How to Packraft with Your Dog

By Alejandro Strong and Krista Halling DVM DACVS

Why Paddle With Your Pup?

If you’ve ever canoed, kayaked or rafted solo and found yourself thinking, I wish my dog could see this, you’re not alone. Sharing the water with your dog is one of the most rewarding ways to bond, explore, and unplug together—and packrafts are the perfect stable, portable option for enjoying waterways with your dog.

For Alejandro Strong, the founder of Packraft Maine and a seasoned river guide, paddling with dogs is second nature. He’s taught dozens of people how to safely enjoy backcountry rivers—and watched first-time dogs become confident co-captains.

The key? Start small, go slow, and keep your dog’s comfort and safety front and center. With guidance from Alejandro’s experience, gear insight from Alpacka Raft, and veterinary-backed dog training advice from Krista at Dogpacking.com, this article will help you prepare for safe, fun trips on the water.

Some things Alejandro has noticed:

• Swimming doesn’t equal paddling, some dogs who love swimming don’t enjoy paddling, and some dogs who hate swimming love paddling. 
• Trust creates confidence, any activity you can do to build trust will help your dog become a packrafter. Riding on a bike or even in a wheelbarrow or wagon will ease the transition to riding in the boat with you.
• Some dogs may never like it and that is alright

Preparation: What You and Your Dog Need Before Launching

Choosing the Right Packraft

Not all rafts are equal when you’ve got four paws onboard. Here’s what to look for:

• Durability: Dogs don’t wear booties on boats. Choose a raft with abrasion-resistant floors (many people opt for models like Alpacka Raft’s Mule or Forager, depending on dog size).
  
• Stability: Wider boats with a flatter floor profile help reduce tipping, especially when your dog shifts weight.
  
• Capacity: Make sure the raft’s weight limit accounts for your body weight, your dog, and gear. Err on the side of more space.
  
• Open vs. decked: Open boats give dogs more freedom to move and shift positions, while decked boats offer protection from splashes but limit movement. Some dogs love the cozy security of a decked boat. Others hate the confinement. For safety reasons, keep in mind that it’s much easier for a dog to get out of an open raft in the event of a capsize.

Safety Gear Essentials for Your Dog

Canine life jacket with:

• High-visibility colors
• Belly panels (not just straps)
• Buoyancy under the chest and along the back
• A strong grab handle on top

Even strong canine swimmers benefit from a life jacket—especially in cold water or strong current. It helps your dog stay afloat if panicked, tired, or disoriented; and helps keep their head above the waterline to minimize the risk of water aspiration.

Critical Safety Note:

• Non locking carabiners can be dangerous on moving water, and pose a risk to you and your dog on flatwater as well. An accidental clipping of a leash or life jacket to the boat or debris in the water can occur.
• Never tether your dog to the boat. In swift water, leashes (especially those with hand loops or knots) become entanglement hazards that can trap or drown a dog if caught. No leash, or a short buoyant line with no knots, is safest.

Training: Build a Calm, Confident Co-Paddler

At a minimum, your dog should be able to:

• Settle quietly on command (e.g. “place” or “lie down”)
• Stay put in moving or unstable settings
• Be comfortable being lifted or handled unexpectedly
• Respond reliably to recall and to “leave it” and “wait”

Desensitization is key. Dogs need time to get used to the boat moving beneath them, the feel of the gear, and your paddle strokes. Practice in short bursts and reward calm behavior.

Bonus tip: Use a stable yoga mat, closed cell foam or rubber floor liner in the raft to help your dog grip and feel secure. This reduces fidgeting and slippage, especially for senior dogs.

Trip Planning: Pick Safe Places First

Top picks

• Calm lakes or slow-moving rivers
• Beaches or shallow banks for entry/exit
• Short routes with turnaround options

Avoid

• Rivers with strong current, cold water, or upstream dams
• High-traffic boating areas
• Steep put-ins, rocky exits, or narrow landing spots

Apps like Gaia GPS or RiverApp can help you check flow rates and water levels. Some areas have seasonal hazards—like spring melt in northern regions or algae blooms in hot lakes—so do your research.

Getting Your Dog Comfortable: Dry Land to Water

Step 1: Introduce the Raft at Home

• Let your dog sniff, inspect, and walk around the deflated raft
• Place their bed or favourite mat inside
• Feed meals or treats in the raft
• Gently rock it side to side while rewarding calmness

This builds what behaviorists call positive conditioned associations—basically, helping your dog think “this raft = good things.”

Step 2: Move to Shallow Water

Start with:

• Calm, sunny days
• Shallow lake edges or gentle riverbanks
• Your dog wearing their life jacket (always)

Sit in the raft and let your dog enter/exit at will. Bring high-value treats and keep sessions short and relaxed. If your dog jumps out, let them—but practice calm re-entry.

At this point, your goal is building trust, not enforcing obedience.

On the Water: Shared Paddling Tips

• Paddle with slow, predictable strokes at first
• Avoid sudden turns or splashing (until your dog gets used to them)
• Keep your voice calm—dogs take their emotional cues from you
• Make eye contact and smile often (yes, really—dogs read faces better than we think)

Dogs who get restless may just need a break. Stop on shore, stretch, explore, and resume when your dog’s relaxed again.

Best Practices for Swiftwater Safety with Dogs

• Know the river class. Never bring a dog into water that’s Class III or greater. The consequences of a capsize or a swim are potentially life-threatening.
• Always scout. Walk rapids before running them, and know all eddies and exits.
• Wear proper gear. Your dog should have a snug-fitting life jacket with a reinforced grab handle and belly panels.
• Train wet exits. Your dog should know how to swim to shore on cue and be comfortable being lifted or grabbed in water.
• Carry a throw bag. Not just for humans. If your dog gets swept downstream, you’ll need a way to direct or help retrieve them.

