Travelling with your dog!

So welcome to the first day of March!! Holidays in the offing? Here is some useful advice!

Inevitably, with so many followers (big hugs to you all) I receive emails from people who have a commercial interest in the readership of this blog.

As I did earlier in January.

Hi,

Hope you had a great weekend!

My name is Emma from BestCarSeatHub.com. I’m wondering if we can contribute a fresh and original post about pets (traveling with pets or safety of dogs) to your site Learning from Dogs. It’ll be 100% neutral and written based on your site’s tone.

In return, we’ll be sharing that post to all our networks… helping you gain new and more readers.

Let me know if you’re interested. I’m also willing to discuss any other options you have. Thanks a lot.

—
Sincerely yours, Emma Lachey.

My reply was:

Emma,
Thanks for writing me.

In principle, I am happy to receive your guest post so long as you are happy for me to introduce your company as a firm of which I have no personal knowledge.

Does that work for you?

Paul H.

Emma then sent me the following guest post. It’s very useful advice in my opinion.

ooOOoo

Traveling With Your Dog – A How To Guide

Are you planning to travel with your dog in the future? While it is a great experience and you will certainly have many memories, it will also add a few new levels to your traveling experience. You will have to plan a lot more, make sure your dog is allowed everywhere you go, and make concessions on what you can do.

For most people, boarding their dogs turns out to be the better option – but it doesn’t have to be if you take these tips into consideration. For now, we will focus on traveling with your dog in the car.

Plan Ahead

The first thing you want to do is really plan ahead for your travels. Think about where you may need to take a break for your dog to go to the bathroom – and he will need to go much more frequently than he will just at home. Make sure to have some time set aside so that he can get out and walk around – a dog that wares off some energy will be much easier to deal with in the car.

Finally, make sure that you have places you can go so that your dog doesn’t have to be stuck inside the car when you go to eat. There are plenty of places that either offer outdoor seating or will be happy to pack your food up for you so that you can eat it somewhere where your dog can as well – of course, weather will dictate much of this.

Consider Medication

If your dog has severe anxiety when he or she is in the car, you might want to consider getting medication for your dog. This is something you should only use sparingly, but it is something you want to consider.

Bring Toys and Familiar Items

Does your dog have a favorite toy? How about a familiar bed or blanket? If he does, you want to bring some of those with you, just to make him more comfortable. With toys, you want to get something that he will sit and play with for a long time while you are travelling – this can take away much of the stress.

Use a Dog Car Seat

Dogs get pretty excited about going in the car, especially if they aren’t the type of dogs that get to go for a ride all that often. There are plenty of dog car seats on the market today, from simple tethers or harnesses to high-tech dog booster seats that have all you can ever imagine.

Some other items you want to have?

  1. Leash
  2. Water bowl and water
  3. Treats
  4. Busy Toys
  5. Doggie Bags
  6. Medication
  7. All your dog’s tags
  8. The name and number of a local vet

The car seat won’t only keep your dog safe, which of course is important, but it will keep you safe as well. Dogs running around the car can really distract you from your surroundings and can put everyone in danger.

Be Prepared for Emergencies

Emergencies will happen, and while you hope that you won’t encounter one, you do have to be prepared for anything. Planning in advance will ensure that you can tackle anything that might happen. Before you go on a trip, talk to your vet about anyone that he or she may know near where you are staying. It should be a priority to take your dog to the vet before you leave for your trip anyway. You also want to have the phone number of your vet so that you can call in a pinch. Always make sure that your phone has a full battery so you can look up vets in the car.

If your dog is acting quiet and a little “off,” it could be nothing – your dog could just be adjusting to life this way. However, you want to ensure that your dog has enough time out of the car and has enough water. Once your dog shows sudden signs of illness, then you want to get to work.

If you are driving, you want to map out any vets on the pathway, set an alarm for medications, bring only the highest quality dog food, give your dog adequate bathroom time, and bring all medical records with you.

Make Sure ID Is Always on Your Dog

Make sure that your dog always has a collar on when you are traveling. Make sure the collar has your phone number and your name on it as well. If your dog does get away when you are traveling, this is the best way to ensure that your dog will get back to you.

You might want to consider a microchip as well. You’ll want to have a recent photo of your dog on your phone so that, if the worst does happen, you will have a way to make flyers.

Traveling with your dog doesn’t have to be a terrible experience. Instead, you want to make the most of it by being prepared, taking many photos of your pup, and having the times of your lives.

ooOOoo

Now all that Jean and I need to work out is how to take our six dogs with us when next month we travel to Europe for a couple of weeks!!

Any ideas, Emma?

37 thoughts on “Travelling with your dog!”

  4. I will also say, that a van can help a lot, but it is not easy to travel with so many dogs at all.
    Good article Paul, I will just add, that it is a great idea to have a seat belt lead for dogs too for security for all. In several countries in Europe this is necessary to have or you can’t bring your dogs in the car at all. These seat belt leads are not expensive to buy. The dog needs to wear a body harness to use together with the seat belt lead, it is not safe with an usual collar alone.

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  6. Plus, before I reply individually let me reach out to everyone in Britain who is affected by the present terrible weather, especially those in the Southwest my old wandering territory!

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  7. Excellent advice and some friends of ours always have a car safety belt harness for their dog too when travelling.

    And reading your comments Paul, thanks for the shout out about our weather in the UK right now, pretty grim, Here we have 9inches of snow on the ground and gales now hitting whipping it up and still snowing. Minus 3 this morning with a Windchill twice that. We were well prepared and our granddaughter loving time off school while schools have closed, and we are stranded on our Avenue not many tried getting their cars off their drives today to go to work.. We are snug.. But a Red Alert is being issued the second in two days, the other was for Scotland yesterday..
    Good to be catching up here again Paul 🙂

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    1. Just spoken to Jon, my brother-in-law who lives in South Brent, Devon and he described pretty terrible conditions!

      Another friend from South Devon emailed me a photo of kids tobogganing down Totnes High St. Will find a way of sharing that here.

      So pleased you are warm and dry!

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      1. I have not been outside in two days Paul such are the temperatures and roads from our home here to the main road still covered in snow. Its not worth getting stuck. We were warned by the met office weather updates on TV in plenty of time to prepare and did so. So we are snug as a bug.. Thank you Paul, I hope also your friends down south also stay safe.. Its been horrible conditions.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Very, but we Brits do nothing better than talk about the weather LOL 🙂 And its unusual that the South of England has been hit by snow as it has been this week. We are more used to it further North. 🙂

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  11. I’ve always wanted to travel with my dog but always wondered how… thanks for the tips!! This will definitely make it easier

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    1. Welcome! Thanks for calling by. Your St. Bernard dog must be a wonderful dog. We have Brandy who is a Gt. Pyrenean crossed with a Mastiff who is the loving, empathetic dog we have ever known.

      Anyway, hope to see you again and hear more about your dog!

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      1. There is not enough time to describe my master, my friend, my companion. She is everything. She is 6 years old, a beagle lady with a hart of gold. She teaches me new things every day.

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