Walking Pen Y Fan with your Dog

Visiting the Brecon Beacons for the second time this year, we looked at doing a few different things. As Lily was only very small the first time around, too much walking wasn't so easy, however this time around we decided to tackle Pen-Y-Fan.

Pen Y Fan is a the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons, a strenuous but moderate walk with well-made footpaths to the summit. The National Trust website states it takes 2 and half hours, although we did it in around 3 hours- tackling the slightly longer route heading to Corn Du before the summit.

Dog Walking Essentials for Mountain Climbing

Lead
Depending on your dogs behaviour may depend on what lead you use. The majority of the Pen Y Fan route is field like, and so perfect for pooches, however nearer the summit they're best on leads. We use figure of 8 slip leads, around their noses, to help stop them pulling and keep them under control at all times. A harness may also work well for you, but sadly Sev and Lily boy pull too much with these.

Coats
Visiting in November, and not having Sev or Lily do anything like this previously, I thought it best they wear coats for the walk [similar here]. Fleece and warm inside padding with a waterproof outing, these worked really well for the dogs and kept the over worrier fur-Mum happy too. We also took the Equafleeces to pop on when finished, to keep them dry and warm.

Water & Bowl
Our pop up Pets Pyjamas dog bowl comes everywhere with us, and along with a bottle of water for the dogs, this was the perfect refreshment they needed in between the walk.

Dog Food/SnacksWe took a Guru Field Trip Bone up there to help with energy levels or in case they really struggled. These bones are just food compressed into the bone shape, meaning they're the perfect on the go meal and nutritionally balanced.

Emergency Materials
You could take up a whole pet First Aid Kit, they're really handy and have some great and at times much needed items that can help. However it is really heavy, and being with a few people that have done Pen Y Fan before, made me feel better that we wouldn't need it. However, please remember anything can happen at any time, because of this I took a foil blanket. Hopefully allowing to cover the major things that may have happened...of course they were fine and feeling much better than us when we got to the bottom.

Overall the dogs found it way easier than me [and probably Sam too, although I think he'd try to disagree] They only went on leads the top 1/4 and down again due to the visibility, and drops. As well as the amount of people due to the smaller pathways, we never wanted Sev and Lily to knock into anyone or cause any problems.
I'm really glad we did it, and even more so that we took the dogs with us too. Having their coats on, snacks at the top and water available was also much needed, and never did I feel like we packed too much for them.

Have your pooches tackled any mountains or been on any trekking adventures?

Looking for somewhere dog friendly to stay in the Brecon Beacons? Take a look at Brecon Retreat