Camping – RVHobo Network

The RV Hobo Art of Boondocking

The Art of Boondocking — Gonzaga Bay, MX

Boondocking is camping at a place, preferably free, with no hook-ups for water, sewer or electricity. Places like Federal Parks and Forests, LTVAs, on the beaches of Baja and in the Provincial Parks of Canada. To stay at these places, your rig must be self-contained. As the BLM states in its Supplementary Rules, Section 17, “Camping is in self-contained units only. Self-contained camping units must have a permanent, affixed waste water holding tank of 10-gallon minimum capacity. BLM does not consider port-a-potty systems, systems that utilize portable holding tanks, or permanent holding tanks of less than 10-gallon capacity, to be self-contained”.

Update: In addition to the above-mentioned places to stay for Boondockers, if you like being on the beach and temperate weather, you’ll love the Baja LTVA. Full-time RVers can spend the summer or winter season here at campsites that start at only $300 for the season for beach access and views and a double-wide 45′ site. You can contact the Baja LTVA with questions, make a reservation and securely pay online at [email protected] while their website. bajaltva.com, is under construction.

The art of boondocking is to be able to stay in one of those places for as long as possible without having to break camp as well as enjoying as many amenities as possible. While we love being out in the wild, we are not willing to give up our TV, electric coffee pot, refrigerator/freezer, computers, Internet and other conveniences. The Art of Boondocking is an accumulation of our experience living completely off the grid with solar for power, cell phones, sat phones, MiFi and various antennas for communication, Internet and over-the-air TV as well as satellite dishes for TV and Internet, to maximize our stay without giving up many of our creature comforts.

We’ve divided our Art of Boondocking into the following sections:

Stay Small
Maximum Stay
Budget
Solar
Stay Kool
Stay Warm
Backup Plan

1: Stay Small

If you are planning to stay at Federal Parks and Forests, keep in mind that most Federal Campgrounds will only take RVs with a length of 20′ or so , as the sites were originally designed for tents. You are also limited access to many roads if you are over-sized, as it was assumed that tenters would be traveling in one maneuverable vehicle. We found this out when trying to camp at the great campgrounds we had read about in Denali Park, Alaska, where rigs over 20′ or towing trailers were denied access. We had a 12′ Lance camper but were towing an 8′ trailer, our solar power station. We had to stay in a campground that was basically a paved parking lot with pull-throughs and no length limits, right off the main highway. That was a real disappointment. While we chose 20 feet as the minimum we could use with us and our two Great Danes (please see our Camping with Two Great Danes article), only you can decide where you want to go and pick the RV that meets your needs.

Our Solar Rig — 12′ Lance Camper with 8’x4′ Towable Solar Station

A note on towing a vehicle or utility trailer. Many parks consider the towed item to be part of the overall length and therefore subject to length limits. Also, some parks only allow one vehicle and as your motor home will count as one, you may not be allowed to bring your tow vehicle to your campsite. Having said that, some parks do have parking lots near their entrances where you can leave your tow vehicle while camping.

2: Maximum Stay

This is not such an easy question to answer as it will depend on many factors. For example,

Will you have close access to water?
Is there a dump station close by?
How much gray and black water can you store?
How long will your propane last?
How long will your food last?
Last but not least, what is the capacity of your solar system?

Our 20' Motorhome — Our Current RV: 1977 Dodge Establishment, 20′

Our situation required two different answers to the “Maximum Stay” question. 1) When we were traveling throughout the Federal and Provincial Campgrounds, two weeks was the maximum we could stay without breaking camp, dumping and refilling with water. Our 7-1/2 gallons of propane would last much longer than two weeks, but we always topped off. 2) When at our lot in Mexico, we have a small septic system and access to slightly brackish water for washing and showers.

Box Van Workshop — GMC Box Van “Workshop”

We also have a box van (our workshop) and external propane tanks that can be refilled in town. So if you own or rent a campsite with access to utilities and have a “get-about” vehicle so you don’t have to move your RV, there is no limit to the length of your stay. But if you’re traveling, two weeks is a good guideline to try and achieve.

