup, we used to bring the dog and
the cats with us when we campedwhen I was a little kid.
And so it was just kind ofsomething that I naturally did.
And then he actually came intoour relationship with like no
camping experience.
SPEAKER_01 (01:15):
No.
SPEAKER_04 (01:16):
John had been camping once and it was a cabin
and that's what he calledcamping.
So when I introduced him, Iintroduced him to camping, but I
also introduced him to the factthat camping included my pets at
the time.
And he just kind of fell in lovewith being able to be outdoors
with them and spend that timewith them.
There's something so rewardingabout seeing them so happy and
(01:37):
they enjoy being outside too.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (01:40):
And there's not that many resources either.
So if you go on YouTube and youtry to search for like pet
family travel for camping, Imean, there's a lot of,
YouTubers that touch on it, butthey don't go in depth for it.
SPEAKER_03 (01:55):
Yeah, I think we touched on it in an episode as
well about camping with our dog.
But yeah, certainly not withcats.
We have no experience withcamping with cats.
SPEAKER_02 (02:04):
Well, there's a good question.
So I know I've seen you doingoutdoorsy things with the dogs.
Do you take the cats with you onoccasion?
SPEAKER_04 (02:13):
We do.
So we currently have three cats.
Two of them are adventure cats.
They have experience going outand spending time outdoors.
One is relatively new to us.
She actually just joined thepack at Christmas time.
Literally showed up at our cabindoor here and hasn't left.
So...
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
And
SPEAKER_04 (02:35):
for those who don't know, we're in the middle of
nowhere in a cabin in the woods.
And at midnight, this cat showedup at our front door.
So we tried searching for ahome.
Nobody's looking for her.
So Thea's now joined the pack.
But yeah, our two older catshave been camping with us for a
long time.
They each have their ownpreferences.
Some cats do really well in theoutdoors and some not so much.
(02:55):
Jinx, our younger cat, she...
You know, she likes sunbathingon the campsite.
She likes being carried in herbackpack when we hike, like the
princess she is.
But Pippin, our little diva, Ithink she thinks she's one of
the dogs because she'llliterally hike right alongside
the dogs on her leash.
And she just has a great time.
She enjoys traveling everywhere,going out.
(03:16):
She's flown with me.
We went to Colorado for a petevent in November.
She flew with me down toColorado.
She's just this little adventurejet setter who loves everything.
Yeah, I
SPEAKER_03 (03:26):
was curious about that.
You said you had the cat on aleash.
So that's how you just make surethat they don't...
get lost somewhere you're whileyou're camping
SPEAKER_04 (03:35):
yeah yeah both our cats um well the both our cats
who already have experience arealready leash and harness
trained we're currently leashand harness training thea um in
addition we do have some pensthat we set up like when we're
at the campsite um we havethey're almost like little mesh
tents that you can put out andthere they have a place that
they can go that we can takethem off the leash if for
(03:57):
example you know we're cookingor kicking back and reading a
book or enjoying a campfirebecause five leashes between
them and the dogs would be alot.
But they're pretty much likehaving dogs in that sense.
Like where a dog needs to be ona leash, the cats need to be on
a leash.
And they wander around andrespond the same as the dogs for
(04:18):
the most part.
SPEAKER_03 (04:20):
I remember this is an anecdote from way back, but
having a cat and thinking, oh,it'd be great to put her in the
backyard, but put her on like aharness and attach it to the
clothesline and she could just,you know, wander around the
backyard.
Well, she put her in, seemedlike the harness was secure.
And she did this Houdini kind ofthing where like dislocate my
shoulder and I'm going to getmyself out of the harness.
(04:40):
And she did.
So anyways.
Oh, yeah, that's super,
SPEAKER_04 (04:44):
super common.
Most harnesses actually arefairly easy for them to get out
of.
There's no such thing as anescape-proof harness, so there
is a bit of training that'sinvolved in that, too, to teach
them not to escape.
We actually really, reallyheavily rely on the RC Pets
Adventure Kitty Harness foranyone who's considering harness
training.
From our experience, that's theone that's the hardest for them
(05:05):
to escape early on.
So while you're teaching them,it's the most secure.
And a bonus, it's Canadian.
RC Pets is Canadian.
So it's a great product.
It's a great place to start ifsomebody is trying to harness
train.
But yeah, there's no such thingas an escape-proof harness and
cats are masters of it.
