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Reviews > Animal Companion Gear > Dog Packs > Ruff Wear Approach II Dog Pack > Owner Review by James BirchallOwner Review: Ruff Wear Approach II Dog PackDate: 17 Mar 2005Personal Biographical Information
Backpacking BioI've been an avid outdoorsman since I was old enough to be safely stowed as baggage in my parents' canoe: hiking, canoeing and camping all over eastern Canada. Having done the ultra-lightweight backpacking thing (to the extent of leaving the backpack itself at home), I'm now coming back to a more midweight style, typically carrying a bag, a small freestanding tent, minimal cookware, food, some "goodies" and a complete set of layered clothing suitable for the expected conditions. Most of my trips nowadays are of moderate length to the nearby Canadian Rocky Mountains with my wife and dog. Tester (Canine)
* "Dog girth" refers to a measurement taken around the widest part of the dog's chest. ** "Dog Length" refers to a measurement taken from the base of the dog's neck to the base of their tail.
Product Information
Product Description
The Approach II pack is a simple pannier style dog pack. It features two elliptically shaped panniers made from 1680-Dennier Ballistic Nylon sewn to what is essentially a dog harness (they call it their "spiderweb chassis design"). The harness features two heavy duty plastic buckles connecting two underbody straps, an integrated handle, a pull loop and a leash D-Ring. The panniers are one compartment each, with a single YKK zipper (not sealed) and a ScotchLite reflective trim. There is one Y harness in the front connected to a triangular ring made out of the same heavy duty plastic and two straps under the body (one just aft of the underarms and one just fore of the belly) that are covered by a fleece "skrunchie" tube. The pack comes in blue or red and sizes ranging from XS to Large.
* "Dog girth" refers to a measurement taken around the widest part of the dog's chest. ** "Dog Length" refers to a measurement taken from the base of the dog's neck to the base of their tail. In this case, the length is the minimum recommended for the pack size. Ideal UsageModerate size dogs looking to pack their own kit (and a bit of their masters' too) into the great beyond. Field TestLocationMost of our use of the pack occurred at a local off-leash dog park doing hikes of 4-6 km (2.5 mi - 3.73 mi) across varied terrain with one small day hike in the Kananaskis Rocky Mountains of 4 km (2.5 miles) over isothermic snow. Weather conditions during the period range from -40 C (-40 F) to + 15 C (59 F), snow, ice, wind, mud and dry. Pack weight was never more then 1.36 kg (3 lb) as the vet does not recommend we load our puppy down with any weight until she's fully grown (~16 months). Relevant BackgroundMy wife and I enjoy hiking in the mountains and when we decided to get a puppy, we knew we had to get a pack to go along with her. My argument was that there's no way she's coming if she can't carry her own gear. "If you can't carry it, you can't bring it." is the family motto and she's a family member. The plan is for the pack to carry her bedding (if she needs it), water, food, bowl, bags, leash, collar, clothes, boots and first aid kit. Additionally, we'd like to get her pack dog certified through Dog Scouts so she needs to carry a flashlight, matches, knife, log book and compass. How we are going to train her to use the compass is a bit of a mystery, but it's required that she carry it for the certification. Fit and Comfort
The one universal problem with dog packs is that packing them requires great care in order to make sure that they ride evenly. If you add too much extra weight (in my experience, as little as a couple of ounces or about a hundred grams) the heavier pannier severely leans and the lighter pannier rides up. Unfortunately, the Approach II pack is no different. Care in packing results in even ride and this pack is a little more lenient in that regard then other packs I've seen. The single compartment pannier design means that weight shifts can cause issues though I've yet to see this. What I found neat about this pack is that when the dog rolls in the snow (as ours so dearly loves to do) and the pack inevitably gets skewed, a vigourous shake of the body re-centres the pack. I think this is because of the way the harness and the panniers interact and I haven't seen it duplicated in the chest strap design on other packs. Speaking of the "chest strap design", there is concern with this type of pack design that the straps across the dog's chest (right behind their elbows) will cause chaffing and wear away some hair. I've yet to see this and we've logged about 50 km (31 mi) on the pack with very little weight. Additional weight shouldn't cause different results as it is the placement of the straps that are problematic, not the way they move with weight in the pack. It's possible to pick the dog up like luggage using the carrying handle on the back of the harness (for enabling the pooch to get over obstacles they would otherwise be unable to traverse) and a quick test shows this to be the case. I am a little leery about using this harness to haul the dog up a cliff face as I don't trust the clip style buckles in a load bearing capacity. I have no reason to believe anything bad would happen, other than previous experience with buckles failing on other equipment. The pack certainly isn't designed to be used as a canine Swiss seat so hauling our pooch this way is a bit of an abuse of the gear. It held up extraordinarily well though.
