Have you ever gone on a road trip with your dog(s)?
My husband and I are going to Texas in July (best time to go south, I know). We always fly, but it is so expensive that time of year, plus we'd have to board our dogs for a week ($245ish) and we have not gone on a big road trip together yet, which sounds really fun to us (obviously really stressful, but we love driving together and will get to visit friends across the country). The farthest we've driven with our dogs is about 4-5 hours when we adopted our pup and brought her home.
We are considering bringing our two dogs with us - a chill 9-year-old lab/pitt mix (large) and a rambunctious 1-year-old German shepherd mix (medium-ish). I'm wondering if there are things we haven't taken into account as far as taking our dogs. So far, I've considered that we'll need to take our pup's crate, toys, all their food and beds and stay in multi-dog-friendly places. It'll also slow the trip somewhat having to take more frequent stops and wait for them to go potty and run around and such. Anything else we haven't thought of or accounted for?
For nine years my German Shepherd Dog, Sugar travelled with me. It was a challenge to find hotels that allowed GSD's and to wait for me in the hotel with a crate. At lunch I would exercise her and she ran with me in the evening. Locating vets in each city, bring medical records...
Bring a mister for your dogs, they will love it as Texas gets so very hot and a/c could break down on the way. Misters are great to calm anyone down in the heat.
My wife & I rented RV's from Cruise America twice so we could take our Labs on vacations with us. 1st time they were 7, 2nd time 10. They've been to Phoenix, Dallas, Virginia Beach, Washington DC, & all states between them cities & Chicago. I advise frequent stops & park far away from other cars.
I have a big coonhound. I have a small car. I just drove DC-Denver 1700 miles. 1. If you have a big SUV load the crates. If not just bring their dog beds. I put her dog bed in the backseat and she napped 90% of the drive. 2. Holiday Inn Express has $15/night for a dog up to 75lb. Good deal!
I used to travel with my dog 7-8 hrs. I would suggest leaving plenty of time for stops along the way. I usually only stopped twice, but my dog was used to being in the car with me.
State parks do not allow dogs, federal parks do
Try the website http://bringfido.com it has restaurants, hotels & attractions that are dog friendly.
If you are traveling in a SUV with a lot of cup holders, place short cups filled with chipped ice for your dog to keep hydrated. Make sure to use a harness and tie down system that allows a little movement (to turn around & so forth), but block the way to the front with soft items.