SPEAKER_03 (05:23):
That's good to know.
It wasn't a mistake that I madewith the
SPEAKER_02 (05:26):
harness.
How do you...
I can see that it's asemi-doable thing.
Five harnesses, that's a lot,man.
How do you...
Okay, let's just assume thatthat's wrangleable front
country.
I can't even imagine how youwould do that in the back
country.
Like, what's that secret?
How do you pull that off?
SPEAKER_04 (05:45):
So the biggest thing when we're going anywhere that
we have to hike into or walkinto or anything is the
backpacks for the cats.
So we each carry a backpack, onecat in his backpack because he
gets the big, we have one bigcat, two smaller cats now.
So he gets the big cat and Itake the two smaller ones.
And that way they're on yourback, they're away.
Or if you're carrying a pack,let's say you're carrying in
(06:06):
your gear, you can put the catbackpack on the front But that
way they're contained and you'reonly juggling the dog leashes
until you get in and then theycan still have their outside
time once you're there andyou're set because then you
could, you know, eitherdepending on where you're at,
you could either let the dogsoff leash if you're on crown
land or you could secure the dogsomewhere so that you can then
(06:28):
focus on getting the cats outand letting them have some on
the ground, paws on the groundtime too.
SPEAKER_02 (06:33):
Cool.
Wow.
That's a, that's a lot of work,man.
SPEAKER_03 (06:37):
And how do you find, like with prey drive with both
cats and dogs, like if asquirrel or a chipmunk or
something's nearby, do they notlike...
I know they're on leash, so theycan't obviously go too far.
But still, it must be difficultto wrangle.
I find even just here in thecity on the leash with our
current dog, she's got astronger prey drive than our
(06:57):
previous one had.
But she would go aftersomething.
SPEAKER_04 (07:00):
There's definitely some additional training
involved with that.
We have actually one of our dogsis a German Shepherd Australian
Cattle Dog.
So his need to herd the secondsomething moves is very strong.
So there's been a lot oftraining, even to be able to
coexist in the house of cats.
There was a lot of traininginvolved early on with him
(07:21):
because he's just instinctually,he sees movement and that means
work.
Right.
On the same note, kind of footthere's also training involved
with the cats to teach them thatyou may see and want to watch
the squirrel or watch the birduh but you can't just go take
off after it and cats actuallytrain very similar to dogs if
(07:42):
you do um positive reinforcementwith treats and responding that
way
SPEAKER_02 (07:47):
interesting i would i would have just assumed
because cats can be What's anon-swear word?
Goofs.
They would be more difficult totrain because they're generally,
yeah, I don't care too bad.
I'm doing whatever I want to do.
More indifferent to what youwant.
Yeah, there you go.
Indifferent, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:08):
They are definitely a little harder to train.
Some cats are different thanothers.
Yeah, yeah.
Some are easier to train.
Like I said, Pippin thinks she'sa dog.
So she responds to pretty mucheverything like a dog.
She trains like a dog.
She comes when she's called.
She plays fetch.
SPEAKER_02 (08:29):
Very cool.
One of the things that I foundreally interesting with what you
guys do is pet first aid.
It hadn't really occurred to mebefore.
We do all kinds of human firstaid stuff, wilderness first aid,
all that sort of training.
But what's...
I don't know, share some of thedifferences in doing pet first
(08:51):
aid and what kind of a kit doyou drag along with you?
SPEAKER_04 (08:54):
Yeah, so one of the biggest misconceptions that we
found was that people assumethat if you have a fully stocked
pet first aid or human first aidkit, sorry, that you're good for
your pet.
And there's certain things thatjust aren't going to work
without some additional petfocused things.
John can speak to the importanceof styptic powder to stop
(09:17):
bleeding.
SPEAKER_00 (09:18):
Yeah.
So if you, I mean, that's thestuff that you use for like, if
you catch a quick on, if you'retrimming your dog's nails,
right?
UNKNOWN (09:27):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (09:27):
it actively like stops it um so yeah i don't
think we have had an occasion incamping
SPEAKER_04 (09:34):
no but you had the incident at home
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
yes yes uh our old dog dav back and i this is going
back years ago uh brit wasworking in insurance i was
working on a farm and um idecided to you know trim her
nails right So then like, youknow, I got her paws up and
she's really good.
She'll just put her hand out andit's just like clip, clip, clip,
(09:58):
clip.
