Packing freeze-dried liver for a hike with your dog

Liver treats for hiking travel well because freeze-dried liver is shelf stable and needs no refrigeration. Carry the day's broken pieces in a closed pouch on your hip, keep the resealed bag dry in the pack, and bring fresh water for your dog, which the label asks for whenever you feed it.

Where should liver ride on a hike: hip, pocket or pack?

Split it in two. The day's share rides in a pouch on your hip, where one hand can reach it without stopping. The rest stays in the original bag of beef liver, resealed, deep in the pack where nothing leans on it and no strap rubs it.

Skip the loose pocket. A pocket gets sat on, rained on and reached into with muddy fingers, and nothing about it closes. Our pieces break apart by hand, so do your breaking at the trailhead, drop the bits in the pouch and zip it shut. The label asks you to reseal after opening, and a pack is a fine place to do that as long as the bag is the thing you reseal, not the thing you rummage through at every switchback.

If you are driving to the trail, the drive is covered in our guide to liver treats for road trips. This page starts where the car door closes. Why liver travels at all is in our raw vs freeze-dried comparison.

How do you hand out liver on a trail with other dogs around?

Step to the side of the path first. A trail is a hallway, and a treat stop in the middle of it makes a queue of dogs and people behind you. Move off the tread, ask your dog to sit or hold a position, and use a piece from the pouch. Close the pouch again before you move.

Closed matters because a dog who passes may take an interest in what you are handing out. Ask before you offer a treat to anyone else's dog; owners have reasons for what their dogs eat, and sometimes the reason is a vet's instruction. Keep the handoff quick, keep your own dog's attention, and walk on. We make no claims about how any dog will react, because every dog is different.

What does the label's water line mean on a hike?

The bag says to feed liver as a treat or reward, to supervise, and to provide fresh drinking water.

On a hike, that puts water within your dog's reach whenever you feed. Bring a bowl or a collapsible dish and enough water for the dog as well as for you. The line is about feeding, not about a distance or a temperature, and we do not turn it into hydration advice. The label asks for water, so the pack carries water for the dog.

How do you keep liver dry in rain, snow or a stream crossing?

Our label lists moisture at a maximum of 10 percent and asks for a cool, dry place, so plan around the rain. A sealed bag inside a second zip bag, deep in the pack, keeps the water on the outside. The pouch on your hip needs a top that closes fully; an open flap in a downpour fills the pouch.

At a stream crossing, move the bag to the middle of the pack, away from the edges. If the pouch gets wet anyway, treat it the way you would at home: tip it out, dry it, and wash it by its care label once you are back. The bag is a bag that gets opened, used and closed, and its job on a wet day is to stay closed.

What comes back out of the woods with you?

Everything you carried in. Pack out the empty pouch, the zip bag and any bit that falls, and do not leave treats on the trail. After the hike, wash your hands, since the bag prints wash hands after handling.

Then empty the pouch at home and wash it by its care label. The open bag goes back on a shelf in a cool, dry place. The 30 days of use after opening start the day you open the bag, not the day you hike.