If you are dead set on a destination that isn’t dog-friendly, look on Yelp for highly-rated dog boarding services near the place you are visiting or find a local dog sitter on Rover. Quick-dry towels are also convenient for drying dogs off when they get wet.ĬHECK OUT THE MOST DOG-FRIENDLY NATIONAL PARKS If your dog tends to roll around in poop or heavy mud, you can carry a short hose in your car and rinse the dog off at the nearest water hookup. If you are worried about your car, seat covers and a portable car vacuum will go a long way. Hopefully, the dirt means they were having a lot of fun, which is the entire point. There’s no way around it and the best way to deal is to accept it. Some shed, some slobber, and all of them get dirty. Know your car is going to get dirtyĭogs are messy little creatures. Here’s a good resource if you are looking for more tips on how to crate train your dog. Never use the crate to punish your dog or you will get the opposite result. Then use the positive reinforcement method mentioned above when they get into the crate, rewarding them with a treat. You can put an old sweatshirt that smells like you inside the crate, along with a few toys to make the dog feel more comfortable. The key is making the crate feel like their home. You’ll want to practice with the crate before your road trip (ideally when your dog is a puppy). A collapsible crate is best because it won’t take up room in your car when you aren’t using it. Even if you simply don’t trust your dog to not destroy your car when you are in a restaurant, then consider bringing a crate with you on the road trip. Bring a collapsable crate for your hotel staysįor those times when you do stay at a hotel or Airbnb, a crate is a great tool to help your dog feel safe in a foreign environment. Plus with the chuck-it, you won’t have to touch that slobber-covered ball with your bare hands. You’ll throw the ball much further than you can with your arm, meaning the dog runs a lot further in a shorter period of time. If your dog is into fetch, a quick way to get a lot of exercise is a chuck-it ball thrower. When we road trip, we try to bring toys that are more durable, so they don’t fall apart one day into our trip.Ī few toys I like to keep on hand are a frisbee, ball, or another toy (consider a glow in the dark one for nighttime stops). He loves ripping them apart and spreading the stuffing all over everything, leaving a mess for us to clean up. Charlie destroys his toys pretty quickly. Toys help keep your pup occupied and provides mental stimulation. Quality toys are an important thing to pack and this is a dog road trip tip that is often overlooked. Do a couple of quick laps around the parking lot with your dog to make sure they’re not just sitting in a car for hours. Just like humans need to get out and stretch their legs on long drives, so do dogs. Even if you are in a hurry to get to your destination, you need to take a few extra minutes whenever you stop to let your dog out to do their business. Don’t ignore their bathroom needs on long drives Get a small stable water bowl that you can put on the floor by your backseat and let them drink at their leisure. Your dog shouldn’t have to wait until you stop for gas to get a drink of water. Over time, they learn to simply do that desired behavior, treat or not, but when you first begin to road trip with your dog, positive reinforcement with treats is a helpful tool. On the road, if we are eating lunch in the car, and he sits quietly in the back without begging, he gets a treat. Then when we call him back into the car, and he jumps in, he gets another treat. Then if we stop at a gas station, and he goes to the bathroom, he gets a treat. What that means is when they do what they are told, we reward them with a treat.įor example, when Charlie first jumps up in the van, he gets a treat which shows him that getting in the van without being coerced is what he’s supposed to do. Use positive reinforcement & reward your dog with treatsĪ well-trained dog is going to be easier to road trip with than a dog that is constantly misbehaving. We’ve trained our dogs using the positive reinforcement technique. The more room and dedicated space they have, the better behaved they’ll be.īring a dog bed, a yoga mat, a blanket, or even a foam sleeping pad that you can fold in half. No one wants that, and your dog doesn’t either. Compare that to the middle seat on a 10 hour, oversold flight. Give them their own dedicated comfortable space in the carĭon’t pack your car to the brim to the point where you dog has to squeeze between luggage with barely enough room to lay down.
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