And she's over and done with,right?
But the one time I clipped,clipped.
And then by the time I got tothe third one, the first one
started bleeding.
And then I was like, oh.
And then the second one.
started bleeding and like noresponse from this dog
(10:20):
whatsoever so of course igrabbed this stuff and you know
just dab it in and all thatstuff and basically it did what
it was supposed to do right um
SPEAKER_04 (10:30):
you tried the alternatives first yeah he tried
the flower first so i came homefrom work and just to kind of
speak to people about theimportance of having actual
styptic powder instead of theflower the flower can work
however i came home from workand there was Flower everywhere
and blood everywhere.
Him sitting in the middle of thepile.
So that's something that I mean,the containers like this big,
(10:53):
it's not a major addition toyour kit.
But if your dog happens to cracknail, break a nail, even get
like a little cut.
That instantly stops thebleeding and their nails in
particular bleed really bad ifyou do have a nail injury.
So that's one that that wereally, really heavily recommend
(11:14):
everybody add.
The other thing I would I wouldencourage everybody to add to
their first aid kit that mostpeople don't think about is just
a basic bandana.
And it's because it can serve somany purposes for a dog.
You could use it to holdbandages in place because it's
not like a human bandage.
You can't just stick it on.
(11:35):
There's fur there.
Fur makes that ineffective.
So the bandana helps to holdthat in place if you happen to
run out of or not have vet wrapor vet bandages.
It can be used as a sling.
It can be used as a makeshiftmuzzle because even the nicest
dog might snap if they're inpain.
It can even be used as amakeshift collar.
(11:56):
If the collar gets broken in anemergency, you can wrap it up
and tie it as a collar.
So that's one thing that'sreally, really small, but
really, really important.
SPEAKER_03 (12:05):
Yeah, very versatile to be able to use that for so
many things.
And certainly I've had thosethings happen.
I've had a leash break.
I've had, uh, I've had a dogthat was bleeding and we had to
try to keep the drug frombleeding.
And I've, I've nicked a nailbefore too.
And so I know you're, I knowyou're paying time with it.
I think every parent has
SPEAKER_04 (12:23):
nicked a nail at one point or another.
Oh,
SPEAKER_03 (12:27):
and I, I cried.
Like I just, I felt so awfulthat I had done
SPEAKER_02 (12:31):
that.
Okay.
So I'm, I keep thinking of like,I watch a lot of your, your
social media, uh, And I see, youmust not always take the entire
brood.
Like there must be times,because I'm sure I've seen, I'm
sure I've seen, or maybe it wasolder stuff, but I know I've
seen just you and the dogs out.
(12:54):
Do you occasionally leave thecats, like I said, if it's a
short trip or how does that workout?
SPEAKER_04 (13:00):
Yeah, we have a few different ways that we decide
who's going and when they go.
When it comes to trips thatinvolve a longer drive, like
when we headed up to LakeSuperior, we tend to leave the
cats at home with a sitter justbecause Jinx doesn't do very
well on car rides.
And she also doesn't like beingalone.
So Pip stays with her just to,you know, give her that
companionship while we're gone.
(13:21):
Versus if we go to a closer bypark, then it's easier to bring
the cats because you're notpushing it.
Anything over about a four hourdrive is a no go for Jinx.
She'll start to panic.
And that's kind of an importantthing to remember, too, if
you're considering bringing yourpet is understanding their
limits and being okay to workaround those limits.
The other thing that we do thatis really important to us is to
(13:42):
do some one-on-one trips withsome of the pets.
So, for example, last August, Iactually had my nieces came to
stay with me, my little nieces,and we took just the cats.
And it was just nieces, thecats, and I out on a trip.
And like this April, I'm goingto be heading into a backcountry
site for Lucifer's first timebackcountry, my little guy.
(14:04):
So he's only done frontcountryto this point.
We've only had him for threeyears, and part of that was
COVID.
So he hasn't had a chance to getout and learn kind of the ins
and outs of true backcountry.
He's done like walk-in sitesand, you know, that kind of
halfway measure.
So he and I are taking a week atKillarney and just going out and
(14:27):
enjoying that, just the two ofus.
And that's also important forbonding.
Cool.
SPEAKER_02 (14:31):
Where in Killarney?
SPEAKER_04 (14:33):
We're doing the backcountry hike in right on the
La Classe Trail.
