Car travel with a medium sized dog

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brucethebroker

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Looking for some ideas, dog lovers. We are "newer" to dog ownership and planning on some car travel this year. We take the dog when we snowbird in the winter (18 hr.s, no overnite stays), but have not traveled with her otherwise.

Last summer we tried it out by staying in a "pet friendly" motel. We were apparently put into the "dog wing", and surrounded by dogs without owners in their room. (apparently it is cheaper to leave a dog in a motel room alone all day than to board it....). Our dog is usually pretty good, but does bark when she hears other dogs barking nearby. So, not a happy experience.

Is there a better way to use hotels? We have also considered camping with a pop up, or small pull behind trailer. Not quite ready to commit to the costs of a large RV, but??

We plan on making a couple of week to 2 week travels (USA) this year, and thereafter. Hoping for some good ideas. thanks.
 
We used to travel with two medium-sized dogs. We would bring blankets from home for them to lay on, so they have something in the hotel room that is a little more familiar to them.

Would not recommend leaving the dog unattended in the hotel room for any length of time. If you must do so, consider leaving the television on to drown out some of the noises from the other guests and other dogs.
 
We used to travel with two medium-sized dogs. We would bring blankets from home for them to lay on, so they have something in the hotel room that is a little more familiar to them.

Would not recommend leaving the dog unattended in the hotel room for any length of time. If you must do so, consider leaving the television on to drown out some of the noises from the other guests and other dogs.
 
Lewis Clark said:
We used to travel with two medium-sized dogs. We would bring blankets from home for them to lay on, so they have something in the hotel room that is a little more familiar to them.

Would not recommend leaving the dog unattended in the hotel room for any length of time. If you must do so, consider leaving the television on to drown out some of the noises from the other guests and other dogs.
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Do not plan on leaving our dog alone-just cannot spend much time in room with other dogs (unattended) barking.

good ideas on blanket and TV, thanks.
 
We used to drive down to Florida with two Goldens and stayed at a variety of pets allowed motels. We also spent a week each year at a pet friendly place in Key West. We never had a problem with noise from other dogs.
 
We took our two to a casino over our anniversary. We were called back to our room because one was supposedly making noise. It wasn't, they don't. We stayed with them for ten minutes to make sure they were comfortable and went back.

I'd agree with the TV on a low volume and just hang around outside for a while.
 
If you put a muzzle on your dog, can it still bark?

We take care of neighbors' dogs when they go on vacation and they in return take care of our dog.
 
There are so many dog friendly hotels and on AAA website, they have routes that show dog parks along the way. I would check non refundable deposits, many ask for a deposit up front, but refund when no damage to room. Many people travel with pets these days. We take our Lab (100 lbs.) as often as we can.
 
Easiest solution is either leave dogs home with a house/pet sitter, or get an RV. We travel with our dogs, three medium to large size, and they love the RV and camping. But camping and RV is a choice, and you may not like that.


I do not have any good solution to the dog hotel problems. It is either pay a lot extra for the pet fees, or put up with more noise and other dogs in rooms.
 
We take ours and at 60 and 80 lbs., they really fill up the back seat! Most motels have a policy that does not allow dogs to be left alone in rooms. We take ours with us when we go out to grab food. No fine dining on our trips!
Our female ( see avatar) will bark if somemakes noise outside our room.
I have left the kids with a dog sitter in our home when traveling out of the country. Expensive but worth it
 
We travel with our dog occasionally to visit DS, but she hates the car (go figure). We put her in a crate in the back seat now, which helps calm her down. We stay at LaQuintas and they supposedly will kick you out if you leave a barking dog, so maybe OP should call thr front desk; we never leave her alone in the motel or in the car.
 
Don't make the same mistake Chevy Chase made on his "Vacation" with a dog.


 
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We travel frequently with one big dog and 3 small ones. We leave them in the room and put the little ones in a covered crate and turn the tv on when we want to go out for dinner. No one barks and we never had problems with other dogs barking either. We took a month car trip this summer.
 
We travel with our 65 pound boxer. We have a dog bed that we use just for travel. We had her sleep on it at home before going on a trip.



We always take bottled water for her. Drinking various local water along the way causes her to have stomach problems and related issues that we wish to avoid. We take along collapsible bowls for water and food. Our dog is kind of anxious, so I will frequently give her Rescue Remedy before going into the room. It helps to calm her down. We usually take her favorite non-squeaky toy along. Over time, we have put first aid/medical things in a bag for her. And, of course, take lots of poop bags.



We have never had a problem with barking dogs in any place we have stayed. We usually have to give the hotel our cell phone number and there is some rule like you can't leave them alone for more than 30 minutes. We ask for a quiet room not on the first floor or where there is a lot of foot traffic (like near the elevator).



Our favorite hotel is Drury Inn. It is a regional chain mostly in the midwest, so you may not be traveling where they are. We have also done LaQuinta, Holiday Inns and Residence Inns (but they have a high pet fee).
 
We traveled with our pup for many years. She didn’t like hotel rooms and would bark whenever anyone walked in front of the door. An issue anywhere, particularly difficult during the early morning hours.

The only way we found to deal with this was to sleep in one bedroom suites in hotels like La Quinta. It probably costs and additional $20-$40 per night, not a big deal. Our pup has since passed on, but we’re used to the one bedroom suites...
 
brucethebroker said:
thanks all. Some great tips.
Click to expand...

BringFido.com has suggestions for places to stay. They also have a convenient app.

We usually stay at Hiltons and Marriotts with our two, but sometimes those hotels aren’t available, so BringFido provides other options. They also list dog parks local to your stay.
 
donheff said:
We used to drive down to Florida with two Goldens and stayed at a variety of pets allowed motels. We also spent a week each year at a pet friendly place in Key West. We never had a problem with noise from other dogs.
Click to expand...

Any suggestions for Dog-friendly motels in the keys? We were thinking of driving down from SWF. Much appreciated.
 
We inherited my daughter's 131 pound Rottweiler. While we seldom travel in our retirement, our one big vacation in April usually costs us $300 to get her out of the kennel. The lady at the kennel loves the dog, and she's well cared for.
 
BM, we also inherited a 80lb old dog from my son and had to drive across the country to get him. At least he doesn’t have kids:))
 
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