Are Dog Backpacks Bad for Dogs?

The one published number in the category

Ruffwear’s guidance on both the Approach and the Palisades is that a dog should carry no more than 25% of its body weight, including the pack. Three things about that figure are worth drawing out, because almost nobody quotes it properly:

• It includes the pack. The Approach weighs 0.73 lb at XS and 1.3 lb at L/XL; the Palisades runs from 15 oz to 1 lb 11 oz. On a 40 lb dog, a 10 lb ceiling with a 1.3 lb pack leaves about 8.7 lb of contents, not 10.
• It is a ceiling, not a target. A first outing should be an empty or nearly empty pack, and the load should build over multiple walks.
• It is manufacturer guidance, not a study.We are reporting what Ruffwear publishes, which is more than anyone else does, and we are not going to dress it up as clinical evidence. Anything involving a specific dog’s joints, age or fitness is a veterinary conversation.

Against that, Kurgo publishes no load guidance and no volume for the Baxter, so you cannot calculate a limit from the product at all — you would be applying Ruffwear’s number to another brand’s pack, which is the kind of reasoning this site tries not to do.

Which dogs should not carry a pack

This is where the real answer to the question lives, and it is about the dog rather than the equipment:

• A growing dog. Weight-bearing work on a skeleton that has not finished developing is the clearest case for waiting, and when to start is a question for your veterinarian, who knows the breed and the individual.
• An unconditioned dog. A pack adds load to a dog that may already be at the edge of its fitness on a long walk. Build the walk first and the load second.
• Any dog with joint, hip or back history.If a dog is a candidate for a support harness, it is not a candidate for a loaded pack — see the lifting and support harnesses for that end of the range.
• Any dog in real heat. A pack covers surface area the dog needs for cooling and adds work at the same time, which is the wrong combination. If heat is the condition you are managing, read whether cooling vests are worth it — including the honest part about humidity — and leave the pack at home.

Fit is the part that actually causes problems

When a pack hurts a dog, the usual cause is not the weight, it is where the weight sits. Three details decide it, and the published specs let you compare them:

1. Adjustment points. The Approach has five, the Palisades has six. More points means the load can be held against the ribcage rather than hanging off the shoulders, which is the difference between a pack that rides and a pack that rubs.
2. The harness structure under the bags. Ruffwear specifies a laminated, moulded bonded polyester mesh and perforated PE foam on the Approach. The Palisades goes further in a genuinely useful way: the saddlebags are removable, so the harness can be worn on its own, which means you can take the load off mid-walk without taking the harness off the dog.
3. Sizing on girth, not weight. Ruffwear sizes the Approach from XS at 17-22 in of girth up to L/XL at 32-42 in. A weight-based size chart is a guess about body shape; two 50 lb dogs can be several inches apart in girth. The same argument applies to measuring for any harness.

Load balance is the fourth detail and nobody can spec it for you: split the weight evenly between the two bags, put dense items low and forward, and re-check the straps after the first mile. An unbalanced pack is a rubbing pack regardless of how good it is.

This is the pack the dog wears, not the one you wear

Worth separating, because the same search term covers both products. A dog pack puts a load on the dog. A carrierbackpack puts the dog on you, and the safety questions there are completely different — heat against your back, duration guidance, weight ceilings as warranty conditions. We answer those on the carrier backpack roundup and do not restate them here. If what you want is for the dog to carry the water and the first aid kit, the dog packs roundup is the full field, and the hiking gear checklist covers what should go in it.

What to look for, in order

1. A published load limit. One brand publishes one. Buy from a maker that will tell you the ceiling.
2. A girth-based size chart with real inch ranges, not a weight band.
3. Four or more adjustment points, so the load can be held against the body.
4. Removable bags, if you hike long days. Being able to shed the load without shedding the harness is worth real money.
5. A published pack weight. It counts against the limit, so a maker that hides it is hiding part of your payload.

One last specification note, because it is the kind of thing this category almost never publishes: Ruffwear names its buckles (ITW Nexus Airloc side-release) and its leash ring (anodised 6061-T6 aluminium V-ring) on both packs. Named components are checkable components. Kurgo publishes neither, and offers a lifetime warranty on manufacturing defects instead — which, as the exclusions make clear, covers a seam rather than a season. Ruffwear’s own warranty covers defects in materials and craftsmanship and excludes chewing, normal wear and alterations.

A separate question comes up about the other kind of pack — the one the dog rides in. Dog backpacks for biking and motorcycles sets out what nobody in that category publishes about speed, airflow or impact.