SPEAKER_02 (14:37):
Oh, cool.
Nice.
The hiking that I get is usuallywith a canoe over my head.
SPEAKER_04 (14:44):
It's a poor time.
The canoe thing was really greatwith our older dogs.
They were both really awesome inthe canoe and we could canoe
into sites.
lucifer is determined he needsto eat the paddle we're still
working on that um but in hisattempt to eat the paddle as
we're paddling that tends toshake the canoe a little bit and
i worry a bit about gear and wehaven't actually introduced
willow to the canoe yet becausewe just got her last june that's
(15:07):
our big anatolian and she wasafraid of water at first so
we've gotten her past her fearof water now now she'll go into
water and hang it at the beachum but now that we've kind of
crossed that bridge we're movingon to the next one of
introducing her to a canoe thisyear
SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
Cool.
Yeah.
I mean, I've seen, you know,sort of like Dennis Rogers, he
takes his dog one in the canoewith him and there's, there's
other people that do the samething, but it's one.
Like, I don't know.
I don't know that I've ever seenanybody try to take two or more.
Like just, I would, I would forsure be.
SPEAKER_04 (15:43):
Our older two were amazing.
When we had Dav and Indy and weused to travel with Dav and
Indy, Dav just liked to sit andlook around and Indy would fall
asleep.
He'd sleep the whole time wewere paddling.
We did have one canoe adventurethat shortly after we got
Lucifer that we took Lucifer outand it went really well.
I actually have photos of thetwo of us and three dogs in the
canoe.
SPEAKER_01 (16:04):
Yikes.
SPEAKER_04 (16:05):
But that's also when we discovered that he likes to
try and eat the paddle andrealized that we needed to kind
of take a step back with him onthat.
And luckily, it wasn't a paddleinside.
It was just like an introduceinto the canoe, take the canoe
out in the lake.
So we weren't worried about geargetting tipped in the process.
But that's also an importantstep to consider for anyone
who's considering taking theirpet is don't go out the first
(16:27):
time in the canoe with all yourgear because you're probably
going to regret it.
SPEAKER_03 (16:31):
Well, I know with our previous dog, we went on a
back country trip last fall andhe was a little restless in the
canoe, but I think it was, hewas thirsty and he kept kind of
wanting, cause the water's rightthere.
So why can't I just stick myhead over and get some water,
but it would tip the canoe.
Cause I don't want to get wet.
That's why you can't.
SPEAKER_04 (16:50):
Yeah.
That's also a concern withLucifer.
We've had to work on, we've beendoing a lot of place training
with him because he's such awater lover that if we don't
give him some sort of command toget him to settle down in the
canoe, he's going to get wet.
over the edge and he's going fora swim there's water there he's
swimming
SPEAKER_03 (17:06):
yeah why can't i go swimming And do you have life
jackets for your pets?
SPEAKER_04 (17:11):
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
We're strong believers that ifyou're ever in a situation where
you have to wear a life jacketor you need any type of safety
gear, your pet does too.
So we bring life jackets foractually all of the pets if
they're out in the water, we'llhave life jackets.
Even the cats can be fit withthe smallest dog life jackets or
there's specialized cat lifejackets you can get from a
company called Surfer Cat.
SPEAKER_03 (17:32):
That's
SPEAKER_02 (17:32):
awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
I know I saw, we're going back afew years, but I remember the
first time I saw Salas put out alife jacket, a pet life jacket.
I was like, hey, brilliant idea.
Never even thought about it.
That's excellent.
So I also read something aboutpresentations, what you do
presentations.
How does that play out?
(17:53):
Like you said you went...
what, California at some point?
And I think recently, maybe eventhe day after the day we're
taping this, I think yesterdayyou were putting a presentation
together.
SPEAKER_04 (18:06):
Yes.
So I actually work in themarketing space.
I'm a digital marketing,specifically SEO.
So Google and how to make surethat your business is found on
Google specialist.
And because of that, I made alot of connections kind of all
over the world.
which grew as we started takingour actual pet related business
(18:28):
seriously, because I already hadall these connections to kind of
take that step.
So I do a lot of travelingbecause I do a lot of talking
about the marketing side ofthings.
But also because I am somebodythat people tend to come to for
the reactive dog side of things.
So there's been a really badmisconception for a long time
(18:51):
that reactivity is aggressionand they shouldn't be allowed in
public.