We should note that we have optimized our motor home to maximize our stay which is detailed in, RV Hobo: Maximizing Your Stay (coming soon). Here is a summary of the best things to do:

Have a solar system that meets your power needs.
Use the solar system to minimize propane use, i.e., electric rather than propane refrigerator.
Use a water recycling system where practical.
Use paper plates, cups etc., to minimize water use.
Have portable containers to lug water in and lug gray water out.

3: Budget

Everyone’s budget will differ. The biggest thing is to plan out what your expenses are and be as realistic as possible. Be sure to keep some money in reserve for emergencies and “rainy” days. We have a minimum budget we use available in the article, RV Hobo: Touring on a Budget (coming soon). We also highly recommend purchasing towing insurance with an accommodations rider or hotel discount, so your insurance will cover, or help cover, your hotel room if your RV takes more than a day to be repaired. After much research, we currently use Good Sam Roadside Assistance through Camping World. Although insurance is an extra expense that may never be needed, in the event of a breakdown, the expenses involved without insurance would certainly spoil even the best laid plans.

4: Solar

Motorhome Solar Panels — Dodge Motor home 2-250W Solar Panels on the roof

This is the heart and soul of Boondocking. A well-sized solar system, complete with hot water panels is, in our opinion, a requirement to both travelling on a budget and an enjoyable lifestyle while doing it. We have an all-electric refrigerator, led lights, three laptop computers, 24″ TV, Verizon MiFi (complete with a cell booster) Internet and an assortment of battery-powered power tools. Here is a list of what we are using. These items were bought after living and working off the grid in a remote location in Baja for over 10 years.

500 watts of 24 volt solar panels
4-300 AMP HR 12 volt deep cycle batteries
40 amp MPPT solar charger
1500 watt pure sign wave inverter
smart 80 – 2 amp battery charger/converter
2 – 2’x2′ hot water panels
RV Hobo Kool Kamper
3000 watt pure sign wave generator

Please be sure to check out the article, RV Hobo: Effective Solar (coming soon), for the how and why of all of this. What is most important to note is that we stay at many remote locations, well outside of normal cell tower range, with no hookups other than what we carry, and do so in style! We use our IP phones, have Internet access, watch TV and build and repair stuff on a regular basis. And both my wife and I work right from our ‘lil motor home which has a full computer network on board.

5: Stay Kool

Most RVers will like to stay where it is warm. The desert LTVAs and Mexico Beaches are favorite destinations for many of us. Staying kool in the desert and at the beach is the subject of an entire article (coming soon). Remember that you will be off the grid and an RV cannot carry enough solar panels to run its air conditioner. Add to that the fact that the desert and beaches generally do not offer an abundance of shade. See the problem? The easy fixes found throughout the web are pretty obvious:

Cook outside
Vent your refrigerator, even add a fan
Important: paint your roof white
Install an awning and window awnings.

The “basics” are required, but for us, it wasn’t quite cool enough. We wanted to keep comfortable, or at least as comfortable as we could be. My wife has her masters degree in engineering and is a former JPL engineer. I was a Senior Computer Scientist at a Los Alamos Think Tank. Putting our heads together, we thought there has to be an inexpensive, efficient way to stay cool. This is a problem that has plagued us for years, including when we lived in our home in Baja Mexico where summers were in the very high 90s with humidity about the same.

We found the answers for the RV Hobo Kool Kamper (article coming soon), not from the new state-of-the-art technology, but from the ancient world. These techniques have been used by everyone from the Romans to the Bedouins to keep kool. While the details of the RV Hobo Kool Roof (article coming soon) are available here on the RV Hobo Network, here is the short version:

Slow down the RV’s absorption of the sun’s heat.
Move air inside the RV.
Draw air from the koolest source.
Use evaporation to really kool things down (low humidity environment only).

