skiing with dog

About a month ago my wife and I got a German Shorthaired Pointer puppy (now 8 weeks old).

We plan to take her skiing this year quite a bit.

Does anyone have any suggestions for skiing with a dog?

Should I get her a coat, boots, etc?

Can I take her on the lift or just touring?

I kinda like the idea of her carrying food/water in a dog pack.

It kinda seems rediculous, but I was thinking about putting a beacon on her just in case.

I was inspired by Bogart in this video I saw on TGRs site... live.tetongravity.com/_Koma-Kulshan/VIDEO/739539/75233.html

A problem with putting a beacon on your dog is if one of your partners gets buried the first things everyone in the party needs to do is switch their beacons to search mode or turn them off. You could find yourself trying to search for your buddy while your beaconed dog is running around sending misleading signals.

If you are certain that you will remember and that your dog will come right to you in all the excitement then it shouldn’t be a problem -but it is one more thing to deal with in a pressure situation.

When I’ve done beacon search practice occasionally someone’s beacon reverts to signal mode or they just don’t put it into search correctly while they are running around “searching”. Picking up a moving signal never makes the search any faster that’s for sure!

A problem with putting a beacon on your dog

Equally important (or more) is if you have a multiple burial. You wouldn't know your pooch from your wife. What if you invested 10 minutes digging after your first probe strike and it was your dog--and then your wife or your other ski partner was second? Better to to know you are digging for your ski partner and let the dog take her chances.

I ski with my dog all the time. He is a Siberian Husky called Chugach and skiing with him is one of my joys.
My personal rules ( you are free to come up with your own) are.
1. No Beacon for all the reasons above. A dogs life, no matter how loved is not worth a humans.
2. When planning a trip I ask my partners if it is OK to bring the dog. Some people do not like skiing with dogs and that should be respected.
3. I try and pick up or bury all his poopy.
4. Dogs are not allowed on lifts unless a certified avy dog with the ski patrol.
5. If he steals my line he gets no doggy treat back home and has to sleep in the garage.


Siberian's are evolved for the cold, their fur does not collect snow and ice, they have thick coats, great endurance and instinctively know to dig a hole and get out of the wind. Short haired German Pointers( which I have spent a lot of time with hunting in Scotland) are pretty susceptible to the cold so I would be very careful as to the conditions you take him out in.
Maybe wait for the spring skiing months.

Hope that's helpful.

I like Scotsman's rules, especially about stealing the line - my pooch always seems to go for the goods!

I ski with my dog as much as possible, also.  Regarding bringing his own backpack - it's great on the way up to base camps, but doesn't work well for ski descents.  I've had to carry the dog pack a couple times (once around my neck), because there is no way I'd ask him to try to keep up with a pack on his back.

I'd ease your pup into it if possible - a couple of friends have had problems with their dog's pads getting cut up on the snow.  I think if they build them up over time, then they are tougher.  I also stick to the rule, that if it's something steep or icy enough where I may want boot crampons for myself, then I wouldn't bring my dog.

I would recommend browsing the TGR site. This topic seems to come up a few times a year and is always full of good advice as well as people who go against it.

I do know they make like gear finder beacons. Might be worth looking into it and just put it on the pooch. Then again im a firm believer if your needing the beacon the dog should probably not be there since you can't control his/her actions and the dog could potentially set off an avy above you.

Im not to familiar with the actual practice of having the dog with you but i've done a fair bit of looking into it for myself and its basically a 50/50 topic on just about everything