And I've made it my mission toget out there and share what
reactivity is truly, which isjust an overabundance of
emotion.
And it can be fear, it can beanger, but it can also be
excitement.
A dog can be reactive becausethey're just so excited at the
sight of people or dogs.
(19:12):
And to also try and share withpeople how to include even a
reactive dog in their travelssafely and responsibly.
And that's what I was talkingabout yesterday in an online
symposium.
SPEAKER_03 (19:22):
So how do you?
SPEAKER_04 (19:24):
The biggest thing is just to know their limits, know
their triggers and take steps totry and create a safe place.
So, for example, when we'recamping and hiking, Lucifer, he
came to us from a really badabuse situation.
It's just a young pup.
He was four months old.
and had some severe injuriesfrom his past.
So he's afraid of people,specifically men, any man he
(19:47):
doesn't know.
So when we're camping, we haveto set up our campsite to make
sure we block any visuals so hefeels like that is his safe
place.
Sometimes we can do that bysetting up our tents in a way
that creates a barrier.
If that doesn't work, we canalways put up a bit of a tarp
wall.
He's fairly small, he's only 30pounds, so it doesn't have to be
a really tall tarp wall.
It can even be just a shortthing that's tall enough for
(20:08):
him.
um and through commands you canhelp to mitigate that when
you're on the trails things likelook can draw his attention away
from catching a trigger in thedistance or leave it can tell
him to disengage with thetrigger um a lot of counter
conditioning introducing atrigger at a distance while
giving treats and praise andencouraging him for being calm
(20:31):
even though that triggers at adistance and the big thing that
I think needs to be talked aboutmore in the pet space is muzzle
training.
Muzzles have this really badstigma for some reason.
And I don't understand why,because it's no different a tool
than a collar or a harness or aleash.
If you introduce your dog to amuzzle very carefully and
casually, you can create apositive experience with it.
(20:54):
Like when we pull the muzzleout, Lucifer gets excited.
We have a custom vinyl muzzlefrom Mia's Muzzles.
And when we pull it out, he getsexcited because he knows it
means adventure time.
And anytime that we know thatwe're going on a trail that is a
little bit more popular andthere's any risk that we might
be in like a narrow part of thetrail with people he doesn't
know, I always make sure he'smuzzled because if he felt he
was cornered and he had todefend himself, he's never
(21:17):
landed a bite on somebody ortried to land a bite on
somebody.
But I know that the risk ispotentially there and it's
better to just be prepared andput those safety measures in
place before something happens.
SPEAKER_02 (21:26):
Yeah, that sounds like a smart move.
Yeah.
All right.
social media time tell us aboutall your content creation and
your amazing facebook group
SPEAKER_00 (21:35):
okay so uh the facebook group's been around for
a few years um and we're justunder 25 000 members active
members um which is that
SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
that's
SPEAKER_00 (21:51):
crazy crazy there we also do have the uh camping and
hiking ontario cats group aswell which i mean there's not
that many people in that one butit's growing um but uh yeah uh
youtube youtube is our uh wejust started doing that like a
couple years ago um we justreleased a video about rasul and
(22:17):
Probably this week we'll bereleasing a new video for
Fairbank.
SPEAKER_04 (22:22):
Yes.
So we also have a blog where wedo written content and it's
educational content largely forpeople who are interested in
trying to learn how to camp withtheir pets or who maybe want to
try different experiences ortaking it to different levels,
tips and tricks.
And that's the Caspac.com.
And that's also kind of like acentral hub for us.
So if you go to the website, itwill lead you out to all of our
(22:44):
socials, which includesInstagram and TikTok, where we
share little short videos aswell, just showing what it's
like to be out with pets andoffering tips and tricks and
advice for people who want toinclude their pets in their
outdoor adventures.
SPEAKER_03 (22:59):
Cool.
And you're a big advocate forrescue, I see, too, from your
website.
SPEAKER_04 (23:04):
yes yeah all of our pets are rescue pets um while i
don't condone breeders orbreeding i do believe there's a
space for that um for theaverage family pet i think there
are so many incredible pets outthere in shelters and rescues
that are looking for a home andthey have so much love to give
like all of ours have eithercome from a rescue organization
(23:24):
or like the case of thea gotrescued in a different way um
she never made it into a rescueorganization but if we didn't
keep her she would have becauseshe had been dumped and um
needed a home so like these areamazing incredible trainable
well-behaved pets that have somuch love to give and can be the
(23:45):
perfect adventure buddy
SPEAKER_03 (23:47):
well we can speak for that for ourselves that we
rescued a a dog in November fromToronto Animal Services.
