If you have time, you can use the -d -D flags, but beware, they might take a long time to reload, if the db is large (I'm talking over an hour or more). The -d -D flags generate a dump file that uses insert statements. Doing a plain dump results in a much smaller dumpfile that will load an order of magnitude faster. A plain dump uses copy instead of inserts, so the whole copy is considered a transaction, and it is much faster. Just do something like:
pg_dump -f dumpfile.dmp dbname
I'm not sure why the insert style dumpfile would be more robust, but it would probably be easier to edit if you need to change anything before you reload.
