Reminders For Traveling With Your Dog This Summer

We love that dog-friendly places make traveling together easier for humans and their canine companions. However, during the hot summer months, traveling with your dog requires careful planning and a responsible approach to preventing heat-related conditions, which can become quickly fatal.

5 Reminders For The Ride When Traveling With Your Dog

Here are five important reminders when taking your dogs along on summertime rides or vacations.

Read all of the instructions & restrictions more than once

Whether you plan to take your dog on a plane, a hotel, or a camping trip, read through all the instructions and restrictions applicable to traveling with pets. Not all airlines, hotels, trains, or other pet-friendly (or restrictive) companies have the same policies when it comes to dogs.

Make sure you’ve read all of the instructions, rules, restrictions, and recommendations. The last thing you want to learn is if your dog is too big, a restricted breed, or if your emotional companion vest isn’t enough to allow them entry.

I also recommend contacting any airline you’re using to ensure you clearly understand their rules. Sometimes, their online information is outdated. 

Some of the most common airline rules/recommendations for traveling with your dog include:

• Your dog must be current on all vaccinations, and you’ll need your vet’s official paperwork to prove it.
• Make sure to invest in a safe, travel-approved carrier. Here is a list of requirements from the IATA.
• Plan lots of extra time to give your dog necessary potty breaks (nerves mean that they may need to go more than normal, and be prepared to clean up messes that are runner than usual).
• Have a dog that can fit in a container under the seat (this space varies from plane to plane, so ask specific questions about your flights and have your travel crate’s dimensions on hand).
• You may need to purchase an extra seat if there are any questions as to whether your dog can fit in the provided space on board.
• If your dog is traveling below with the cargo, contact the airline or visit their website and carefully read their instructions. Typically, you bring your dog in his/her crate to a different cargo area before proceeding to the ticket counter in the main terminal.

Purchase legitimate safety restraints for your dog in the car

Your dog may be used to traveling on the seat next to you or unrestrained for local car trips (in truth, we don’t recommend that and especially make sure the airbag is turned off). However, when taking your dog on longer car trips, it’s even more important for them to be safely restrained using things like:

• Doggie seatbelt. This is my top recommendation.
• Doggie seat (this one works with restraint systems but doesn’t restrain dogs. It does protect seats, gives dogs a comfortable place to be, and makes it more difficult for them to roam the car, which is a safety feature in and of itself. I recommend using a dog restraint/seatbelt for optimal safety).
• Restrained dog crate. If your dog is not used to a crate, this isn’t the way to introduce them. Purchase the crate weeks ahead of time and begin crate training long before you’ll need it to ensure they’re comfortable. 

Traveling in less familiar areas means more chances of distracted driving. You may have to reroute suddenly in heavy freeway traffic, beautiful scenery may be distracting, or you may be impacted by unfamiliar concentrations of traffic in new cities. Safely restraining your pet means they aren’t at risk for injuries related to a traffic accident and also keeps your dog from becoming a distraction that causes an unnecessary accident.

Never leave your pet in the car during the summer months

If you bring your dog with you on a trip, then you owe it to your loyal companion to bring them with you wherever you go. Leaving them in the car is not an option. Solar heat gain is no joke when it comes to an enclosed car (especially in high humidity). So, hot weather safety tips are especially important when you’re traveling with your pets.

Even temperatures as “low” as the 70s can become fatal when a dog doesn’t have access to cool, fresh, circulating air. They don’t have sweat glands, so hot paws, ears, and heads quickly create life-threatening scenarios for dogs trapped in a warming car. Don’t risk it. 

If your dog cannot come inside with you or there isn’t a safe, shady place for your dog to be with plenty of cool circulating air (with plenty of fresh water), then skip that event or leave your dog at home.

Pro Tip: Some doggy daycare places are happy to accommodate short-timers, especially if you have all the right paperwork and there’s a recommendation from your local dog daycare location. Similarly, you can employ the services of a local dog walker or mobile pet sitter to help out if you’re going to be away for a longer-than-normal period as long as you’ve scheduled it ahead of time.

Prepare a doggy first-aid kit

At home, you have all kinds of things at your disposal in case your animal is hurt or injured. So, when you’re traveling, we recommend assembling a first aid kit specific to your animal. If you haven’t traveled with your pet before, speak to your vet about prescriptions for managing anxiety or motion sickness in case you need them, and there’s no vet nearby (or it’s after hours). 

You can read our post on What to Know About First Aid for Dogs for more details, but here is a place to start:

• A few pairs of disposable gloves.
• Spare collar and leash (helpful for friendly strays or when a dog breaks free of theirs).
• Sterile gauze pads in varying sizes.
• A roll of sterile gauze (in addition to wound care, sterile gauze forms a soft, safe muzzle for injured dogs. However, you should never muzzle a vomiting dog or one struggling to breathe).
• Self-adhering, non-stick tape for wrapping dressed wounds.
• Blunt-edged scissors for cutting bandages/tape/etc.
• Saline solution (like travel bottles for contact lens solutions) is great for flushing wounds or eyes.
• Everything you need to clean up pet messes (pack more than you’d think you need). 

Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but you’ll be glad you have it if you do.

Prepare your pet a couple of hours before traveling with your dog

There are a few things you can do a couple of hours before you head out that can make the trip easier for everyone:

• Tire them out with extra exercise. Tired dogs travel better because they’re more prone to falling asleep, which helps them acclimate to the ride. Give them an extra round of their favorite exercise or play to tire them out.
• Feed at least two hours before. Feed your pet at least two hours before, and maybe keep it on the lighter-portion side to reduce the chances of them getting sick (or minimize how much comes up).
• Give their meds time to take action. Read any anti-nausea or anxiety medication instructions carefully. They can take at least 30 to 60 minutes to “kick in,” so you want to administer them in enough time for your pet (and you) to reap the benefits.

Alternative Canine Training Is Here To Help

Have a travel-specific issue you want to address about one of your dogs? Feel like your dog needs a little more short-distance practice before you take them along for the long haul? 

Contact us here at Alternative Canine Training. We love working one-on-one with dogs and their humans to provide customized recommendations. Or, you may find that your vacation is the perfect time to take advantage of our Doggy Boot Camp offerings so you know your pet has plenty of love and attention and will return home behaving better than when you left them.