4 Tips for Traveling With Your Dog
How many of us who are dog owners need to travel with our dogs? Perhaps we take them with us when go down the road to the supermarket, or perhaps we find occasions where they will be with us over a long haul for a vacation. Many people who are traveling by car across state lines, or just for a long distance, for a vacation choose to leave their dogs in a kennel while they are away. But it would be less expensive, and less stressful on your dog, if you took him with you when you drove away on vacation. In any event, it’s always a good idea to know some important basic tips about the more enjoyable ways of traveling with your dog. Let’s look into them.
*Get a certification from your veterinarian that your dog is rabies-free and is in good health before heading off down the highway with her. You want to know about these matters for personal reasons, of course, but having the certification may get you out of trouble with the law if you travel to a place where someone decides to accuse your dog of having rabies and infecting or attacking them or someone they know. Clearly, if your veterinarian can’t give you the bill of health on your dog, you shouldn’t be taking her along with you.
*Make sure that your dog has his tags or some other method of positive ID on his being. There are pet owners today who have microchips implanted in their dogs and other pets. It’s also recommended that you carry a digital photograph with you that shows your family with your dog. All of this will make it easier to find, identify, and prove ownership of your dog should he get lost on your travels.
*Make plans to keep your dog as comfortable as possible. Animals are easily, quickly, and deeply disturbed by changes to locale and routine. Your dog may love to ride in your car with his nose out the window, but once you get to where you’re going he may not be so thrilled if he is missing his “essentials”. Pack your trunk with your dog’s bowls, his bedding, his favorite toy or ball, and his usual brand of dog food. Here’s another thing: pack up a couple of gallons of reverse osmosis filtered water, and when you’re on the road and you notice your dog’s water supply gets low try to buy more water like this for your dog if it’s at all possible. The reason? Even if your dog drinks well water or your local municipal water, there’s a great deal of uncertainty and variance between the water supplies in different places. Drinking the local water from a different place than home could upset your dog’s stomach because he’s not used to it. The safest thing to do is to used filtered water when traveling.
*Keep in mind that if you find it cold, so does your dog. And if you find it hot, so does your dog. Plan ways to keep your dog warmed or cooled off as you will be doing for yourself. That fur is a wondrous protection in both circumstances, but it only can work to a certain extent.
These are some of the most important actions to follow for traveling with your dog.