Travelling With Dogs – Getting Ready To Hit The Road

Our dogs are a very important part of our lives. Most often, when we travel, we travel with our dogs. Frequently it is travel for a dog related event or activity. But travelling with dogs is not necessarily a simple matter. Our Belgian Shepherds are a large breed and travelling with two of them presents its challenges.

It would be easy enough to grab leashes and collars, pack the dogs into the van and go on our merry way. In fact, that would go smoothly enough. But once we get beyond our “home” area, things will begin to get complicated pretty quickly. There will be new sights, new smells, and new things our dogs may never have had to encounter. Some of those things might be stressful and our dogs might “act out” and forget some of that great training we did at home. But all hope is not lost.

Any veteran of travelling with dogs can tell you, there is plenty you can do before you ever leave home to prepare yourselves and your dogs for the journey. That preparation requires some thought, some planning, and some careful training to make sure you and your dogs are ready for the various new situations that travel will require. It just takes a little imagination and some time well spent.

Your chariot awaits!

Chances are your dogs are quite ready to travel in your car. You probably take them for various outings all the time – to the park, to the beach, to training classes, etc. They might be quite used to getting in and out of the car after these short rides but have you introduced them to longer car rides that travel sometimes requires? It might be best to decide beforehand how long you intend to travel before allowing your dogs a potty break and a leg stretch. Then gradually work with them to make them comfortable being in the car for that length of time. For some it might be 2 hours before a stop and for others it might be more like 6 or 7 hours. In any case, you should be sure your dogs have at least experienced being in the car for that long so they don’t get stressed about it.

As far as possible, we like to crate train our dogs. From the time they are puppies, they are rewarded for staying in their crates to sleep over night and for naps during the day. That experience of a familiar crate helps when it’s time to travel. Since our dogs have had lots of great relaxation in their crates during training at home, that familiarity can help them cope with long car rides. Having a crate with us also means that our dogs have a “home away from home” when staying in new places or hotels. Sure, it might be a strange room, but a familiar dog bed and some favourite toys can go a long way to make your dog feel at ease.

Travel senses

New places means that your dog is going to encounter many new sights, sounds, smells, and sensations. You don’t want your dog trying to navigate a slippery tile floor for the first time in a hotel lobby far from home while you are trying to manage luggage and the nice lady trying to check you in! Giving your dog exposure to a variety of sights and sounds is a great way to make sure that neither your or your dogs are uncomfortable in a new place.

Make sure you try your dog out on various surfaces like tile, linoleum, gravel, and various other surfaces. The last thing you need while travelling with your large breed dog is to have to pick them up to carry them across a hotel lobby that they find scary because it’s totally new to them. And you don’t want to have to climb the stairs to the 10th floor because you discover that your dog is afraid of the movement of the elevator!

Give your dog positive exposure to the various sights and sounds they may encounter on a trip while you are at home. Using local hotels, shopping malls, and other public areas is a great way to see where your dog is or is not comfortable. Even if you don’t have time to train them to be completely comfortable with the things you may encounter, at least you will be ready to travel knowing what may make your dog uneasy. That way you can plan your trip to avoid those things and make it more comfortable for everyone.

Manners please!

Everyone likes a well-mannered dog but those “polite” dog behaviours we teach our dogs become all that much more important when we are travelling. When we are in new places, our attention needs to be on many things like checking into hotels, managing luggage, getting directions, or deciding where to go. So we may not be as attentive to our dogs as we are in our more familiar home settings. Basic behaviours like “Sit”, “Stay”, “Leave it”, and “Quiet” can make things a lot smoother with all of the strange sights, sounds, and people you are likely to encounter.

We like to work on our manners behaviours several times a week with our dogs just as a matter of protocol. But you may want to brush up on your manners and offer some really great rewards for good manners before leaving on your trip. Be sure to carry plenty of rewards with you to continue to help your dogs show their best manners on your journey as well!

Home away from home.

When we travel with our dogs we like to bring along a selection of familiar things to help our dogs feel comfortable in new places. Everyday collars, leashes, and favourite toys are always there to help bring some of the atmosphere of home with us when we are on the road. Something else that you can do is bring along favourite dog beds or mats that have smells from home.

Regular routines can be important too. We always travel with our dogs’ usual dog food and bowls that they regularly eat from. Familiar water bowls are placed and meal times, as far as possible, are kept to the expected times so our dogs can have some sense that things are “normal” even if we are in new and interesting places.

Be prepared for less stress

Perhaps the most important thing we do before going on a trip is to consider all of the things that we might encounter or want to do while we are away. We try to think of all of those things from our dogs’ perspective and plan things for them along the way. Making sure our dogs get the usual amount of exercise, exposure to people, and rest time is important to keep their stress levels down. If our dogs are less stressed, they are less likely to be barky or unruly during our journey.

We travel with our dogs quite a bit. Usually it’s just for a weekend but sometimes we are away from home for weeks. We are regular competitors at Dog Agility trials, so our dogs are exposed to our travel protocols even when they are puppies. We take good care to make sure those first new experiences happen with a minimum of stress and plenty of rewards even just for tolerating the new sights, smells, and sounds with good manners.

I began writing this article in a hotel room in Newport, Oregon. We are many hundreds of kilometres from our home in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. As I put the finishing touches on it, we are sitting comfortably in our hotel in Eureka, California. Both of my dogs are here with me, sleeping contentedly while hotel staff noisily work up and down our hallway with vacuums and linen carts. My black dogs are seemingly oblivious to the bumps and bangs of guests, staff, and the hustle and bustle of the world outside our room. I’m glad we put the work in to make them good travellers.

Later this evening, we will be going out for dinner. I have no doubt that our dogs will wait politely at doorways and not charge at other hotel guests. I know they will quietly and happily make their way across the slippery hotel lobby without barking or panicking. And I know that the will contentedly rest in their crates while we enjoy our meal before returning home for a good night’s rest in our room.

Next week we will still be on the road. There’s more I’d like to tell you about how we travel with our dogs. So in the next Canine Nation article I’ll talk about what we do while we are on the road with our dogs to make it fun, interesting, and rewarding for them!

Until next time, have fun with your dogs!

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