Admittedly, this sounds like an odd topic. But stay with me on this one!

Taylor is not a fan of small, enclosed spaces, to the point that even when it rains, we have to walk out the entrance to our building, down the street and then down the driveway to get to the car in the basement…as she absolutely refuses to get into the lift in my building. The two times I’ve managed to get her in the lift (once when her leg was bandaged and I refused to go out in the rain to get down to the car as it was bucketing down!), she’s shaken like a leaf and then darted out as soon as the doors have opened. It is far from a positive experience for her.

Not knowing her full history before I adopted her, I don’t know where this fear has come from, or if there is even a particular reason behind it. Though given her gentle temperament it wouldn’t surprise me if it was from being forced into a starting box for race training when she was a young pup in the greyhound racing industry.

But…I’d finally upgraded to a bigger car, one that would fit both Taylor and my camping gear; I’d booked time off from work and had a plan for our first camping trip away!! So, to help ensure our first camping trip would be as successful as it could be, I wanted to make sure she was familiar with the tent before we went away for our first trip.

Now, the loungeroom might seem an odd place to set up your tent – they’re for outside, after all! However, Taylor is an indoor dog, and she sleeps in the loungeroom. So, while I could have set it up outside in my small garden, I knew that I would have less chance of getting Taylor in it, as she would likely just want to come back inside to her comfy bed. If you have an outside dog though, that’s a completely different story, and it would probably make more sense for you to do familiarisation such as this outside.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, I did two familiarisation sessions with Taylor. The first was simply putting up the tent into the loungeroom and moving one of her two beds into it with one of her blankets, alongside the sleeping mat that I would be taking away for myself. I then sat inside with some treats, and tried to coax Taylor in. Naturally she was curious, as it was all new and different.

As I want the tent to be a positive place for Taylor, I was careful not to rush her or try to push her inside. Dogs explore with their noses, so I sat inside and calmly spoke to her while she sniffed and sussed it all out. When I could see she was getting close to coming in, or at least thinking about it, I laid a trail of treats from the door of the tent over to her bed – her normal safe space – to try and entice her in.

I was fortunate in that it didn’t actually take that long for her to come in, although you can tell from the pictures below that she wasn’t entirely comfortable, and no doubt was wondering what the heck was going on! More treats, lots of praise and hugs were had, and then we just hung out in the tent for a little bit before she got out, and I packed it up. An important thing to note was that as it was Taylor’s first time inside, I left the door open the entire time so that she was always free to stand up and walk out if she wanted to.

Thrilled with the first familiarisation session, for our second session we had a movie night! I set up the tent with a picnic blanket on the floor and moved in Taylor’s normal bed, as well as my bean bag lounge for me. I got the popcorn ready, cued the movie and tried to coax Taylor in. To start with she wasn’t too fussed and decided to stay where she was on her doona / duvet, so I left her to it and started the movie (I was in a Hunger Games mood!). However, when it came time for her to stretch her legs and change beds, she came and found her bed in the tent and joined me in watching the movie for a while, moving back out to her doona when she pleased.

After the movie when it was time for bed, we went through Taylor’s normal bedtime routine (she goes outside for a bedtime snack and a wee, then comes back in and settles down), except I left Taylor’s bed where it was in the tent. I took my bean bag out, got my sleeping mat and sleeping bag that I was going to take camping, and set up my bed for the night in the tent. Now I know how weird this might sound, but I really wanted Taylor to get used to the tent, including how close we would be sleeping, given that she’s normally in the loungeroom and I’m down the hall in my bedroom. Plus, knowing that I was there would hopefully also make her more comfortable to be in the tent.

She was definitely a bit confused when she came back inside after her bedtime snack, given her bed wasn’t where it was supposed to be. She opted to settle down on her doona, which disappointed me initially, but I wasn’t giving up that easily! I got into my sleeping bag in the tent and drifted off, however it wasn’t long before Taylor woke me up as she came and got into her bed beside me. We’re close enough in the tent that I was able to reach out and give her a little pat and lots of praise as she settled back down again.

Overall, the night was a success with Taylor sleeping inside the tent with me for a few hours (yay!) as she alternated, as she always does, between her bed and her doona as I’d left the door open for her once again. It’s fair to say that she had a better sleep than I did, however – even with a sleeping mat, a hard wooden floor is still a hard wooden floor!!

Nevertheless, I was excited! Taylor was getting used to the tent, she’d even slept inside it for a few hours with me. There was no stopping us now – it was time for our first camping trip!!