Road-trip Advice

[noludoru]

Please?

How does your dog do on road trips? What did you do to keep them occupied?

I will be leaving with Middie at the end of the week. We're driving 26 hours over two days. I may stretch that to three if I don't have the energy for that much driving - we'll see. I'm driving a rental, so he can't have any food-filled toys.

I'm probably over-thinking this, and maybe he'll just sleep the entire trip away, but the last time we were in a strange car it was WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE for three hours. I don't want to post a thread next week admitting that I left my dog on the side of a road somewhere, so that can't happen.

[JessLough]

Really loud music?

Really though, does he ride in a crate? If so, I'd probably pack lots of bones/chews/bully sticks, or are those out too?

I'd probably cut it into 3 days, personally, and then stop someplace you could let him run off some energy before leaving in the morning, or halfway through the drive each day. Though, *I* would probably go crazy in the car for 13 hours a day if it was 2 days, so that may be playing part in why I'd cut it up into 3 days.

[noludoru]

Originally Posted by JessLough

Really loud music?

Really though, does he ride in a crate? If so, I'd probably pack lots of bones/chews/bully sticks, or are those out too?

I'd probably cut it into 3 days, personally, and then stop someplace you could let him run off some energy before leaving in the morning, or halfway through the drive each day. Though, *I* would probably go crazy in the car for 13 hours a day if it was 2 days, so that may be playing part in why I'd cut it up into 3 days.

Bully sticks are brilliant. I don't usually buy those.

He and I will exercise in the evenings. . . he's not really high energy anymore. I just don't want to listen to whining. But maybe I'll give him some dramamine and a pile of bully sticks.

[LostAndConfused]

I'd stretch it to 3 days too, but that's because I find driving more than 8-10 hours in a day to be awful.

We are lucky because Hudson does travel really well. What we did the first time we went from NY to OH (about 9 hours) was we put him in a crate with lots of noms. Bully sticks, kongs with peanut butter, antlers, food just randomly tossed in so he would kind of have to hunt through the blanket to find it and toss some really yummy treats in when he was being good. We also stopped ever few hours for potty breaks and to stretch our legs, but part of that was because he was only 4 months old. Oh, we also drove through the night.


Our most recent trip to Ohio, we also drove through the night and we bought a dog car hammock thing, so he could be loose in the back seat. Once again, we filled the back seat with lots of things for him to chew on, but he spent most of the drive just looking sad.

We also get lucky because he plays with my sister's dog A LOT at my parents house and will then sleep for the return trip.

[stardogs]

IME, my dogs settle best when crated in the car, so that's what we always do. When I drove to Canada with Aeri and a foster I didn't do anything special, just made sure the crates were comfy, stopped a few times for walking and potty time, and the dogs didn't bat an eye. That was 15.5 hour drive.

Trips to Indiana to visit my parents (9 hours) are handled the same way, though I do have a dog park that I like to stop at if there's time half way through so that the pups are tired before we get to my parents' house.

Some people swear that you need to stop every 2 hours or so with dogs, but I've never found the need to unless the dog was a baby pup. In general, I tend to stop every 3-5 hours for gas/food/bathroom for me, and the dogs get let out every 5-6 hours for a walk and potty break.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Considering my dogs hold it 10 hours at a time at home I can't imagine stopping every two hours on a drive.

[milos_mommy]

I've only done really long drives with my dogs once.

That was 18 hours STRAIGHT in a car (obviously we stopped for potty/food, but nothing else) with five people, and three dogs, two of which were puppies under 8 months, and one of which was a grumpy senior dog.

Honestly, I think they did sleep most of the way. If they weren't sleeping they were looking out the window. My dogs always liked the car.

Even though it's a rental...can't you put towels/blankets down and give him food in a toy? My dogs never make a huge mess with stuffed kongs.

If all else fails...give him benedryl.

[BlackPuppy]

Originally Posted by LostAndConfused

I'd stretch it to 3 days too, but that's because I find driving more than 8-10 hours in a day to be awful.

I agree with that. I have taken several dogs on long trips. They mostly sleep, but if you let them sleep too much, you're going to have your hands full at the motel in the evenings. I try to find a vacant park, or a high school field and let the dogs out for a good run once a day. Sometimes I have to wait until the end of the day if nothing pops up on the road.

[SpringerLover]

The couple times I've driven to Ohio and back with the dog(s)... they just slept until we were ALL SO TIRED of being in the car we needed a break.

[Taqroy]

Originally Posted by stardogs

Some people swear that you need to stop every 2 hours or so with dogs, but I've never found the need to unless the dog was a baby pup.

This never made sense to me - my dogs are crated/left in the house for 8-10 hours every weekday. Why would riding in a car be any different? People are so weird.