Know Your Class Ratings

• Class I: Moving current with waves and and easily avoidable obstacles – good for beginners
• Class II: Small and mid sized waves and  avoidable obstacles – okay for skilled dogs and handlers
• Class III+: Technical maneuvers, big water – not recommended with dogs

Flatwater spills are usually benign. But in moving water, a flipped raft or a dog overboard situation can escalate fast. Add in:

• Cold water temperatures
• Strainers (trees or debris that trap objects)
• Undercuts, Sieves and hydraulics
• Long Swims
• Confused or panicked dogs

…and you’ve got a scenario where seconds matter.

Important: No dog should be paddling whitewater unless the human has taken a swiftwater rescue course and practiced wet exits and reentry—solo. This should be a foundational prerequisite.

Leashes and Tethers: Use with Extreme Caution

Golden Rule: Never tether your dog inside the boat.

In moving water, a leash inside the boat becomes a noose. Dogs can be dragged, tangled, or trapped underwater.

So what about outside the boat?

Buoyant Tag Lines: Limited Use Case Only

CAUTION: Any line tethered to your dog can present an entrapment hazard! It is not recommended to attach a leash or a line to your dog if you are paddling in swift or whitewater.

Some experienced paddlers use a floating line (e.g. polypropylene rope) lightly clipped to a dog’s life jacket in very specific circumstances, such as:

• Tethers should be a clean line with no loops or knots
• Practicing rescue drills
• Guiding a trained dog toward shore
• Controlled scenarios with calm current and prepared human support

If You Do Use a Line, Use a Quick-Release System

In the cases where a dog is attached to a floating line the dog end should be attached to the leash attachment point of the life jacket using a breakaway link—never to your dog’s collar.

Why this matters: A traditional clip doesn’t disengage under tension. If the dog gets pulled downstream or caught in a strainer, you need a release system that functions even under tension—exactly what breakaway systems are designed for.

Signs of Canine Distress in Current

• Paddling hard but making no headway
• Tucking tail or spinning in circles
• Head low in the water
• Refusing re-entry or panicking in the boat afterward

A dog that experiences a near-drowning or panic event may develop long-term aversions. Introduce current gradually and only after full confidence on flatwater.

If You Flip or Your Dog Falls In

• Stay calm – Dogs often find shore on their own
• Use the jacket handle – Don’t grab their limbs or collar
• Don’t jump in unless you’re certain you’re not putting yourself at risk

Train your dog to swim to you or the boat on command. Practice this on calm water. It can be a lifesaving cue in moving current.

Cold Water Warning

Even in summer, mountain rivers can stay dangerously cold. Dogs can experience:

• Hypothermia
• Cold water shock
• Reduced swimming ability due to stiff muscles

Dogs lose body heat faster than humans in cold water due to their higher surface area to volume ratio compared to humans. Neoprene dog suits and life jackets both help to insulate dogs from heat loss.

Always dry your dog off after immersion and limit time in cold water.

Heat Stress Warning

Remember that life jackets are inherently very insulating and dogs can overheat in them. Always monitor your dog for signs of overheating and if any develop, remove their life jacket and safely immerse your dog in cool water.

Alejandro shares a story from his time training his dog Hammy to packraft:

He stressed the importance of identifying how your dog learns, and has fun. He has had dogs that need a lot of easing into new activities, and others that get quickly bored if you keep the activity too small.  

Hammy struggled with the first parts of training while loving the activity as a whole: When Hammy and I first started working boat time, I was worried she didn’t like it because of how she reacted to putting on her life jacket and her not being interested in the boat on land.  At a different occasion, when trying to get Hammy to wear a harness, I came to realize Hammy really does not like to wear them, yet she loves the activities she does while wearing them. We are working on making the putting on less of an issue, but it is wild how 30 seconds later she is in the boat and ready to go. With the boat on land it just didn’t capture her attention. Wherever we did it, she was noticing many more exciting distractions. What looked like not wanting to be in the boat, was just being excited by what was around her. 

Once we got to some calm water, quickly put on her life jacket and transitioned to some fetch along shore she was ready to go. Once I placed her in the boat, she realized that this was a fun way to spend time together. For the first bit she stayed close to my legs, but slowly began to explore closer to the edge. Even going a little too far and falling in. Once I quickly pulled her back in by the handle of her life jacket, she restarted her exploration with a bit more respect for the edge, but still not fear.

By not getting stuck on the training of wearing the harness or staying in the boat on dry land we were able to move forward to a part she enjoyed. I was only comfortable pushing forward because of what I knew about her from her general training and watching her explore new experiences, she is easily distracted from easy tasks, engages better when being challenged, and rarely reacts with fear.

I am starting to train Midge our new puppy for trips, and it is fun to see the differences in their personalities come out in the learning process. She hasn’t been on the water yet, but her first short bike rides were a success.

Go Slow, Stay Safe, Make it Fun!

Packrafting with your dog can change how you see the world—and deepen your bond in ways few other activities can. Start on land, build trust, and let your dog guide the pace. You’ll gain a paddling partner who learns to love the water almost as much as you do. 

Special thank you to Elijah Kraatz and Dusty for contributing their photo. 🐶💕

About the authors

Alejandro Strong is founder of Packraft Maine, a guided adventure company and packrafting school. Follow them on Instagram.

Krista Halling is a veterinarian board-certified with the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and creator of Dogpacking.com. She is also certified in the Human-Animal Bond and in Canine Physical Rehabilitation. Krista loves travelling and adventuring with River, her mini goldendoodle sidekick.