Keeping Your Dog or Pet Safe While Traveling

Traveling with pets has the potential to be a very unpleasant experience if you are not prepared. The experience is even worse if your discomfort leads to a compromise in safety for you or your four-legged friends. Below you will find some helpful hints to keeping your dog safe while traveling that just may make your time away from home a bit more enjoyable and worry free.

Make sure that your dog is up-to-date with routine care – A trip is a terrible place to find out that your dog is in need of medical attention. Although no one can predict when a dog will fall ill, there are definitely precautions, such as this one, that can lessen the probability of having an illness occur while you are traveling.

Your dog needs a collar with an identification tag – The last thing that you want is for your dog to go missing while you are traveling. But just in case he does, make sure that you secure two tags to your dog's collar. One with your permanent address and one with the temporary or local address of where you will be staying. Adding a cell phone number is also recommended.

Pack your dog's bags well – Traveling away from home can be scary for your dog; new smells, sights, and sounds may cause him to act differently. So make sure that you pack items that are familiar to your dog such as his bed, favorite toys, treats, his water bowl, etc. Also, when traveling introducing new treats to your dog is ill-advised. Stick to what he is used to (including the drinking water; bring your own gallon and gradually transition to local water) and you will help to avoid any digestive surprises that you would rather not have to deal with.

Make sure your hotel is pet-friendly – Call in advance to make sure that the hotel that you will be staying in accepts pets as guests. Furthermore, ask about any special rules that apply to pets. Some hotels have weight restrictions for pets and most all of them will require you to pick up after your dog so bring the appropriate materials to do so.

Use a carrier – Just as you and I should wear safety belts while in the car, your dog needs to be secure as well. Using a carrier is vital to ensure your dog remains safe should there be an abrupt stop or even an accident. The pet carrier that you choose should be a size that is comfortable for your dog and you can line the carrier to make it even more pleasant to sit or lie in for long periods at a time. Having a carrier will help but you are not fully securing your dog until you strap down the carrier, especially if your dog is going to be riding in the back of a truck. You may think that this sounds a bit obsessive, however it is estimated that more than 100,000 pets die each year from being thrown out of the back of a truck. And many times other drivers are put in danger because they hit or have to swerve to avoid hitting these pets.

Be considerate of your dog's comfort – Dogs and humans are very similar in the discomforts that they feel while driving. Dogs are even more sensitive when it comes to the temperature in your car as their fur disables them from sweating and thus they can become warm very quickly. Try to regulate your pet's temperature so that he is comfortable and make sure that you have water handy. Additionally dogs can become car sick, restless and uncomfortable from being in the same position for long periods of time, and dogs need to take bathroom breaks too. In many ways, try to do for your pet the same courtesy that you would do for any other passenger in the car.

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