Traveling With Your Dog – Some Great Tips

hi guys this is Laura from doggyU and today we’re gonna be talking about the top 5 tips for going on a long road trip with your dog in this video is for my friend Scott who’s going on a long road trip to Alabama with his dog Stella in a couple weeks so I thought I’d share with you guys what I would tell him about going on a trip with your dog and I’m a lot of experience with this this summer in three weeks we did a little over eight thousand miles with two energetic herding dogs seeing seven national parks we’ve also done four German Shepherds one cattle dog and two humans and a minivan down to Florida from Connecticut in 24 hours so lots of experience everywhere from British Columbia down to Florida up to Toronto Holland dogs everywhere pet dogs and service ox so I have a lot of experience with dogs on the road so let’s get into our top five tips for what to do with your dog on a long road trip so everybody is happy healthy and comfortable tip number one don’t go for that long trip all at once to start with don’t throw your dog in the van and say hey we’re gonna drive for fifteen hours hope you do well we don’t want to do that we want to start with short trips to your friends houses maybe a trip for the weekend a couple hours away then maybe a six hour trip you want to really build up to that big trip if you can so that your dog isn’t shocked the first time he has to sit in a car for a really long period of time you also know your dog better you’ll know his tolerances you’ll know what he likes you’ll know how he settles in the car and that’s really what we want we want a calm relaxed dog having short trips that go really well will help build up to that big longer trip tip number two exercise your dog first okay so if you know you’re going on a really big trip tomorrow and you gotta leave it like 6 a.m. I’m gonna make sure that today he goes on a really long hike he goes running with me he goes biking he does some type of very vigorous exercise a couple hours if he’s tolerant of that and used to that type of thing so that he’s tired for tomorrow I really want to pre exercise my dog now if I’m leaving later in the afternoon I’m gonna do that exercise in the warming so that they’re really tired on the day of but you gotta leave really early and that’s not part of it so exercise the day before don’t leave I’m sitting in the house all day because I know you’ve got a pack and you’re rushing around and doing stuff put the time in your calendar to exercise your dog first then he’ll be a more settled and relaxed partner as you drive down to wherever you’re going tip number three keep your dog safe in the car the safest way for your dog to travel in most cars is in a crash tested crate in your car away from the back so you want to keep your dog in a crate if they’ll tolerate it because it keeps them the most safe in the event of accident nobody wants an accident to happen but sometimes it does and having your dog crated means that they don’t become a projectile or go through your window I know it’s a little dark but it does happen and nobody expects it to happen so if you can create your dog the other reason to create your dog is they tend to relax more and settle when they’re in a confined space also if you need to run into the store or get some gas you know the dog isn’t wandering around the car getting into trouble so it keeps them safe it keeps them protected and it gives you the peace of mind knowing that your dog isn’t getting into any trouble during the ride and they’ll be more likely to relax in a crate now if you can’t create your dog you want to try and seatbelt your dog you want to give some way that your dog is protected in the event of an accident and stays put when they need to so you want to get a crash tested seatbelt I’ll put a couple links in the description below of some seatbelts and some crates that I use with my own dogs but you should have some way to contain your dog on a road trip sitting on your lap while driving not safe then stepping from the back into the front while you’re driving can cause an accident you want to make sure everybody in the car is safe including your dog tip number four bring a lot for your dog to do in the car so that means chewing project a chewing project is something like a call or Maribelle and that’s what I’m gonna start out with when I’ve just been able to pull them out of the freezer then usually you’re not gonna have a freezer with you so then you can transition to something like Bully Sticks tracheas those kinds of things that are going to keep your dog entertained usually a Nylabone or something that’s not as his food isn’t gonna do it for your dog so you want to bring something really engaging that they want to chew on so in those periods where they get a little bit of restless you can say hey why don’t you chew on this have them calm down relax and they’ll start associating this long road trip with something really awesome that they’re doing so definitely bring lots for your dog to do while they’re stationary in the car last tip tip number five lots of bathroom breaks so you want to make stops every time you’re getting gas or switching drivers you want to let your dog out to stretch their legs take a bathroom break and maybe have a little game of tug or frisbee I also when I’m on a long trip try to find a park periodically for that longer leg stretching so if your dog loves to play ball or loves to play frisbee I’m gonna look on my GPS and see hey there’s a park nearby let’s stop there instead give the dog at least a walk around put them on a long line let them stretch their legs play a little bit they get themselves a little bit tired if you bring them back in and they sleep for the rest of the ride so I do that every six seven hours or so but I do pee breaks more towards three or four hours just to make sure that he doesn’t have to go to the bathroom and he’s all set to keep going and isn’t uncomfortable because we want our dog to feel happy going on road trips because the reason you’re bringing them is probably cuz you love your dog you want to go everywhere with you so you want to make sure that they’ve got their bathroom habits under control and also a little bit exercise every time you stop so that’s it those are my top five tips for road tripping with your dog so now get out there and have an adventure with your pup.

