Singletrak or Approach??

[marshies]

Hi All,

I want to buy Pup a pack, and have read through the threads to find the ruffwears consistently recommended. I'm having a wee bit of trouble deciding between the Singletrak and Approach, and was hoping y'all can give me some pointers.

Primary Use:
-packing water and poop bags on our walk to the dog park.
-packing water and poop bags on our short few-hours long hike

I'm a bit worried that the singletrak isn't big enough for her water and some poop bags. If I took out the soft platypus bottles, would I be able to fit a waterbottle on each side?

[RocketDog]

marshies, your pup probably needs less water than you think. I've taken Rocket running for 6 miles (his longest distance), which equates to about an hour, and he hasn't had any water. This is in summer (at night or early early am) too. When we took him on our hottest backpack this summer, it was 88 degrees, and the first 6.5 miles (4,000 feet of elevation gain) had no water, so we had to pack it and he only drank a little over 30 oz in about 5.5 hours.

I didn't like the Ruffwear packs with the bladders, but I think the Approach might be a bit much for day hikes--but, it could be turned into an overnight hiking bag, it's NOT like it would be TOO big for day hiking, just over kill on dog park/neighborhood walks. You'd not have to buy another one if you got the Approach if you ever decided to backpack likely, unless you were seriously going like on a 2-3 week trail.

Just keep in mind these dogs were bred for work. People have fallen into this trap of thinking they must drink tons of water themselves also, but regular hikes and exercise does NOT require much. Shoot, I don't even take water on runs under 10-12 miles. Pup will probably be fine with a couple of bottles.

[marshies]

Hi RocketDog,

Thanks for the response! She doesn't drink when we go on jogs, but I do like her to have water at the dog park...since other dogs drink and she always looks on longingly. LOL.

Have you seen the Singletrak in person? Do you think I could fit 2 regular waterbottles in place of those soft plastic ones? The joy of living in Canada is that it's very hard to find one in store to try on.

[RocketDog]

Hmmm. I have seen it, but I didn't investigate it very closely because I am not a fan of bladders so much. Can you order online from REI or Backcountry.com? They will let you return it for life if you want to try it, and decide you don't like it.

For me, the thing is, the bladders take longer to refill on the trail when we're backpacking. I have to take Rocket's pack off, etc. So I just am not super interested in them. For you, totally different application. I'd see if you can get both online and then return the one you don't like as well.

[DJEtzel]

I always recommend the approach pack, because it's what Frag has and we love it. We have yet to go on multi-day hikes/camping with it, he wears it as his "job" a lot on walks or trips to the pet store, and our day hikes. I think it's perfect for it and there's always a lot of leftover room in ours.. but we don't usually bring water, either.

[marshies]

What a beautiful picture Danielle!

Thanks for the response.

We don't do multi-day trips...it'll mostly be walking around the neighborhood with a "job" to tire her out more.

If you don't fill out your approach pack, do the contents inside shift around alot as the dog walks?

[DJEtzel]

Originally Posted by marshies

What a beautiful picture Danielle!

Thanks for the response.

We don't do multi-day trips...it'll mostly be walking around the neighborhood with a "job" to tire her out more.

If you don't fill out your approach pack, do the contents inside shift around alot as the dog walks?

I really think the singletrack without the bladder or without using it would be fine for you then. This is kind of overkill for us right now, but there's not really any cons to it and it looks cool, so we use it.

The contents don't shift at all from what I've found.. we do throw a few water bottles in each one for weight for him (but he/they never need to stop for water on the hikes we've been on) and some treats, poop bags, maybe a ball or two and an extra leash. I balance the weight as best as I can and everything pretty much stays where I put it, with the bottles on the bottom.

[Bear L]

I've the singletrack. It can fit those biker's 500ml bottles fine with a bit extra room to spare. There's another pocket on each side that will fit the poop bag. The REI description says it will fit a leash, poop bag, and collapsible bowl.

Ruff Wear Singletrak Hydration Dog Pack - Free Shipping at REI.com

[Chicagocanine]

The only thing about using regular water bottles instead of the soft water bottles the Singletrak comes with is that regular water bottles will slosh around as they get empty, and this will cause the weight to be shifting around a lot especially if you're jogging (also could be annoying hearing slosh-slosh-slosh all the time.) With the soft bottles you can squeeze out the air as they empty so they don't slosh.
Personally I always used Platypus soft water bottles (Platy Bottles) in my dogs' packs, even before Ruffwear started including them with their packs. I like them because they are compact, flat so they don't make the pack stick out to the sides, and they take up less room as you use the water.

That said, I just tried it and I could fit a regular water bottle into the Singletrak bag, although it may depend on how big your bottles are.

Originally Posted by RocketDog

For me, the thing is, the bladders take longer to refill on the trail when we're backpacking. I have to take Rocket's pack off, etc. So I just am not super interested in them. For you, totally different application. I'd see if you can get both online and then return the one you don't like as well.

I'm confused, why would you have to take the pack off to refill the bladders/bottles? You can just take them out of the pack.
I don't see why they would take any longer to fill than a regular bottle.

[RocketDog]

CC, we stuffed some of the sample stuff "pillows" of sand at Mountain gear into the dog pack to stimulate his food. If we're on the trail and he's got a full pack of food, it becomes much more difficult to put the bladders back in if the pack is full and on him; at least it appeared that way when we were at the store. Maybe we were looking at a different model? In my experience with Rocket, which granted has only been one year (but plenty of backpacking) the sloshing doesn't seem to affect him at all. No more than it does me (which is nil). He doesn't even seem to care he's got the pack on, full, half full, doesn't matter. It's just easier to reach the bottle down, fill it up, screw the lid on tight, put it in his pack and we're off. I also use the widemouth Nalgene bottles so that might make a difference.