Hello friends! I am so sorry it has been a long time since my last blog! I will get you up to speed on our latest adventures and give you some latest tips we learned along the way.
We are finally settled in our new house! Our road trip began on May 23rd in Pennsylvania and we drove for 7 straight days to end in California! From there we stayed in hotels until we could move into our house on June 18th. The moving company finally dropped off all of our stuff on June 28th. What a long trip!! Our caravan consisted of my boyfriend, Paul, our dog, Riley, and me. Riley loves going in the car so we weren’t worried about him getting car sick, but 7 days is a long time to sit around in the car! We weren’t sure if he would get sick of it after a while. I’ll get more into that in a little bit!
As you may know, long road trips require a good amount of planning especially when you are bringing your dog for the ride. We wanted to make sure Riley was as comfortable and safe as he could be. Basically we made the entire back seat of our car a Riley room. I made him his own back seat hammock so that he could lounge in safety (pictured below). He had his bed back there as well. Here are all of the essentials:
- Back seat hammock
- Bed
- Dog food and water
- Food and water dishes
- Toys
- Treats
- Business Bag with poop bags
- Belly Bands
- Crate
- Leash
- Bark collar
- Dog sling
- (Honorable mentions) dog nail clippers, dog brush, dog shampoo
Most of these things are straightforward. We like to bring Riley’s sling in case he gets tired when we go on hikes. The crate and bark collar are important especially if you plan on staying in hotels. I didn’t bring any of the honorable mentions listed but I wish that I had. We didn’t have anything that we packed in the moving truck for over a month. Riley’s nails got long! Also the furry guy got quite dirty from all of the hiking! I wish that we could have given him a proper bath. The brush may have kept our car from becoming a fluff ball of fur.
When planning pit stops and sightseeing, make sure that dogs are allowed! Dogs are allowed on parts of the Grand Canyon, but they are not allowed at Mount Rushmore. Plan accordingly so you don’t run into issues.
We spent on average 6-8 hours driving each day and Riley thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. He got to be close to his parents and be in the car all day; his two favorite things! We made sure to stop every few hours for potty breaks and food. We also went on hikes when we could to stretch our legs. Having our Business Bag with us everywhere we went made picking up poo a no-brainer. It makes me feel like such a responsible dog owner.
I thought staying in hotels might be difficult with Riley but we didn’t run into any problems. We just made sure to find hotels that allow dogs. There are actually more out there than I thought. Some charge an extra fee per night, some charge a refundable deposit, and some don’t charge at all for fur friends! Make sure to read the fine print about your hotels dog policy! Some places require that you put your dog in their crate if you leave the room. I would recommend putting your “do not disturb” sign on your dog as well so that the cleaning crew don’t have to work around your dog. That could be stressful for everyone involved. One hotel’s policy said that we couldn’t leave our dog in the hotel alone even if he was crated. This was a little annoying as we would have to take turns getting our free breakfast so that one person could stay with Rye in the room. Most hotels were kind enough to put us on the first floor near a side exit so that we could easily take Rye out to go potty. Remember to use belly bands as well if you think your dog may mark or have an accident! That way you can get your deposit back if you paid one.
Be mindful of the time of year you are going on your trip. The further west we went, the weather got hotter and we ended up eating all of our meals in the car so that Riley wasn’t locked in a hot car. Also, we learned that Riley’s feet get hot in the west! That was one thing we were not prepared for and it limited our ability to hike as far. I have just now bought Riley some boots and I will have to write a separate blog once we’ve learned more about them. I am hoping they will protect my pups feet from the hot ground…as long as he keeps them on his feet and walks normal!
Overall we had a wonderful trip! Riley even helped both Paul and I calm down at times when we got stressed. He is a great companion and I am so glad that we were able to take Riley on our cross country adventure! I hope that these tips will help if you decide to take your doggy on a road trip. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment if you have any questions or tell us if you’ve been on a road trip with your dog!
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