Traveling With Your Pet
Families enjoy hitting the road to explore the country, visit family and friends, and enjoy vacation days away from home. If leaving Rover at home or at a kennel is not your idea of a family vacation, bringing your canine companion along can be a fun and enjoyable experience as long as you plan ahead, and make special arrangements to ensure that Rover's comfort and best interests are at heart.
Is Your Pet a Good Traveler in the Car?
This is the first question you need to ask yourself. A healthy, well-behaved pet can be a fun traveling companion. But pets who are very young, very old, pregnant, sick, and prone to biting, excessive barking or motion sickness may not be happy on a long trip.
Accommodations
Inquire about pet policies before making your reservations. Properties may have restrictions on the type or size of pet allowed. There may also be a limited number of pet-friendly rooms available at any given time, so it's important to call several weeks before your trip. Traveling With Your Pet: The AAA PetBook, 3rd edition is an excellent resource for planning your trip. It has listings for more than 10,000 pet-friendly, AAA-rated lodgings throughout the United States and Canada. It also includes fees and other pet-specific information, advice on traveling by car or plane, international travel tips, animal clinic addresses and phone numbers, national public lands that allow pets, and contact information for pet-friendly organizations. Other wonderful pet-friendly travel guides are Travel With or Without Pets : 25,000 Pets-R-Permitted Accommodations, Petsitters, Kennels & More! (Pets R Permitted, 8th Ed) by M. E. Nelson (Editor), Take Your Pet Along : 1001 Places to Stay With Your Pet by Heather MacLean Walters, and Pets Welcome : A Guide to Hotels, Inns and Resorts That Welcome You and Your Pet by Kathleen Fish. The California Dog Lover's Companion by Maria Goodavage (a great local reference).
Click here for pet friendly lodging in Marin County and other popular travel destinations!
In the Car
For most pets, a hard-sided crate with plenty of ventilation is the safest way to travel. Consider covering the carrier with a light sheet or blanket. Also, many pet supply stores carry safety harnesses for your dog that simply connect to the seat belt and allow Rover to sit up and watch out the window. A restless, unrestrained dog can be very dangerous for everyone in the vehicle.
On your departure day, place your cat and other small animals in their carriers, and confine your dog to one room or your backyard while you pack up the car. Only after everything is packed should you load the animals in your car. Don't forget to pack a bag for your companion containing food, water, first aid kit, and his favorite toys and treats. If you control the intake, you can usually control the output, and cats can usually go eight to 10 hours without using a litterbox, but it may be handy to pack a disposable litterbox for overnight trips or extra-long road trips. Also in this bag should be a current health certificate and vaccination records, especially when traveling from state to state.
Make sure that your animals' vaccinations are up to date as well. On the second Sunday of every month from 10 a.m. to noon The Marin Humane Society holds a low-cost vaccination and microchip clinic.
It is imperative that your animals wear current identification with your name and phone number. Be sure to provide updated ID information for the trip, including mobile phone numbers and destination contacts. The Marin Humane Society offers microchip IDs $10.00 for cats ($12.00 for Novato residents includes cat license) and $20 for dogs. Cat microchips are free with paid vaccinations at our monthly clinic.
Do dogs get carsick? Absolutely. Just like people, some dogs are queasier than others, and puppies are especially sensitive to motion. Wait a couple hours after your dog has eaten to begin the trip. If your pooch gets sick, sugar can help. Give a tablespoon of honey before beginning the trip. NEVER give chocolate, which is toxic to your canine companion.
Never leave your pet inside the car unattended. On a warm day, the air inside can quickly top 110–120 degrees within minutes – life-threatening temperatures for any pet. On cold days, the temperature can drop just as quickly, creating the danger of hypothermia. Plus, it's not unusual to hear of unattended pets being stolen from cars.
Make sure that you stop every two to three hours to give your pet an opportunity to stretch and answer the call of nature. It's also a great time for the driver and any passengers to get a breath of fresh air.
When you arrive in your hotel room, check for hazards, such as dangerous hiding spaces or exposed electric cords. Also, ensure that all doors and windows are secured before letting your animal out of her crate or off her leash. Many dogs drink toilet water and many lodgings have chemically treated toilet water, so it's very important to always keep the lid closed on the toilet, according to AAA spokesperson Atle Erlingsson. Make sure that there is plenty of fresh water accessible to your pet, as she may be thirsty after the car trip.
Traveling with your pet is a lot of fun, especially when exploring the great outdoors. As long as simple, but important, precautions are taken, there should be no reason why the family vacation can't be enjoyed by all.
