Daddy is probably the laziest hiker in the world, he wants me to carry his stuff when we go hiking! 
So the very first piece of outdoor gear he decided to buy for me was a dog backpack. After much pawing around on the Internet and reading reviews from other humans, he finally decided on a Ruff Wear Palisades pack/harness combo.
First Impressions:
When I first got my paws on this pack, I knew this is a good product. The material used in this pack is as good as any of my daddy’s human gear, there are reflective trims everywhere (something none of my daddy’s gear have), the stitching is dense and strong, basically everything screams of quality construction.
The Pack:
The pack on the Palisades is a symmetrical saddle bag design, with identical compartments on either side of the body. The outer (smaller) compartment can hold some small items, and it also houses the compression straps for the main compartment. The main compartment is large, daddy hasn’t been able to fill it up to its capacity yet, it can take a day worth of water and food for me with no problems. When the main compartment is not full, the aforementioned compression straps can keep the pack nice and compact, and the extra strap is stored in the outer compartment so there’s nothing that’s dangling around to get caught on tree branches and bushes when I’m dashing through the woods, that’s quite considerate of Ruff Wear.
Inside the main compartment there’s a small zippered pouch with a water bladder (included) on either side of the pack for carrying water. Even though I always drink out of mountain streams, it’s a nice thing to have if and when I take daddy hiking in a very dry place. There’s a small zippered opening on the inside of each side for the hose of the water bladder. There is a daisy-chain on either side of the pack in case you need to strap on any extra gear (like I’m going to do that!). All the zippers are waterproof zippers, there’s a drainage hole on the bottom of the pack to drain out any water that got into the pack, and there are reflective trims on both side of the pack for visibility at night. Great attention to details!
The harness:
One really cool and unique feature of the Palisades pack is the fact that the pack is removable from the harness that serves as its frame. This framed design is very similar to the large backpacks used by humans, it helps to distribute the load and keep the pack in place better (but the human packs can’t be detached from its frame!). The frame of the pack is based on the Ruff Wear Webmaster harness, and it deserves a separate review. The Palisades pack’s harness is identical with the Webmaster, except it has four quick release clip-in points to attach the pack. The quick on-and-off attachment of the pack is a really nice feature, it makes putting on and taking off the pack a breeze, it also makes adjustment of the pack very easy, and when you stop for a rest on the trail, you can bug your humans to take the pack off for you so you can have a rest as well.
The harness’s back is shaped by foam, so it holds its shape even when I’m not wearing it. There are two padded straps that go around the rib cage, and a “Y” shaped strap that goes around the neck/shoulder area. There’s a handle and a D-ring attachment point on top of the harness. The handle is for temporary controlling your dog or lifting them up small obstacles. With the pack attached to the harness, the handle and D-rings are still accessible through a circular hole on top of the pack (if you attached the pack the right way). The harness is ergonomically designed to fit a dog, so it’s actually possible for daddy to lift me totally off the ground by the handle. Not that I’m a big fan of being held like a suitcase, but it proved to be really useful when daddy helped me scrambling up some really steep rock faces on a trail I couldn’t get up otherwise. Many other owners also use this harness to help aging dogs or dogs recovering from sickness/surgery. There are also reflective trims everywhere on this harness for better visibility when I’m out walking at night.
Field Testing:
So I put on this pack and took daddy out hiking, just to try it out. The pack was really comfortable. I was on the trail for five minutes, then I got very used to it, I barely noticed it was there. Which could be a bad thing depends on how you look at it, because I would dash around happily and not realizing I now have a wider profile, I would scrape the pack against trees, rocks, people’s legs (and knocking them over in the process). I even got stuck trying to squeeze through between two rocks. But the material of the pack is amazingly strong, even against fairly rough sandstone, the pack barely had any abrasion on it. Whenever we stopped for a break, daddy was able to quickly and easily take the pack off my back to give me a break as well. The harness by itself was also very useful, daddy used the handle to help me scramble up some rock faces… not that I couldn’t get up there, I just didn’t want to.
Overall this is a very nice pack, I like it, so does my daddy. The price tag of $125 is pretty steep, but since I’m not the one paying for it, I think it’s a great deal. 
Pros:
- Removable pack.
- Great load distribution.
- Handle close to dog’s center of gravity for lifting.
- Harness that can be used separately from the pack.
Cons:
- A bit on the pricey side.
Good post. I be taught something tougher on totally different blogs everyday. It’ll always be stimulating to learn content from different writers and observe just a little something from their store. I’d want to make use of some with the content material on my blog whether you don’t mind. Natually I’ll offer you a link on your net blog. Thanks for sharing.
This review is very helpful and the only written review I could find other than on shop websites.
It is the Web Master harness that I’m interested in buying so it was great that you reviewed the backpack and harness separately.
The photos are also vitally helpful.
Did you find any problems with the straps coming loose? A number of comments from people on shop websites have said there’s kept slipping loose.
The straps are a bit thin, so the plastic buckles do not grab them very well and they tend to slide a bit when moving around. But so far, it hasn’t been a major issue for me, I do like the straps to be a bit loose, yet not loose enough that the whole harness slips around.