Tag Archives: traveling with dogs

Traveling with dogs

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If you’re among those traveling this holiday season, did you bring your dog? If not, why not? Personally, we’d rather not go anywhere without our dogs. They’re all great travelers and get excited when they see travel bags come out. But we know that not everyone, or every dog, travels well.

Pros and Cons

Reasons to bring your dog:

  • You love them and want to be with them.
  • Less stress for the dog.
  • Less expensive than boarding/hiring a dog sitter
  • Boarding/dog sitters are hard to come by these days
  • No one cares for your dog like you do
  • You don’t have to worry about your dog

Reasons to leave your dog behind:

  • Your dog hates the car/travel
  • Someone you’re visiting is afraid/allergic to dogs
  • The place you’re going doesn’t allow pets 
  • Your dog is more comfortable at home with a pet sitter
  • Your dog gets travel sickness
  • You need a break from responsibility

No judgment

It’s not anyone’s place to question your reasons for making whatever decision is right for you and your family. Traveling with dogs requires planning and isn’t for everyone. The dogs’ “baggage” may be even heftier than the humans’!

But if the choice you’re making is because your dog isn’t a good traveler, you can turn that around before your next planned getaway. Dogs can become acclimated to riding in the car. It just takes a little time and patience, just like any other dog training.

Seen from the dog’s perspective, the car may represent going scary places. If the only place your dog’s been in the car is the veterinarian’s office, the car is to “blame” for the frightening place.

Photo of two dogs travelling in a car
Booker and Tango ready to hit the road with Fran.

First steps

If you want to make inroads into your dog’s car discomfort, try just sitting in the car with your dog. Don’t even turn the car on. Just sit there, in the back seat, and pet your dog. Bring some of your dog’s favorite treats. If the dog will take treats in the car, that’s a good sign. Dogs who are fear-stricken will rarely accept a tidbit. 

If the dog is really terrified, put a comfy bed or blanket in the car when you go to sit there. Familiar, comfortable soft things will help teach there’s nothing to be scared of. If she has a favorite toy, bring that, too. Try to get her to play in the car. Or gnaw on a favorite chew toy. 

After five or so minutes, go back inside. Tell your dog how wonderful she is, even if all she did was shake for the whole time. Let her know that going in the car isn’t a punishment. The goal is getting your dog to understand that the car is just a big, noisy, smelly couch. 

Take your time

When your dog seems calmer, the next steps are to sit with the car running, then drive around the block, then longer drives, then going someplace non-threatening like a stroll in a park or forest preserve. If you see your dog becoming stressed, you can always go back to the last phase where he was still comfortable.

Car safety should be part of the familiarization. If your dog won’t accept a crate in the car, get her accustomed to being restrained. The harness seatbelt is an option. Even just sitting in the car, hook her up. As she gets used to the restricted movement, it’ll be less of a big deal when you’re actually in motion. And everyone will be safer.

Travel how you want

If you choose not to take your dog along when you travel, that’s fine. As long as it’s your option and not determined by your dog’s reluctance, or inability, to travel with you. If you need some help acclimating your dog to the car, check out our dog training tip and/or drop us a note. We’re happy to share what we know.

Dog tip – Bring a bit of home when you travel

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When we go on vacation, we like to take our dogs along whenever we can.

It can be challenging to find hotels/motels that allow dogs – and even then, most will require a “pet deposit.”

When we do find a place we like, we want to be good guests so we’re welcome back. One thing we do is bring our own blanket. The first thing we do when we get in the hotel room is to remove the existing cover/duvet/blanket, put it up on a shelf, and put on our own.

First: we don’t have to worry about anything “untoward” happening on the blanket. It’s ours, and we can easily wash it. Second: we don’t have to worry about when the existing blanket was last cleaned – or who used it last. Third: the dogs are more comfortable with something they recognize as their own. It may be a small thing, but it helps everybody relax and get comfortable in a new place.

Another good idea when you get to your room – check under everything for anything the previous tenant and housekeeping staff may have forgotten. We learned this lesson when one of our dogs found the fast-food container hidden under the bed. He felt very deprived when we wouldn’t let him eat the unknown-origin-and-age french fries, but he got over it and, fortunately, didn’t get sick.

If your dog has a sensitive stomach, you may also want to consider bringing a container of water from home. Just like people, dogs can be sensitive to different tap water in different places. It’s better to be safe than very, very sorry!

It’s all his fault

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Teddy and meWe love having the opportunity to travel with our dogs. And we’re fortunate that they’re all terrific in the car.

Never utter a peep. Which is why, on my (Hope’s) recent road trip, I didn’t notice until a mid-afternoon potty break (for me and the dogs!) that Teddy had been bitten by something and his face was swelling up.

Teddy has had a couple of allergic reactions over the years, so I always have some Benadryl with me in the dog-travel-box. I gave him a dose and decided there wasn’t anything else I could do at the time, other than to continue to our destination and check him every half hour/45 minutes.

Which is why we wound up having a very difficult afternoon. It’s all Teddy’s fault.

The six-lane highway we were traveling on was completely stopped. Apparently there was an accident up ahead. All I could see was an endless line of cars and semi-trucks, all stopped dead. For over an hour.

Since we weren’t moving, I was able to check on Teddy. He was fine – breathing normal, swelling and redness next to his nose already starting to subside.

When we finally got moving again – and I have absolutely no idea why we’d stopped, because the highway was entirely clear by the time we got to wherever it had been – we motored along happily until our next Teddy check.

It wound up being only about 30 miles from our destination, but I thought it was important to check him on schedule. He was fine.

But he was also why we were where we were when we were – where I really, really, would rather not have been.

Back on the highway, a big, white SUV went racing by in the lane to the left. Then it cut me off, zooming for what he/she thought was an exit, and turned out to be a truck weigh station. He must have been going over 100 mph. When he saw it wasn’t an exit, zoomed back, cutting me off and racing down the highway – with three police cruisers now in pursuit.

I could see the police closing in and the SUV attempting to weave in and out of traffic, finally skidding out of control, hitting the center barrier, and spinning back across all three lanes of traffic. The three police cars surrounded it – stopped any which way on the highway.

Meanwhile, all the non-involved traffic (like me!) was trying to figure out which lane to be in, how slow we should be going, which lane we could creep by the debris, and how to let three lanes condense into one shoulder-creeping line without anyone else being smushed.

I saw one of the officers grab the SUV driver’s door open – but I couldn’t see anything inside other than the side air bag had deployed.

Much too much excitement – and it was all Teddy’s fault.