Now think about doing all of this with little (5 – 10 watts) or no draw on your solar system. We have developed a way to combine various ancient kooling techniques for use with an RV. We actually use the heat from the Sun to kool an RV, and we’re talking 10 – 30 degrees kooler! Sound too good to be true? See the article, RV Hobo Kool Kamper (coming soon). Anyone with minimal carpentry skills can create an RV Hob0 Kool Roof himself. Our cost was less that $400. An RV Hobo Kool Roof will solve problems for those RVs with leaking roofs, or RVs with older roofs that don’t have plywood underneath and can’t be walked on. An RV Hobo Kool Roof will also strengthen your roof which is a must for a solid solar solar system installation.

6: Stay Warm

Yes, even Baja and Southern California can get cold! While staying at all of those nice, warm southern locations, we have endured many a cold night, and even a few unexpected cold days. Checking average temperatures for the months you’re intending to stay will give a good indication of what to expect.

ProCom Vent-free Propane Heater, 10000 BTU, 300 sq ft

Like most RVs, our standard RV heater used far too much electricity, so we removed ours and replaced it with a propane heater. In reality, most of the time we needed heat was when we got up in the morning. Experience taught us that we turned the heat on for an hour or so, then the sun warmed things up. But there are times when you need heat throughout the night. Being in the over-regulated state of California, we couldn’t get our first choice of propane heater, the ProCom Vent-Free Heater. This was the one we used in our office trailer in Massachusetts for three winters. We ended up buying a Mr Heater instead, which worked fine for warming up mornings, but without a thermostat, was not suitable for leaving on at night, since it would burn through a small propane bottle within four hours. As soon as we got out of California, we purchased our first choice, the ProCom Vent-Free Heater, complete with thermostat and a connection hose that we adapted to our RV. One of the side benefits we enjoy from this heater is watching it when lit, kind of like watching a fireplace.

Please see the article, RV Hobo: Staying Warm in Style (coming soon) for the details and how-to. We did one other thing with our heater that really made a difference. Since the ProCom does not have a fan, we installed a couple of small, low-wattage fans to blow the heat from the ceiling back to the floor. This not only made us very comfortable, it significantly reduced the amount of time the heater came on, resulting in lower propane use and costs.

7: Backup Plan

Everything, with a little maintenance, works just as planned for us. But, as the saying goes, even the best laid plans often go awry. Consider the following:

No Sun
No Cell Reception
You Breakdown
Air Conditioning

No Sun. With no sun, our choice of using a 4.5 cubic foot, electric-only, Energy Star refrigerator is already in jeopardy. For this reason, we would never use an all-electric refrigerator without a backup generator and smart solar battery charger/converter. You will have cloudy days or be in a campsite covered by trees, so be prepared. See the article, RV Hobo: Solar and the Generator (coming soon). The backup generator is used to recharge the solar batteries. Even in the worst of cases, 2 – 4 hours of running the generator daily will meet all of our electric needs.

No Cell Reception. Even with our cell booster, it is a frequent occurrence to not have cell reception which is also needed by our MiFi Internet connection. Most of the time we can get by without it, as we have an Intranet Web Server so we can keep writing articles for you. But the long and short of it is, what happens in an emergency, when you are in the boondocks with no cell reception? As a solution, we keep a minimum subscription with our Globalstar Sat Phone. We have used this phone from above the Glaciers in Alaska and Northern Canada all the way to Baja Mexico. Check out the RV Hobo: Globalstar Sat Phone article.

You Break Down. If you break down far from civilization, the costs of repairs can be staggering, but the towing and lodging costs can more than double your breakdown costs. This can ruin your trip. We use Good Sam Roadside Assistance through Camping World which includes discounts for hotels and rental cars. Whatever you choose, make sure it will cover where you expect to travel. Good Sam touts service anywhere in the US, Canada, Mexico, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Air Conditioning. I was contemplating removing our RV’s air conditioner when my wife stepped in. She brought up the recent and unexpected hot spell we had just had. While our RV Hobo Kool Kamper works great, when temperatures sore above 100 degrees (we’ve experienced 130 degrees in Baja) in a humid area, you’re still going to get really hot. Because our destinations were so varied, we elected to change our generator purchase from a 2000 watt generator to a 3000 watt generator that could run our air conditioner. We also installed a separate plug for the air conditioner, off of the solar system. We figured if it were that hot we would have an abundance of Sun. This allowed things to work normally and the generator to power the A/C. This also works in campgrounds with electric hookups.

