Hey friends,
Let me start by saying that taking dogs on a road trip can be a challenge but it is doable. If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I really never thought we would have been able to pull it off haha.
For a little back story, my husband is in the army. We were stationed in Washington State for two years and once his time came to an end, he reenlisted and we chose Georgia. I couldn’t imagine myself putting the dogs on a plane. No shame on anybody that does it, I admit it would’ve been easier, but I know my dogs wouldn’t have recovered from it, so the only option for us was just to drive from Washington State all the way to Georgia. So during this cross country road trip I have gathered tips and tricks and essentials that I think made our road trip go smoothly.
The first thing would be to plan your route. If you plan in advance how far you plan on driving each day and having a hotel booked in advance for each night, it is going to make it easier for you to know when will your next rest stop be and it will be easier to come up with a schedule that works for you and your dogs.
My husband and I planned on driving 7-8 hours a day. So we would wake up in the morning, feed the dogs/give them water and get ready. We would pack up all our things, go down to take the dogs out to do their business and walk around a bit. I would then get in the car with them and my husband would go back up to the room to bring our stuff downstairs while the dogs and I stayed in the car.
We would drive for about 3-4 hours, stop for us and the dogs. We put gas in the car, take them out the walk around and do their business (about 20 minutes) and then we would get back on the road for the next 3-4 hours until we reached our hotel and we would take them back out again before going in the hotel for the night where we would feed them their second meal. And we would then do it all over again the next day.
In all honesty our first day was a disaster haha. Teddy, our golden retriever, threw up twice out of stress, and we had some issues with traffic and also with our hotel at night. It ended up being a 15-16 hour drive since we had to stop a lot and we got to our hotel at 3:30am, it was just chaos. On the second day though we figured out a good system, and this is the one mentioned above, that we used for the remaining five days and it was such a perfect smooth ride.
Now besides having a route planned and a schedule for the dogs and us, there are a few essentials we got before we left and they were definitely used every day.
Prior to leaving we bought a backseat cover that was amazing and so helpful when Teddy threw up. First it has adjustable straps to wrap around the back seat head rests to make sure it stays in place, and to add on to that the bottom has velcro so it stuck really well to the bottom of the seats and didn’t budge even when the dogs moved around in the back. Then what I like most about it is its really soft fabric for the dogs to lay comfortably and the other side is actually waterproof so if they were to have any accidents it wouldn’t transfer to the actual car seats, and it definitely helped us when teddy threw up multiple times that first day, It is also super easy to wiped down. Click here to shop
We got two harnesses one for each dog (worn in the pictures above), first they are really sturdy, they have those reflective lines on them so they are easy to spot in the dark when we were taking the dogs out, especially at a rest stop on the highway. They also have a front and back clip which helps if your dog tends to pull like Brooklyn our chocolate lab. The two clips were also super helpful to clip on their seat belts in the car. The harness also has a handle on top if you need to hold your dog super close to you. Click here to shop
We purchased a seatbelt for each. They kind of work like our seatbelt, you clip it in the car like a regular seatbelt and you attach the hook to the dog’s harness to make sure they stay safe and secure in the car. The seatbelt is adjustable so your dog can be as tight or as loose as you want. Since we have two dogs they were clipped pretty tight so they could each stay on their side of the backseat but still had some room to move around and change positions. They could sit up or lay down without any issues or without the seatbelt being too tight. Click here to shop
I found this backpack made of mesh/net, that isn’t made just for dogs but I thought it was really practical since dogs are messy it was easier to not have a regular closed backpack. First for the smell and second for all the nasty stuff laying around haha, one good shake of the backpack before getting in the car and most of the mess would fall out prior to getting in the car. The backpack would hold the essentials, their water and food bowls, their toys, ear cleaning wipes, brush, dog shampoo (just in case) and a bunch of poopy bags. Click here to shop
For their food and water bowls we just used plain bowls. They usually eat out of slow feeder bowls but to make it easier on the trip we used plain stainless steel bowls because they were stackable so easier to put in the backpack and way easier to clean and dry than slow feeder bowls. We had 3 bowls, one for each dog for their food and they shared their water in the third one. Click here to shop
Now for the last few tips I would give are, get a few blankets for them to be cosy to add on top of the car seat cover, and I would pack up some towels and wipes just in case your dog has an accident or gets car sick. Every morning we also got a gallon of water that we would keep with us and use to give them water throughout the day so they had access to fresh cold water. And the last thing we did was to give them Benadryl (of course the dosage was given according to their weight) and that was enough for them to be calm and chill throughout the day without getting too bored or too tired of the car. This was a crazy experience to drive 6 full days with two dogs, but I would definitely do it again now that we got the hang of it. In the end it was so much fun and they got to see and experience a lot.