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first long-ish road trip

2K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  ackwyo15 
#1 ·
just wondering if theres any type of precautions i should take? me and the bf are going up to portland, maine for my bday for a couple of days and decided to bring sammy. apparently portland is an extremely dog friendly city which is really exciting (we can barely take him anywhere here in nj - sucks :cry_baby: ) we had no intentions of bringing him til i started looking at hotels and saw that almost all of them were dog friendly which is something I've never even seen before.
the longest car ride he's been on was about 4.5 hours when we picked him up from the breeder, but he was just a baby and slept the whole way.. other than that he's done an hour and a half tops so idk how much this will vary. the trip will take us about 6 hours (fingers crossed - we've got annoying nyc traffic for a majority of the morning so that should be fun)
is it recommended that we get a seat belt restraint for him? We'll be taking my parents SUV for the trip so i was thinking of maybe just keeping him in the trunk area with his bed and some toys. definitely gonna make at least one potty stop and a little walk.

is there a chance he could get car sick since its such a long trip? should we maybe do a light breakfast or take any other preventative measures? and def would love to know if you guys use the doggy seat belts!
 
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#2 ·
We are in the middle of a marathon road trip! Our first, from Md to Wy and back. It is going great. Uhtred is 9 months next week and very energetic.

My advice:
1. Get doggoes... It's a phone app that lists dog parks. I was able to stop at one every three hours all across America. He plays and then is happy for awhile

2. I got a zip line for the back seat that I can fasten him into.

3. Research pet friendly hotels. Many claim to be but charge outrageous fees. Drury is good...$10/night

4. Bring lots of chews and toys

5. Take a long walk every morning before you start out.

Good luck! Uhtred is having the time of his life so far
 
#4 ·
I would highly advise if you are going to use an in-seat restraint, you do a "test run first!" I have friends that decided to do that (seat belt thing) on the spur of the moment, and the dog flipped out!!! They were about 300 hundred miles from home!

And this was a dog that had traveled thousands of miles unrestrained in a vehicle! It was a pretty miserable trip the rest of the way! And now they still have problems! You never know what will flip some dogs out??


Crate training your dog before hand and then using a crate in the car may be a better alternative?? Don't know if that works for you??
 
#7 ·
You're so right about trying out the restraint with him first - I would have 100% overlooked that! Sampson's crate trained already, and we were planning on taking the crate with us anyway just in case we needed to leave the hotel room without him at any point - so might do that. At the same time though leaving him loose in the trunk area of the truck doesn't seem that bad does it?
I don't think he can jump over the seats to get into the second row of the car. We leave Tuesday morning so its not like I really have the time right now to try out a restraint with him and drive around to see how it goes. Just gonna stock up on toys and chews and hope he doesn't get too stir crazy in there.
 
#5 · (Edited)
We have not been on any long trips however whenever Kai goes in the car he wears his harness and is attached to the seatbelt. He can sit or lie down. His crate is too big for the car or we would have done this. I feel it is safer to have him restrained. Also lord forbid if there were an accident, you would always get some blame saying you had an unrestrained dog in the car and he probably distracted you. :/..... And as Chip said...do a test run to be sure he is ok being restrained.
 
#10 ·
Kai goes in the car he warships harness and is attached to the seatbelt. He can sit or lie down.
Well having calmed down. :)

I kinda thought that was how they all worked?? From what I understand the one my friends used, held the dog in a rather restricted position and that is what freaked the dog out??

I'll have to find out exactly what they used and let others know, "not" to get that one!
 
#8 ·
I think your pup will do great! 10 years ago I drove cross country with a 5 year old pit mix ( he was in retrospect mellower than my current boxer girl) I did not have him restrained but I made him an "area" in the back seat between the ice chest and some luggage. He slept alot during the day. I do remember the vet gave me some valium for him and maybe something for car sickness before we left...but we did not need it.

I think if you get him good and tired he should do good and will probably enjoy the ride.
 
#12 ·
Thats what I'm thinking too! My bf said I'm over thinking it (nothing out of the ordinary there haha). His parents drive roundtrip across the country to see us every year with their lab unrestrained in the car and its amazing how well she does! Sam's just a puppy still so that is gonna take some serious tiring out in the AM before we head out. We're in the nonstop energy phase with him :crazy:
 
#15 ·
I use the Kurgo zip-line, which you can attach in a variety of ways, but I attach to those handles that you can hang things from in the back seat. Then there's a lead with carabiner clips that clips to the line and his harness. Plenty of freedom of movement but still secure. It's worked well: he only tried to get out of the car once (he knows he's supposed to sit until I tell him he can come out) but it kept him from doing so. He seems to like it a lot better than the old leash-that-clips-into-seatbelt thing.
 
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