Bella has no trouble sitting, lying down, rolling, going to the bathroom, jumping over trail obstacles and whipping through moderate brush. She does have a bit of trouble with adjusting for her extra width with the pack on but as time goes on, this is less and less an issue as she learns how wide she actually is. The panniers are not attached to the bottom parts of the body straps so they kind of flop back against the side of the dog. Not sure if this is an issue, but it seems like it could be problematic with weight after a while. Definitely something I'm going to keep an eye on. The fit seems pretty good, though a little loose at times. Cinching the pack up through the chest is very difficult if you need to go higher (the strap is contoured and widens out if you get higher) and, even though Bella is smack dab in the middle of the Medium range, a small pack would probably fit better. Toughness
Bella was the primary tester of this bit of functionality and she certainly put the pack through its paces. She took the pack through low brush at full speed and had no hang-ups. As an example of the kind of abuse she subjected the pack to, if I took my pants through the same brush at the same pace I'd be wearing rags and showing off my latest boxer shorts. She thoroughly loves rolling in the snow and the first thing she did with the pack was to flip over on her back and grind it into the snow. This is where we found the first short-coming of the pack. The zippers are single zipper design with a weather flap over the outside. When Bella ground the pannier into the snow, the snow was forced through the zipper teeth and the joint where the zipper met the zipper stop into the pack. After our first hike, I emptied about a cup of snow from each pannier. The lesson learned was to ensure that anything inside the pack was weatherproofed in garbage bags and Ziploc bags. As well, don't put anything in the pack that has a problem getting crushed. Unfortunately, that means I have to pack out her poop. The second issue we found was that when she whipped through the brush sometimes a branch would catch on the underbody straps and cause them to loosen. It didn't happen often but is definitely something that needs to be monitored out on the trail. On the positive side, I expected her to get bullied at the park by other dogs looking for something to grab on to. This hasn't happened at all yet and she can play with the roughest of them. In fact, she seems to strut around while wearing it. The other dogs seem to think she's some sort of mutant so give her more room. Features and functionalityThe pull loop on the back of the pack is designed to be an attachment point for getting the dog to drag loads (like a sled or a Christmas tree). It is surprisingly well suited to attaching things that need to be pulled for such a little bit of fabric. I haven't had an actual need to do this on the trail (and doubt that I will have a need in the future) but attaching Bella to a big log via the loop seemed to work well. The pack harness on her chest took the brunt of the force and transferred the weight from her back into her shoulders at a good pulling angle. I was worried about the loop ripping off, but everything seemed to be tough enough to handle her pulling with all her might and dragging the log for a bit. The reflective stripes on the outside of the back positively glow at night when hit with even small amounts of light. Definitely an excellent safety feature. The leash attachment loop is probably the only design feature of the pack that seemed like it was slapped on at the last minute. It's pretty much useless as a place to attach a leash to, yanking the pack about in all sorts of odd contortions if the dog puts any pressure whatsoever into the leash. Definitely not something I'm going to use on the trail: I'll just keep her regular collar on (with her id tags) and attach my leash there. CapacityThe panniers took a small first aid kit, 20 bags, a collapsible bowl, two 600 ml (20 fl oz) water bottles (Gatorade bottles, actually), her leash, a harness, 10 meals x 1 cup (250 ml) puppy kibble, some treats (1 medium Ziploc filled with assorted treats), 4 booties, a rope toy, a towel and still had some room left (at least enough for the extra stuff required for the pack dog title). I tried but couldn't fit a regular size fleece blanket in either side and her 1/4 size closed cell foam pad would have to be lashed to the outside. I suspect that I could cram a dog jacket in there or some light gear from my pack. Not much extra though. There are no real lash points on the outside of the pack though the harness design could be abused a bit to get the job done. I do think that it's relatively easy to get the weight up too much for her (~25% is as high as you should go for an adult dog) though you'd have to take some heavy stuff to do it. All in all, the capacity is large enough for her to take enough kit to be comfortable without so much extra room that I'm tempted to severely overload it. ConclusionBella is an energetic dog so I've had great opportunity to see how the pack wears and what shortcomings are in the design. I am exceptionally pleased with the pack. It is well constructed, has excellent capacity, great durability and wears extremely well. Plus, I think it just looks cool. I love it.
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Read more reviews of Ruff Wear gear Read more gear reviews by James Birchall Reviews > Animal Companion Gear > Dog Packs > Ruff Wear Approach II Dog Pack > Owner Review by James Birchall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