LTVA: Long Term Visitors Area

Note: This article has been updated May 28, 2017 to reflect the recent changes to the BLM’s Northern California campgrounds managed by the Bishop Field Office. Additionally, the BLM website, https://www.blm.gov, has been updated and the links to their field offices and information on LTVAs no longer function. The information about the LTVAs and the long-term campgrounds as cited below is factual unless we get official verification from the BLM that it has changed, at which time we will again update the article.

The Long Term Visitor Areas, or LTVAs, were set up by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) to accommodate “Snowbirds” (ie, northerners who move to a warmer southern location in the winter). While the LTVAs only offer primitive camping, without full hookups, unlike the National Park and other Federal Campgrounds, you don’t have to pack up and leave after 14 days.

In order to stay in most LTVAs, you must be “self-contained”. As the BLM states in its Supplementary Rules, “Camping is in self-contained units only. Self-contained camping units must have a permanent, affixed wastewater holding tank of 10-gallon minimum capacity. BLM does not consider port-a-potty systems, systems that utilize portable holding tanks, or permanent holding tanks of less than 10-gallon capacity, to be self-contained”. There are exceptions. According to BLM’s Supplementary Rules, “The La Posa, Imperial Dam,and Mule Mountain LTVAs are restricted to self-contained camping units, except within 500 feet of a vault or restroom.”

For those who wish to camp year-round without having to move every 14 days, in addition to the southern California and Arizona LTVAs, the BLM offers five campgrounds in northern California that allow long-term stays. The elevations at these northern campgrounds range from 4000 feet to 7000 feet but summer temperatures will still get into the 100s.

Before continuing with information on the LTVAs, we have to interject here about the Bishop Field Office and the “summer alternative” for full-time RVers.

Bishop Field Office

Although never a part of the “authorized” BLM LTVAs, the Bishop Field Office did offer what they called LTVA permit fees for “long-term camping” prior to 2017. At that time, the permit fee was $300 for the season lasting from the first Saturday in March to November 1st. Even then, we did not understand why Bishop charged $300 for permits while the BLM El Centro, Palm Springs and Yuma Field Offices charged only $180 for their permits.

Now, according to the BLM press release, Long-Term Camping Opportunities Available in the Eastern Sierra, dated Tuesday, May 16, 2017, the Bishop Field Office raised their long-term rates by almost 300%. The following is an excerpt from the above-cited press release: “Under the program, visitors may purchase recreation use permits, which allow camping beyond the established 14 day stay limit for campgrounds managed by the Bishop Field Office. Those interested in long-term camping have the option of purchasing either a 30-day or 90-day permit. Under the approved permit program visitors can camp for up to 180 days per year within BLM campgrounds in the Eastern Sierra. The fee for a 30-day permit is $120. The fee for a 90-day permit is $320.”

From our personal experience staying at the Tuttle Creek Campground in the summer of 2016, wildfires seem to come from nowhere and are common and we had to be ready to evacuate at any time. Smoke often fills the air which is already severely polluted due to the draining of its once pristine lake by the city of Los Angeles. The area has a high cost of living and summer temperatures, even at 5000′, get well into the 100s. We made the mistake of staying at a campsite close to the creek which we don’t recommend. People walked right through our campsite to get to the creek and it was a popular place for them to spend the night drinking and partying very near our RV. In our experience, don’t expect help from the Bishop Rangers. There’s a reason Bishop is rated the worst BLM District in the nation. We cannot in good conscience recommend staying at any of the Bishop-run campgrounds.