And she came to us very, veryuncertain, very afraid, like
every little thing scared her.
She was cowering.
We assumed she'd been abused inher previous
SPEAKER_02 (24:06):
home.
She was abused by a man, forsure.
Because as she started to openup, she bonded with Pamela way
sooner than me.
I mean, I tend to be a talk withmy hands kind of guy.
And she would just cower, getdown on the ground, she was
terrified of me it almost mademe cry it was just it was so so
so saddening to see that thatthat
SPEAKER_03 (24:29):
she'd been mistreated so badly
SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
yeah and then yeah
SPEAKER_03 (24:33):
so anyway she's a wonderful dog and as you said
she's trained up beautifully sheshe we've had no issues she's a
wonderful sweet Sweet nut bar.
Sweet nut bar.
SPEAKER_04 (24:45):
She's hit the jackpot having such a loving
home that'll take her out andhelp her adventure and spend
time and give her thatopportunity.
SPEAKER_03 (24:53):
Well, we kind of feel like we hit the jackpot.
That's our first experience withrescuing a dog.
And it just felt like, wow, Ididn't know it could be such a
good experience.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (25:03):
Yeah, they are such incredible, incredible pets.
We got Lucifer actually fromTennessee.
And like I said, he came from aquestionable situation down
there.
And he was only four months old,which is just heartbreaking that
at that young an age, he wasalready that afraid of people
because what he had beenthrough.
And then after we unfortunatelyhad to say goodbye last year to
(25:24):
both of our senior pups, whowere also both rescues, we
recently rescued Willow from alocal rescue.
And she was once a Turkishstreet dog.
and then got brought over toCanada, and now she's living the
high life here at the cabin as aspoiled daddy's girl.
SPEAKER_03 (25:41):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I read your story aboutLucifer, and that was just
heartbreaking.
I cannot imagine anyone doingthings like that to a dog.
SPEAKER_02 (25:50):
Don't make me sad.
I don't like this.
All right.
All right.
How about tell us a story?
Tell us a camping story thatwent, phenomenally well or was
it absolute disaster and you gotto learn a bunch of things?
SPEAKER_04 (26:07):
Do you want to tell them about the time you tried to
introduce Lucifer to the canoeand he dove off the edge as soon
as you got Dab in?
SPEAKER_00 (26:19):
Let's see.
Actually, that's...
SPEAKER_04 (26:22):
Oh, tell them about when you took Dab and Indy
hiking at
SPEAKER_00 (26:27):
Lake Superior.
Okay, so...
this was our big Lake Superiortrip.
She took Lucifer out on a trail.
I forget which
SPEAKER_04 (26:38):
one.
We went on the big Nokomistrail.
SPEAKER_00 (26:40):
Yeah.
And I took the older two on, Iforget what trail it was, but it
was more of like a casual typeof thing.
Right.
Anyways, I got the two olderdogs and there's these various
lookouts on this, on this traillooking on the water.
And so then like, I got the twodogs, go check out this view,
(27:03):
and take a couple pictures, andturn around to get back onto the
trail, and Andy bumped into Dav,and Dav fell into the water, and
she was, like, it was probablyabout, I mean, for me, I'm 6'3",
so it was probably about waistdeep for me, but for her, I
(27:25):
mean, she was, like, neck down,so...
Of course, you know, I actuallyhad to like they have harnesses
and thankfully the harnessesactually have like a handle on
them.
So I just go in there and justyank this 70 pound dog out of
the water as fast as I could.
And yeah, she was just like,yeah, well, whatever.
(27:47):
No big deals.
SPEAKER_04 (27:47):
He says she was knocked in, but I know from
previous hiking trips that thisdog has been known to try to
jump off boardwalks.
She was always a problem withthat.
She believed that, kind of likeI said, Lucifer is like, there's
water, I get in.
Well, Dav believed, there'swater, I get in.
And in that trip, for kind ofcontext, she's 15 years old.
(28:10):
Yeah.
And even at that age, she'slike, there's water, I get in.
