5 Tips For Travelling With Your Dog

Whilst packing my car for a long road trip I noticed my puppy wagging his tail next to the car door when a thought crossed my mind. I'm ready for the trip, but is he ready too?

I quickly went into research mode looking into travelling with your dog and realised that hitting the road with your pet involves more preparation that I originally anticipated. After a lot of research I have compiled a list of my top 5 tips on travelling with your four legged companion. Let's begin!

Cars and dogs aren’t natural friends. Your vet is going to be able to give you some good tips on making the journey less stressful for your dog. If you are travelling with your dog on a long trip to an unfamiliar destination there may be required vaccinations, below I have listed some core vaccines:

• Parvo Vaccine: Parvovirus is a highly infectious disease that attacks cells in the intestines.
• Rabies Vaccine: If travelling in the United States then it is required by law.
• Canine Adenovirus Type 2 Vaccine: CAV-2 causes respiratory issues.
• Canine Distemper Vaccine: This virus affects a dog's central nervous system.

If you are travelling with your dog abroad you will need a pet passport, these are issued by vets that are LVI registered. Proper documentation is a major part of getting ready for a trip. So, besides preparing your own documents, take a look at your dog’s documents too.

Primarily, you need to ensure the following documents:

• Recent medical records
• Vaccination records
• Microchip number and who your pet is registered with
• License documents
• Medical insurance documents
• Your vet's information

It is always important to prepare for the worst case scenario. Unfortunately, there is a chance that you will lose your pet whilst travelling and being in unfamiliar territory. This is why it is so important to have these documents. There are some great organisations that offer pet rescue services helping reunite lost pets as well such as pawmaw.

While you are busy with packing your bags, don’t forget about the puppy! Like you or your family members, he is a passenger too. He also needs his own packing.

Here I’ve made a checklist for my dog and hope that it will be helpful for you too:

• Enough food and water
• Travel water bottle
• Collar with ID tags, leads and necessary documents
• Travel-eze tablets
• Doggy waste bags
• Pet carrier, bedding and car harness
• Grooming equipment

Keep your dog restrained with a seat belt while the car is in motion. Along with ensuring the dog’s safety, it also ensures the safety of the other members inside your car.

A pet passenger survey states that an unrestrained 10-pound dog in a crash at 50 mph will exert 500 pounds of force. Safety should always come first. For more information from the survey click here.

Not only are you entering new surroundings which is likely to make your dogs stressed, you may be travelling somewhere with a different climate than what they are used to. Understand how your pet currently copes with hot and cold weather at home, if they dislike high or low temperatures then consider travelling somewhere else.

It is also important to give your pet time to adjust to the change in routine. To help them make sure you have some of their favourite toys and bedding to keep them at ease.

Travelling with your dog can be a fun and exciting journey and whilst daunting to begin with, by taking the appropriate precautions you can have an extremely memorable trip.