A Much Better Alternative

After our unpleasant experience with Bishop’s “long-term camping”, we decided to find something better. We discovered the new Baja LTVA and it is a much better alternative for full-time RVers who need a cool place to go in the summer months. The Baja LTVA has contracts with well-established campgrounds offering unheard-of rates in this magnificent “undiscovered country”. A website is in the works providing all the information and documents you need for a fabulous summer, just a day away in Baja Mexico. Long-term campsites start at only $300 for beach access and views and a double-wide 45′ site.

Baja LTVA Update!

The Baja LTVA has announced the availability of Winter Season stays starting at only $300 for the entire 6 month season. Compare this with San Diego where narrow, 23′ beach access lots can go for $100 per day. Every Baja LTVA enjoys the same weather and beautiful Pacific as San Diego but lots are a minimum 45′ wide and average between 60′ and 100′ deep. $500 for beach front, $400 for row 2 and only $300 for lots in row 3 and beyond, for the entire 6 month season. All with fantastic ocean views and access for you and your vehicle. When walking along the miles of pristine Baja beach, you often find yourself totally alone, something that hasn’t been seen in San Diego for a long, long time.

You can contact the Baja LTVA with questions or to make a reservation at [email protected] while their website is under construction. Learn more from the Award Winning Baja LTVA Series.

LTVAs: Winter

The season during the winter months is from September 15 to April 15 and at $180 for a stay of up to 7 months, it’s a bargain. For short stays of up to 14 days, the permit is $75. The America The Beautiful Interagency Passes, or Golden Age/Golden Access Passports are not accepted.

There are six LTVA campgrounds located in southern California and two located in Arizona. The BLM Field Offices and their respective campgrounds are divided as follows:

El Centro Field Office: [Email]

Hot Spring LTVA
LTVA permits are required from September 15th through April 15th. During the off-season, April 16th through September 14th, visitors may stay for a maximum of 14 days within a 28 day period. There is no charge during this time.
Pilot Knob LTVA
An LTVA permit is required from September 15th through April 15th. During the off-season, April 16th through September 14th, visitors may stay for a maximum of 14 days within a 28 day period. There is no charge during this time.
Tamarisk LTVA
An LTVA permit is required from September 15th through April 15th. During the off-season, April 16th through September 14th, visitors may stay for a maximum of 14 days within a 28 day period. There is no charge during this time.

Palm Springs Field Office: [Email]

Midland LTVA
An LTVA Permit for Short-term or Long-term camping is required September 15th – April 15th. Camping is allowed in the LTVA in the ‘off’ season between April 16th – September 14th at no cost, but the standard 14-day limit for dispersed camping on BLM land applies. There is no Camp Host on site during the ‘off’ season.
Mule Mountain LTVA
- Coon Hollow Camp Site
  Short term camping without self-containment is only allowed within the Coon Hollow camp site but not in the dispersed areas (the surrounding desert area). A Special Recreation Permit is required September 15th – April 15th. Camping is allowed in the LTVA in the ‘off’ season between April 16th – September 14th at no cost, but the standard 14-day limit for dispersed camping on BLM land applies. There is no Camp Host on site during the ‘off’ season.
- Wiley’s Well Camp Site
  Short term camping without self-containment is only allowed within the Wiley’s Well camp site but not in the dispersed areas (the surrounding desert area). A Special Recreation Permit is required September 15th – April 15th. Camping is allowed in the LTVA in the ‘off’ season between April 16th – September 14th at no cost, but the standard 14-day limit for dispersed camping on BLM land applies. There is no Camp Host on site during the ‘off’ season.

Yuma Field Office: [Email]

La Posa LTVA
A Long Term Visitor Area Permit is required from September 15th through April 15th each season. From April 16th through September 14th, the fee is $10 per vehicle for day-use, $15 per vehicle for overnight use, or $75 annually per vehicle, for up to 5 people per vehicle. There will be a $1 per person fee charged for each person over the 5 person limit. The maximum stay is 14 days in a 28-day period.
Imperial Dam LTVA
A Long Term Visitor Area Permit is required from September 15th through April 15th each season. From April 16th through September 14th, the fee is $10 per vehicle for day-use, $15 per vehicle for overnight use, or $75 annually per vehicle, for up to 5 people per vehicle. There will be a $1 per person fee charged for each person over the 5 person limit. The maximum stay is 14 days in a 28-day period. For more information, please visit imperial-dam.rvhobo.net.

