Hi there! My name's Freda, and I recently weighed my own pack and am happy to report I'm officially a "lightweight" hiker.

That being said, I do hike with my 6-year old blue heeler a lot, and despite the fact that he's training along with me (wears his pack with 2-5lbs water weight while walking, trail running around ~1.5lbs) for a thru-hike of the CT, I'm not willing to have him carry much more than that. For context, he's 55 lbs, and I recently returned the pack he was wearing (thanks for accepting that one, REI) because it was too bulky/didn't fit him properly to begin with.

I explored the Wiki and I've been snooping this subreddit for a while; it's been an incredible resource for me. I've cut base weight where applicable and learned a lot of really great tips, but I haven't seen much on ultralight gear/tips for dogs, and I imagine other UL/LW hikers are, at times, hiking with their dogs as well. Do y'all just eat the extra weight, or are there resources for dog pack gear lists as well?

Really appreciate this community, thanks for all you guys do!