so as I mentioned before using a harness
on your dog is the only way you should
really bike your dog I don’t like biking
them on a collar because one I have a
point of contact near my handlebars
which can pull me off balance and two if
the dog puts too much pressure on their
neck it’s a negative experience for the
dog
so a really good quality harness and it
can be any harness because they’re not
putting that much pressure on it is
going to make this a lot easier and what
I’ll do is I slip this over my dog’s
body I’ll connect it and any good
harness is going to have this back
d-ring which will allow you to attach
the bicycle to here I can keep this on
her while I’m biking but I’m not going
to control her with it
so from here you’ll see that when I take
and get Maya near the bicycle the first
thing I’m going to want to do is get her
used to being around a bicycle so while
she’s in front of the bicycle I’m going
to do things like giving her treats Maya
so let her see that this is all positive
so you know she’s meddling inside the
bicycle a little bit good girl
come on and get her used to moving good
give her another treat and when I first
start this game out I’m not going to
attach it to the bicycle yet I’m really
going to just get her used to walking
with a bicycle so I’ll hang onto the
leash here and I’ll start to move come
on good and let her see that this
bicycle is not going to cause her any
harm and the important thing to start
teaching the dog right away is not to do
that
because that’s where she’s going to get
hurt I’m going to run right over her so
instead when I’m here with her what I’m
going to start teaching a stay next to
me and I’m going to start turning into
her this way so that she understands to
stay away from the bicycle now I’ll get
on the bicycle for the first time here
and now I’m going to walk her with the
bicycle
and I’ll start to do little things like
step on her toes to keep her away from
the bicycle so that she doesn’t get too
close so here I’m going to turn turn
into her turn into her turn into her and
every time she looks up yes good girl
I started marking that with a reward
good girl yes
now you notice she’s staying right next
to me here she’s not getting ahead of
the bicycle anymore and at this point my
I’m going to hook her in come here why
I’m here okay and like I said this has a
spring in it so it can expand so that
now for the first time she’s actually
hooked in and I’m just going to let her
pull me here come on
so once the dog is conditioned to be
next to me by giving her treats Maya
okay good then I can start walking the
bike
and keeping her with me when she gets
used to that I’m going to let her pull
me and I’m going to just go this way
here and make sure she stays away from
the sprockets away from the spokes and
the first thing no matter what keep
making left turns easy
and here I can even give her a little
tap back tap back tap back turn left
into her and again these are all left
turns because this is the highest risk
of her getting injured if I turned left
into her turn left turn left
and I used the leash here to give her a
little cues that I’m going to turn left
which I can’t do if she’s just on the on
the harness so here now when she’s used
to it I can just hold this leash real
loosely here and I can go for my first
ride with her all right here we go come
on
good girl
and I’m going to make a right turn and
here I’m just going to pull her along
puller puller puller and I’m going to go
straight on
and go right by there
if I see the dog coming close to the
wheel I’ll also use my foot we start
teaching er here to get away and she’ll
keep pulling you as you’re pulling that
way one thing I like to have on the
bicycle is two things one is a clip for
my phone so I don’t have to dig in my
pocket for it if I need it also try to
stay off your phone when you’re riding
your bicycle it’s very dangerous most
importantly I like to have a speedometer
and one of these speedometer it has an
odometer on it and a timer on it is a
really good idea because you’ll lose
sight of how long you’ve been on the
bicycle so this will tell you the
distance you’ve gone the speed the
average speed your odometer and
everything else how much time you’ve
been on there and that’s something to
keep really in mind for your dog so you
don’t want to have the dog on there too
long you don’t want to go too fast
certain dogs will go faster like Maya
and goofy will probably do eight to
twelve miles an hour consistently on
this which is a slow pace for us riding
the bike but again we’re not riding the
bike for our exercise we’re riding the
bike to give the dog exercise and to
have fun with the dog keep that in mind
so you don’t go crazy fast and crazy
long some dogs can go five miles some
dogs can go ten miles there’s some dogs
they can’t even go a mile so be aware of
that if your dogs not ready for that
don’t put your dog on the bicycle this
is about the benefit for the dog the
health benefit for the dog and exercise
for the dog not stressing your dog out
at all
so once once my dog is really used to
riding on this then I can take this
attachment off completely
yeah
and I can just attach my dog to this dog
walk come here my okay thank girl
and now from here you’ll see the
difference that when she’s she’s
completely in control of the ride
and one reason I keep the leash attached
to the dog is that if I want my dog to
go potty or anything I can real simply
disconnect this and let the dog go potty
or if I’m talking to somebody I won’t
let the dog go I still have control of
the dog the safety risk of letting go of
your dog when they’re on a bicycle is
immense
so I’d like to make sure I’ve got a
leash and I’ve got the harness attached
this one I’m riding I don’t ever have it
wrapped around my wrist or wrapped
around the handlebars I just keep it
like this if she were to pull I could
drop it and she’d simply be attached to
the harness so I hope you enjoy biking
with your dog I hope you have a fun time
keep it safe and one most important
thing I’m going to show you when you
finish biking with your dog or in
between rides I’m going to take my dog
over here and remember your dog can’t
sweat like we sweat so it’s real
important to plenty of water and give it
a plenty of fluids so she can rehydrate
after we after we train think of my have
some water
don’t if your dog is over here to pour
water over the top of them because
that’ll just only put them in shock make
sure they drink plenty of water and at
the bottom part of their body gets a lot
of cooling off this way but the most
important thing is that your dog drinks
as much water as possible so make sure
your dog is always able to drink plenty
of cool water