Long-Term Camping: Summer

The following information was valid prior to the 2017 season and will be updated if any verified changes by the BLM are obtained. Long Term Visitor Area has been changed to long-term as per the BLM’s press release regarding the Eastern Sierra. The Pleasant Valley Pit campgrounds in Inyo County has recently been added, also according to their press release, and information regarding that campground will be updated when the BLM provides it.

Bishop Field Office: [Email]

Tuttle Creek Campground, Elevation 5,120 ft
Open year round.
Campsite fees: First Come, First Served, No reservations accepted. $5.00/night per site, long-term permits accepted. Golden Age and Golden Access passes accepted for daily fee discounts. The annual long-term use season is from the first Saturday in March to November 1st. During this use season, visitors who wish to camp on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office for extended periods greater than 14 days, must stay in the designated long-term campgrounds and purchase a long-term permit.
Goodale Creek Campground, Elevation 4,000 ft
Open mid-April to Nov 30, weather permitting
Campsite fees: First Come, First Served, No reservations accepted. $5.00/night per site, long-term permits accepted. Golden Age and Golden Access passes accepted for daily fee discounts. The annual long-term use season is from the first Saturday in March to November 1st. During this use season, visitors who wish to camp on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office for extended periods greater than 14 days, must stay in the designated long-term campgrounds and purchase a long-term permit.
Crowley Lake Campground, Elevation 7000 ft.
Open mid-April to Oct. 30
Campsite fees: First Come, First Served, No reservations accepted. $5.00/night per site, long-term permits accepted. Golden Age and Golden Access passes accepted for daily fee discounts.The annual long-term use season is from the first Saturday in March to November 1st. During this use season, visitors who wish to camp on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management Bishop Field Office for extended periods greater than 14 days, must stay in the designated long-term campgrounds and purchase a long-term permit.
Horton Creek Campground, Elevation 4,975 ft.
Open May 1 to Oct 30
Campsite fees: First Come, First Served, No reservations accepted. $5.00/night per site, long-term permits accepted. Golden Age and Golden Access passes accepted for daily fee discounts.
Pleasant Valley Pit campgrounds in Inyo County, Elevation about 4,200 ft.

The Art of Boondocking

Now you know where to stay for extended periods. The trick is to be able to camp comfortably without breaking your budget. Be sure to read our article, The RVHobo Art of Boondocking, written by a couple of seasoned RVers outlining how to stay for extended periods.

Camping With Two Great Danes!

Now what do you do when you need a motor home small enough to get into those great camping spots in National Parks AND you have two Great Danes?

With our 1977 Dodge Establishment motor home, we were really happy with its compact, 20′ length. However, that left two little problems. Where to put our six-year-old Great Danes, Abbie and Ellie?

At first we had them on their bed on the floor by the bathroom, the only place the bed would fit. This of course, caused problems getting in and out of the bathroom. The door would clear the bed but not the Dane on top of the bed, who when sleeping is almost immovable. Having Danes on the floor is always problematic. With a 20′ motor home, our open floor space is about 28 square feet and their bed takes up about 9 square feet of that. Their bed was also at the entrance of the RV, forcing us to run the “doggy obstacle course” when getting in and out. And, although we were comfortable in our bed above the RV cab, it is much colder on the floor for them. And these two do not like it too hot or too cold. They are, after all, Danes.

We have a lovely sofa area at the back of the RV, surrounded by windows. It was a comfortable place to work on the laptop and for watching TV at the end of the day. The sofa also folds down into a 40″x76″ bed. After a few weeks of the Danes sleeping on the floor and us doing the bathroom shuffle, we decided to convert the sofa into a doggy bed. Having them at the back of the RV in their own area solved the problem of hopping over them at every turn. They are also much warmer during the cold months. During the warm months, they get a fan directed at them or, if we’re able to run the A/C, the vents flow the air right on their bed. They are very happy with the arrangement and it didn’t take them any time at all to get used to it.

