We just finished a long trek in the car with Pepe & Zoey, our 2 little dogs. We logged 52 hours and 3,500+ miles in the actual road trip, not including the in-town driving. It was not an easy beginning to the trip but with some work, the trip became much easier.
To start off with, our dogs do not travel in the car much, really only to the vet or to our friend's homes. Needless to say, they're not used to long 10 hr days stuck in the car. Pepe has actually made the road trip with me from IL to AZ when I moved out here (three 9 hr days of driving), but he is the worst in the car. Because car rides aren't a normal occurrence, the dogs are not particularly calm when getting into the car. The first half of the first day was pretty rough. Pepe believes that every time he hears the turn signal or feels the car slow down, that we're coming to our destination which results in a lot of whining in anticipation. My poor husband was on about 4-5 hours of sleep on that first day of driving and his patience was wearing thin. We had to stop through 2 border patrol checkpoints which requires briefly speaking to the agent and their K9 partner next to the car. Pepe especially doesn't like this, feeling like he needs to guard the car of the agents, toll booth attendees and even passing motorcyclists. Zoey feels the need to have a freak-out when she sees the drug sniffing dogs. Oy Vey! So knowing they have these issues, I did a little shopping before our big trip.
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| Enjoying the King bed at La Quinta |
First things first, we needed pet-friendly lodging along the way. I found that La Quinta has a great pet policy - most locations do not charge a pet fee! There is a maximum of 2 pets (dogs and cats) to a room though. They do not require pet information at time of booking, just upon your arrival. There are only 4 La Quinta's in the country that do not have this pet policy though. Here's a link you can use to find other pet-friendly hotels. Please note some may claim to be pet-friendly but still require a non-refundable deposit.
Here are some of the must-haves I made sure we had for the trip:
-Seat cover - I purchased one on Amazon, and it's doing a great job keeping all the fur and paw prints off the seats.
-Portable water dish - I have one I use for my summer dog walks that collapses into my hydration waist pack. It saves on room and is great for pulling out for a water break while we fill up at a gas station and take a potty break.
-Food storage bag - I purchased one from Outward Hound for a great price. The bag essentially rolls up to save on room and keeping food fresh. If you need to tote around a large amount of kibble, this is a great bag, you can pretty much carry it like a purse to help free your hands if hauling your pet's supplies around.
-Peanut butter and kongs - I picked up a small jar of peanut butter as our to-go jar for the road. The dogs were in their kennels often and got fresh kong snacks to help comfort them despite being in a new place practically every night.
-Treats and chewys within an arms reach - I bought enough chewys (bully sticks) for each dog to have one during the middle of each day of driving. I also kept some delicious treats on hand so I can grab the dog's attention when I needed to. This came in the handiest when we came to cash toll booths, so the dogs would ignore the scary human in a glass box that demands to take our money.
-Benedryl - Honestly, to make the trip easier for everyone, I gave the dogs appropriate doses of benedryl so they would nap more in the car. Consult your veterinarian if you think this is something you need. There are much heavier tranquilizers but we definitely don't need anything along that level, just enough to encourage a little more sleeping in the car.
-Kennels - I don't crate the dogs in the car. Many people do. Many people will harness/seatbelt their dogs in. It's just my choice and the dogs kept to the bench with their beds and blankets and occasionally came to sit on my lap in the front when invited. The kennels were for when we stayed with family. All our dogs are crate-trained to enter their kennels on command and enjoy it. At home, their crates are always used for positive time like their kongs or chewys, for this very reason.
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| Pepe & Zoey snoozing somewhere between Wichita and Albuquerque |
Overall it was a great trip, the dogs soon became accustomed to getting in/out of the car for the long hauls. Most importantly we kept bringing the dogs a secret to surprise my dad :)
