Skiing with your dog is a geat experience for both of you – as long as you manage it well.

Here in the Scottish Highlands, it’s not uncommon to see folk skiing with their dog. It’s just one more of the things that make Ski touring in Scotland special.

Many dogs love having a winter adventure with their owners. However, both we and our ‘ski dogs’ face similar mountain hazards. In fact, despite their fur, loyalty, energy and sense of smell, they are quite vulnerable in some situations. Before you get into backcountry skiing with your hound, first make sure you’ve got the basics covered, that is: well trained, fed and watered and poop cleaned up. For specific tips to keep you, your hound and other people and animals safe when backcountry skiing, read on.

Skiing with a dog? Always be in control

Be sure your dog has good recall and make sure you’re skiing in control too! ‘At heel’ may be too close when skiing, so your dog may have to learn to run behind, or off to the side of you. Also, prevent it from chasing after winter wildlife such as mountain hares, reindeer and ptarmigan (these are all protected here in Scotland).

Use a long lead at slow speeds

Increase their food and water

In winter mountain conditions, your dog will be working much harder than in summer – especially if you are on skis. So increase the amount of food and treats you would normally take. Frozen and buried streams make drinking harder, and simply eating snow isn’t enough. So maybe bring water and a bowl for them too.

Watch out for tiredness and injury

Dogs are mammals, just like humans, and face similar challenges as we do in winter. Keep checking dogs for tiredness, shivering, iced-up or cut foot pads and sore eyes from sun or windblown snow. Reduce the mileage if they are inexperienced, short-legged or very young or old. Depending on the breed, a dog jacket might be worthwhile. Trim the fur between their toe pads, or smear on vaseline to reduce the risk of paw injury. Dogs may need a gradual introduction to running on icy, rocky and salty winter mountain terrain. Booties can sometimes work very well – even on just the front feet. Finally, mountain rescue dogs often have special goggles to cope with windblown snow (trust me, a dog that won’t move away from the shelter of a rock is no fun).

Take care with skis, axes and crampons

Ski/snowboard edges, poles, crampons and ice axes don’t mix well with dogs. Yes, train them to walk at heel and recall, but dog and owner also need to be careful around sharp bits of metal. Watch out for other people’s edges as well – I know a ski patroller whose dog was nearly disembowelled in a collision.

Be aware of terrain when skiing with dogs

Remember that a dog’s viewpoint is naturally much lower than yours. They can’t see as far ahead, or round corners, past cliffs, or over bulges. In fact, they may want to go ahead to get a better viewpoint! Their amazing sense of smell won’t tell them about avalanche hazard, terrain traps, snowbridges, rockfall or icy slopes. Furthermore, you don’t want them triggering an avalanche-prone slope or rockfall onto you, themselves, or anyone else! So watch out for them and keep them away from danger zones (dogs don’t usually wear transceivers, right?).

Keep it fun when backcountry skiing with your dog

Lets finish on a positive. You and your dog are supposed to enjoy adventures together. They are pack animals, you’re their leader, that’s what they want. So keep things enjoyable and safe. Play fetch games, hide and seek, bring their favourite toy, give them praise for doing the right thing, give them more freedom when its appropriate. Make it enjoyable and they will want to stay with you.