So now they have about 20% of our living space! We’re also limited to watching TV at the kitchen table. The next project on our RV is going to be converting the kitchen table into a butcher block counter top along the side wall of the RV where we can eat/work. This will eliminate the facing bench chairs so we can put in reclining office chairs. It won’t bring back the sofa, but it will be a lot more comfortable. The kitchen conversion will be the subject of another article.

When Abbie was about two years old, we noticed her stumbling a little when out on walks, with the stumbling getting progressively worse. A trip to the vet revealed she has CSM (Wobbler’s Disease). She has responded well to very low doses of prednisone, 2.5mg every other day. Then, about two years later during a walk, Ellie couldn’t walk. Whereas Abbie’s condition was gradual, Ellie’s was devastatingly sudden. One minute she was running like the wind, the next minute she could barely stand up. The vet recommended a surgeon but after talking with him and his revealing the fact that the odds were she could be worse after surgery, we opted to take her home without the surgery. We spent weeks rehabilitating her and teaching her how to walk again. She now has a gimpy gait, but she does walk. As a result of her Wobbler’s, she has to be helped in and out of the RV as well as onto the bed. She’s also on a higher dose of prednisone, 2.5 mg per day, which has caused her to gain weight. Being senior citizens, we’re very conscious of her weight every time we pick her up! We remind each other to “lift with your legs” to protect your back.

Ellie has never been a big tail wagger and with her Wobbler’s, is even less so. But Abbie’s tail seems unusually long and she’s a huge tail wagger, even with her Wobbler’s. This fact coupled with living in the narrow confines of an RV created a big problem for her. She would wag her tail so violently in the RV (she is a happy dog) that it would actually split it open at the end! Telling her to stop only made her wag it that much harder. A trip to the vet (and many $$ later) produced a bandage at the end and a dose of antibiotics. The bandage didn’t even last until we got home. Searching the Internet, we found that this is a much more common problem with dogs than we realized, and the reason why many breeds’ tails are bobbed (a solution we actually considered!).

We tried taping PVC pipes and pill bottles on the end, but this had devastating effects on any human males in her tail vicinity. After much trial and error, we came up with a solution that has saved Abbie’s tail (and many a male). Using heavy duty, waterproof duct tape and foam pipe insulation, her tail is cushioned and protected and if she beats it against objects or people, it doesn’t hurt. The trick with using duct tape is that as little as possible of the sticky side is against her fur and the “apparatus” is changed often (preferably at night when she wags less) to let her tail breath. Also, we’ve found that prevention is much easier than taping it after her tail is already split open. We’ve outlined the steps of protecting her tail with accompanying photos.

With Ellie’s Wobbler’s, she tends to drag her bad leg. If left unprotected, she would rub her foot, nails and all, down to a nub. We tried pre-made dog booties but found them too stiff for her to walk in. Again, after much trial and error, we came up with a duct tape solution which provides her with a custom-made boot where no sticky side of the duct tape touches her skin. Also, the boot has to be changed every few days to let her foot breath. Her nails also have to be protected because they have a tendency to rub against her skin and cause sore spots.

It’s a delicate balance with walking her. If she gets too long of a walk, it overdoes it on her bad leg resulting with sore muscles. If she doesn’t get enough exercise, her leg muscles atrophy. She already needs help to urinate and defecate so weakening her back leg muscles only makes those tasks harder. Also, she wouldn’t miss our family walks for the world. Everyone who sees here swears she’s actually smiling when she’s out and about. We’ve included the steps for making a flexible, custom-made boot out of duct tape with accompanying photos.

Travelling with two Great Danes does pose interesting problems, especially Great Danes with Wobbler’s. But when you love your pets like we do, there’s no question that every problem has a solution. And considering the alternative, not having these two, has never entered our minds.