SPEAKER_00 (28:13):
which when we got back to our campsite we
basically you know just put herright back into the water where
it was actually not marsh waterit was like superior water so
yeah
SPEAKER_04 (28:27):
i think she kind of won in the end because she got
to not only play in the muddywater she wanted to play in but
then we got back to ourwaterfront campsite and she got
to play in the lake And thenwhen she was done playing in the
lake and rinsing off, she got todry off by the campfire.
So she lucked out.
But yeah, she even the reallywell behaved ones and 15 years
old, you'd think she'd be calm.
(28:47):
And no, she's still decidingwhen she needs to go in places
and not always listening.
SPEAKER_03 (28:54):
It reminds me of taking our previous dog in a
paddle boat at Ontario Park.
So we rented a paddle boat overthere.
He was sitting on the back and Ithink he slipped off the back
right into the water he had hisharness on so it's similar to
you john just like reach downgrab by the harness
SPEAKER_02 (29:13):
but he wasn't 70 pounds
SPEAKER_03 (29:14):
no he was not 70 pounds
SPEAKER_04 (29:15):
yeah we've used the harness a couple times the
lucifer too because he'll justlike right off the side of a
boat or a kayak or a canoe andlike even the the life jackets
have handles on the back andthere's it's a good thing now
luckily with him he's only 30pounds he's a smaller pup but he
gets lifted back into the boatquite often.
(29:36):
We're still working on that one.
SPEAKER_02 (29:41):
It would be boring if there wasn't a challenge,
right?
SPEAKER_04 (29:44):
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I mean, just like us, theyhave their personalities and
their preferences too, right?
So you're kind of working withtheir personalities, whereas one
dog, Indy, for example, used toget into the canoe and just
sleep the whole time.
lucifer is like on high edgelike i must eat the paddle i
must i must go swimming and sothat they all bring their own
kind of unique flavor to youradventures too
SPEAKER_02 (30:07):
cool well i'm i'm i'm i'm glad i i tripped across
your stuff because it's it's notsomething we have done a ton i
mean our previous uh farleywould go front country camping
with us but he could care lesslike he just he was a
SPEAKER_03 (30:21):
bit of a diva he'd sit in the car a good good deal
of the time while we werecamping
SPEAKER_02 (30:25):
yes yeah Or lay in the dirt.
That was it.
That was it for him.
He didn't want to know.
I'm hoping our new fur baby ismore adventurous.
Looking forward to getting herout and doing some, well, maybe
some backcountry.
We'll see.
SPEAKER_04 (30:43):
Well, we're looking forward to seeing you share as
you get out with her more andsee how that goes for you.
SPEAKER_02 (30:49):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, your idea of...
don't do it with a canoe full ofgear.
I will remember that because Idon't want to be wet and
watching gear sink to the bottomof the lake.
Not that I don't have enoughextra gear to replace it, but
SPEAKER_04 (31:05):
whatever.
The first time we took Dav out,she completely collapsed the
canoe because she got excitedabout the sight of a duck.
So We're very strong advocatesfor introduce them to the canoe
first and then add gear to theequation.
SPEAKER_02 (31:20):
Yep.
I don't think I'll forget that.
If I do, I'll let you know.
SPEAKER_04 (31:26):
I think for me, the biggest thing that we hope to
get out by putting all of theinformation out that we do is
that while it may change yourtrip a little bit, it might
involve a slightly differentsetup or slightly different gear
or slightly differentconsiderations of what you're
doing while you're camping.
There is something so rewardingabout sharing your adventures
(31:46):
with these pets that hold such aspecial place in your heart and
in your life and being able tosee them, you know, happy and
hiking and swimming.
And it's just it's such arewarding experience that those
minor changes or those littlethings we need to learn along
the way are so worth it.
It's so worth taking the step.
UNKNOWN (32:07):
Awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (32:08):
Love it.
That's it for us for today.
Thank you so much for joining usfor Attack the Kaz Pack.
And please do check us out onour subsequent episodes.
If you would like to reach outto us, we are on all of the
social media.
We're on Instagram, YouTube,Facebook.
And please do subscribe to us onYouTube.
And if you want to talk to us,email us anytime.
(32:28):
We're at hi atsupergoodcampaign.com.
That's hi atsupergoodcampaign.com.
And please do check out the KazPack, the Kaz Pack, K-A-S Pack
on YouTube.
And we'll talk to you againsoon.
Bye.
Bye.
SPEAKER_01 (32:46):
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.