Hiking gear for Portuguese Water Dogs

Kayak-to-trail hikes are a brilliant setup for a Portuguese Water Dog — they're basically built for exactly that kind of day. The essentials for hiking with any dog are a well-fitting harness, a collapsible water bowl, and paw protection on rough or hot terrain — boots matter more than most people expect on rocky ground. But for your situation, everything needs to survive a soaking and dry out fast, so the kit choices shift a bit. What's your dog's weight, what's the terrain like once you hit the trail, and how long are your hikes typically running?

That's a solid workout day for her. At 20kg with rocky sections involved, paw protection is worth thinking about — but honestly for a PWD with good natural paw toughness, boots are optional unless you're hitting serious scree or very hot exposed rock. The bigger issue for your setup is that she's starting every hike already soaked. A waterlogged harness adds weight and can cause chafing over a 4-hour trail. What harness are you using currently, and is she wearing anything in the kayak?

That's exactly the problem — the Julius-K9 is a great everyday harness but the padding holds water and stays damp for hours, which is what's causing the rubbing. For your specific use case, I'd go with the Ruffwear Float Coat. It's primarily sold as a dog life jacket, but it's genuinely the right piece of kit for kayak-to-trail days: it keeps her safe on the water, the foam panels drain and dry fast, it has a rescue handle on the back which doubles as a grab point on tricky trail sections, and the fit is snug enough that it doesn't shift around during a long hike. On rocky terrain it won't replace a harness for leash attachment, so you'd clip her lead to the front ring and the Float Coat handles everything else. It's available on Amazon UK and is well worth the investment if you're doing these trips regularly.

The Float Coat has a leash attachment point so you can use it solo for most trail conditions — and for a dog her size on mixed forest and rocky terrain, it'll be fine. If you were doing technical scrambling I'd say bring a slim backup harness, but for 3 to 5 hour mixed trails it handles it cleanly. The main thing to add to your kit is a good collapsible bowl — she'll need water stops even if she's been swimming, because lake or sea water doesn't count for hydration. A Ruffwear Quencher or any silicone fold-flat bowl works well and weighs almost nothing.

Honestly, for a PWD on mixed terrain at that duration, I'd hold off unless you start noticing her pads getting sore or cracked. Portuguese Water Dogs have reasonably tough feet and she's probably been conditioning them on regular walks. If you do end up wanting boots, Ruffwear Grip Trex are the ones worth buying — they stay on, which is the main thing boots fail at. But start without them, check her pads after a few hikes, and add them only if you're seeing wear. The Float Coat is the thing that'll genuinely change your kit.