September-October201.. - Dogs Naturally Magazine

First, needless to say, is food. They're on a raw food diet sowe travel with several days' supply in a cooler. They eat rawbones as part of their regular diet, and it’s also a great way tohelp them settle in a strange place. They get so engrossed ingnawing that, by the time they’re done, they’re sleepy andrelaxed. I usually separate their meals for a couple of days,along with their supplements, into a small cooler that I takeinto our lodging each night. In winter we just leave a large,soft cooler, with the rest of the food for the trip, in the cargobox overnight, where it stays frozen. There was no problemwith that on our latest trip when we encountered freezing rainbetween Oklahoma City and Kansas City and had to chip theice off the cargo box and the car. We can remove as much aswe need to defrost each day and thaw it in our motel room orinside the car if we're on the road, and we take along a plasticcontainer or sturdy freezer bags for this purpose. In summer,we pack the food in the cooler with lots of ice packs. Hopefullywe stay overnight in a room with a working freezer andcan refreeze the ice packs overnight. If not, we buy a bag of iceand empty it into the cooler. But even with lots of ice, themeat will thaw fast in hot weather, so we suggest only takingenough for 3-5 days if you're traveling in summer.Dog extras. The dogs also travel with plenty of toys, a coupleof grooming tools in case I get inspired to brush andcombthem or trim their toenails (none of this usually happens,which is fine with them). We take some emergency medicationwith us: we usually have a supply which would keep usgoing until we can get to a local vet, wherever we are.Water? Some dog owners travel with water from home butdrinking water in strange places has never seemed to affectmy dogs so we don't bother.Human gear. I try to separate my own clothes into twobags: one with just enough clothes and toiletries for the drivingpart of the trip, and the other with everything I'll needonce we arrive. That minimizes the unloading and reloading atour nightly stops.Walks and pee breaks. I usually try to give them a break every3-4 hours (with Muddy it was every two hours as he had severehip dysplasia and needed to loosen up more often). Interstaterest stops are great for walks and picnics, and there areusually special dog walking areas. One thing I’m very cautiousabout: since I travel alone with my dogs I rarely pee myself atthe rest stops, because I've heard so many horror stories ofdogs being stolen from cars. I don't know if these stories areapocryphal, but I don't think it's worth the risk. Perhaps dognappershang out at rest stops waiting for attractive dogs. Inany event, I assume that if people see you walking your dogsthere's more likelihood of them being stolen if you then leavethem unattended.So the dogs use the rest stops but I usually wait to go until agas station or McDonalds (and that's all I do at McDonalds,except buy the occasional plain cheeseburger as a special junkfoodtreat for the dogs for being such good travelers). You canrun in and out fast and the bathrooms at McDonalds are alwayson the right! If it's hot, the rest stops may not involvemuch walking.Dog friendly lodging. We stay with friends whenever wecan. It's a great opportunity to visit people we don't see veryoften, and it's much nicer than staying in a motel. But it'spretty easy to find dog-friendly motels, and there are quite afew online resources. The site with the widest range of information(lodging, restaurants, activities and services for travelerswith dogs) is GoPetFriendly.com. Petfriendlytravel.comand dogfriendly.com also offer good information on dogfriendlylodging. Some motels have a small extra charge fordogs, others don't. Best Western and Days Inn are pretty reliablydog-friendly, and Holiday Inn Express is decent. SometimesI book ahead, but other times I'm not sure how much progressLet's go! The first morning we leave on a trip, I don't usuallywalk the dogs at home because they are so excited that allthey want to do is get in the car. If I can get them to pee beforegetting in, I do, but often they are just frantic to go. So westop about an hour out for a walk and breakfast. They don'tseem to mind eating out of plastic containers, and the firstwalk of the journey always seems to be a thrill for them.www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com September/October 2010 | 25