When you take a trip that’s going to last over night or longer, and you have pets, you are faced with a decision to make. You’ve either got to find somewhere for your pet to stay or take your pet with you. If you don’t have a family member or friend that will watch your pet for you while you’re gone, you’re faced with finding a kennel or pet hotel to put your pet into until your return. Anyone who has boarded a pet will know that it isn’t a budget friendly thing to do. The frugal thing to do is to take your pet with you on your trip whenever possible.
Taking trips with your pets can be just as cringe-worthy for those without any experience in doing so. When we went on a week-long trip recently, I was more nervous about taking our dog with us than I was about any other part of the trip. The longest trip we’d ever taken the dog on was a two-hour ride, and the trip we were taking was an 8-9 hour trip followed by another 7-8 hour trip the next day and then doing it all over again at the end of the vacation. There was even a hotel stay on the way and one back. When it was all said and done, there was very little to worry about with the dog. He was a champ! (that’s him below) I thought I might share a few things that I learned about traveling with animals with you.
- Hotels. I had this huge preconceived notion that there were very few hotels that would allow a dog in the hotel. I was kinda wrong. While many of the nicer hotels don’t allow pets, many of the more budget friendly (not dives) hotels will usually allow a pet for a small nightly deposit or fee. Some, like Kelly Inns, are extremely pet friendly and allow pets for no charge. If you know what city you are going to end up in for the night, do a little research and find a pet friendly hotel ahead of time. Then make reservations. We did this on our way to our destination. On the way back, we didn’t know where we were going to stop, but I was able to use the browser on my smart phone from the road to find and make reservations at a pet friendly hotel. Once you’re in the hotel, remember that your pet is in a strange place and will likely experience some anxiety if you all leave the room without your pet. If your pet doesn’t handle anxiety well, plan to leave your pet in your car while your away from the room. Many of the pet friendly hotels will have policies against leaving your pet unattended in the room because animals that have anxiety problems tend to take it out by chewing and digging. Both are bad for hotel furniture and carpet.
- Riding Room. Your pet is going to need somewhere to sit. Don’t overpack to the point where you have to push and shove so that your dog can sit on top of the pile of luggage. If you wouldn’t be at least slightly comfortable riding there, neither will your pet. Different pets will have different requirements. In our case, we took a big comfy blanket and laid it out in the back of our Suburban for a bed for our dog. He then squeezed himself in between the two child seats on the bench seat and rode with his backside on the seat and his head on the console between the two front seats. Once you’ve taken a few longer trips with your pet, you’ll likely get a feel for where he/she likes to ride and be able to adjust accordingly. Once we figured out our dog wasn’t going to ride in the back on the blanket, we just made sure he had a path from the back to the seat without climbing over all the luggage and left it at that.
- Food and water. Most importantly, make sure you bring plenty of food with you. If you’ve got the room, bring a bowl too that you can just leave out in the car or in your hotel room. Everybody’s schedule is likely going to be a bit screwed up, so your pet might not adhere to it’s normal eating schedule. Water is a bit trickier since it’s a bit harder to contain and still make available. What we found to work pretty well is to have a bowl and a large bottle that we could cap to hold the water. Whenever we stopped, we’d pour a bit of water into the bowl for our dog to drink then could pour out the extras from the bowl back into the bottle or onto the ground and not have to worry about spills.
- Entertainment. If you’ve ever traveled with kids, you know that entertainment for the trip is of utmost importance. It’s not as important for pets, but it can be very helpful. Bring along a few of your pets toys for him/her to play with at your destination. A favorite chew bone for in the hotel, and a ball to fetch at our final destination for instance.
- Potty breaks. Unless your pet is really, really good about telling you when it needs to relieve itself, you’ll want to schedule regular breaks for a quick walk. Our dog is pretty good about this and is used to going 4-8 hours without going outside during the work week, so he was pretty good on our trip. He’s also a big dog, so has a larger capacity than some smaller pets will. If your pet is asking outside frequently at home, he/she will likely still need breaks during your trip that are nearly as frequent. We found that anytime we stopped for gas, taking our dog over to a grassy area did the trick. Most interstate rest areas have an area to take your pets to.
Taking trips with pets can be a stress inducing idea, but if you take the proper precautions, it can also be very rewarding. It can also be easier on the pet that would have to stay at a boarding kennel otherwise. We’re glad we took our dog with us. I know he enjoyed being with us and playing up in the mountains with us. As an added bonus, he turned out to be a bit of entertainment for the kids too. Just like anything else, planning can make or break your trip. So take the time to plan ahead, and take your pet with you on your next trip.
Photo Credit:Thatedeguy on Flickr
I started this blog to share what I know and what I was learning about personal finance. Along the way I’ve met and found many blogging friends. Please feel free to connect with me on the Beating Broke accounts: Twitter and Facebook.
You can also connect with me personally at Novelnaut, Thatedeguy, Shane Ede, and my personal Twitter.
We just got back from a road trip in June where we took our 110lb Newf, Freya with us to Chincoteague Virginia. Freya is great in the car but she is much happier now that we have the Subaru Outback. Lots of space in the back for her to lie down and the cargo trey gathers her drool nicely.
We did have some issues finding hotels due to her size. Many places will take dogs up to 50lbs, less up to 100 – but when you have a (relatively small) Newf that looks like a small black bear, hotels are a bit more hesitant. We also noticed we had to pay $10-$25 each night to have the dog stay with us.
My daughter brings her dog when she visits more than weekend. It is only a six hour trip, but they usually stop about every couple hours. Her dog get to play with our dog for the time they visit. A vacation for all.
@sustainable PF, that sounds a lot like our trip. Our dog is just a bit under 100 lbs, and we also paid 10-25 each night at the hotels. Not bad, considering it would have cost us that for every night we were gone to kennel him.
@Krantcents we actually took this trip to visit my parents, and they both have multiple dogs, so he had lots of “friends” to meet and play with.
I’ve taken my cat on extended business trips (when I’d be gone for several weeks, with no one at home to take care of her). I’ve discovered it’s important, as you say, to check with hotels: some allow her in for no extra fee (just a refundable security deposit). Others charge a small fee. Yet others have a hefty “penalty.” This info isn’t always written on the website, so a call is best.
We are very lucky in that we have a close friend who usually comes and stays at our house with our dogs when we go away. We also host dogs fro friends when they go out of town.
However, we have taken our dogs on trips with us, and here are some of the things we learned:
Plan for the drive to take a little longer. Normally, its just my husband and me. We can drive all day with barely any stops. With the dogs, we had to stop, and those stops took a little longer.
Silly things like the OR law against pumping your own gas can create an issue. My dogs became territorial of their car and would bark up a storm at the poor college kid pumping our gas. We would actually make sure to get them out of the car and out of the way, first.
Consider a pet seat belt harness. Our Aussie loved his because it make him for more stable in the car. And while giving the dogs room to sit or lie down, it keeps them confined to a specific area, making it much easier to pack around them. They also made getting out of the car at breaks easier, because we could open the back door without fear of the dog jumping out. (Not all pet safety harnesses are created equal. We loved the ones for our big dogs. The ones we’ve found for our little dogs have been terrible.)
Know where there’s an emergency vet at your destination, and one or two along your route. Hope you never need them, but knowing where they are brings major peace of mind.