They are your best friend at home, so why not when you’re on the road?
I am, of course, referring to dogs. Or a pet of any species. But when it comes to RVing with your furry or feathered friend, it’s dogs that seem to cause the most controversy.
But why any controversy at all?
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Well, dogs can be disruptive to the calm ambience of a holiday park. Some have been known to harm local flora and fauna. And others just leave their… mess in the most indiscreet and inconvenient places.
Fortunately, a little common sense, courtesy and planning should ensure that your trip with your dog is stress-free with as minimal impact on the environment and fellow travellers as possible.
Tim Smith, comedian, television presenter and an old hand when it comes to travelling with dogs, refers to it as ‘dog management’.
“The dog is part of the family,” he said. “To not take it is like saying, ‘I’m going to leave one of the kids home, let’s take two kids but the third one has to stay behind; it’s just not an option.
Here are our five rules for travelling with a dog…
1. PLAN YOUR STAY
Know before setting off where you will be stopping that night, making sure that your place of accommodation is happy to have your four-legged friend stay as well. If you’re free-camping, this is doubly important as you simply can’t bring dogs into national parks.
More and more holiday parks, however, have become dog-friendly, realising it’s better to embrace dogs and their owners, with sensible policies in place, than to reject them.
“Some parks will even provide dog-friendly cabins,” Tim said. “Others provide a dog pen, where the dog must stay when it’s out of the caravan.
“We invested in a 10m leash just because different caravan parks have different rules. You’re lucky if the park owners are dog owners too as they are very sensible when it comes to dog management.”
2. BE NICE
Not all travellers like to be around dogs, especially if they have young children. And that’s fair enough. As a responsible pet owner, it’s important that you respect their opinion and keep your animal appropriately restrained. Never let your dog off the leash to explore, unsupervised, a holiday park or natural environment.
Get to know other dog owners, too. As Tim said, “If you’re nice to people at happy hour, they might look after your dog for you while you go off exploring. We once looked after a man’s kelpie and they later helped us with our dog. We would never leave the dog by itself for a day, as that would be bad dog management.”
Also, it would be bad dog management to simply leave your dog tied to the awning arm while you duck up to the shops. Take it with you.
If children arrive to pat your dog, supervise the interaction. Through no fault of their own, kids aren’t always as gentle as the dog would like and it might react in an unexpected way.
3. DOG HYGIENE
Keep your pet clean. Some holiday parks offer washing stations for dogs, a terrific initiative. But ask yourself: during long transport stages of a trip, how will you prevent your pooch from bringing dirt and muck back into the car after stretching its legs?
“You might want to have a makeshift washing station, as you really do want to keep them as clean as possible,” Tim said.
Hygiene, of course, extends to cleaning up after the dog after it has done its business.
4. EXERCISE
When travelling with a dog, exercise is of fundamental importance. “You need to go for walks with your dog to burn off some energy,” Tim said. “A morning walk is probably the most important thing so they can tire themselves out a bit. On the day of departure, get up extra early and take them for an extra long dawn stroll.”
5. KEEP POOCH SECURE
It’s really not acceptable to let your dog have the run of the back seat when you’re towing your van to your next stop. There are a range of special harnesses and other belts that will restrain your pet using the existing seat belt clasps. Also consider buying a cover to protect your vehicle’s upholstery.
So there you have it, five rules to make travelling with a dog much more enjoyable, for you and your fellow travellers. Of course, it goes without saying that you need to ensure your furry friend has access to plenty of drinking water… and never leave it locked in a hot car.
What do you think? What are your tips for travelling with dogs and other pets? Leave your comments below…
Having observed people in caravan parks with dogs of all shapes and sizes over the years, I must say that in just about all cases the dogs are well behaved and their owners get a lot of pleasure from having their pets with them.
They are a bit of a restriction though as there are still a lot of caravan parks that don’t allow pets and it’s quite an expensive exercise to put the dog into a kennel while you visit a particular area on the bucket list where the only RV accommodation is pet free.
The other down-side are National Parks where the majority of them are strictly ‘No Cats or Dogs’! I use National Parks a lot and this the reason I only have a little toy cat on the dashboard and she sleeps all day and causes no trouble.
The Big4 chain had a no pets policy but the have now relaxed this and allow individual parks to decide whether to allow pets.
I must admit I prefer camping alongside people with well behaved dogs than next to neighbours with uncontrolled children – but then that’s my age showing!
Great advice,I think you have covered everything.?
Great advice,I think you have covered everything.??
Always keep your dogs vaccinations up to date and carry a copy of the current certificate with you when travelling never know when you may have to put them in doggy daycare for a few days.
Just wonder if there is anyway of training our dog to stay inside our caravan while we go and have dinner sometimes. Please could you advise us what’s best our Sunny dog is 2yrs old.
Many Thanks
Joy Shooks
Only one rule needed. Leave your pets at home.
When traveling with dogs, it is a pity national parks will not let you in. We always have our dog on a lead when walking ,at camp she is in a pet pen, sleeps in van. Why cannot the national parks let people with dogs ,under control in ,we are not dumping our fur covered kids in parks, parks miss out on a lot of people going through parks, so open up for traveling public.
The scents of cats and dogs can scare native wildlife away from the area, exactly the opposite of what the parks are trying to achieve. Wildlife are very sensitive to scents left by predators (which unfortunately our pets are to them).
We always take some spare sheets with us to cover furniture in pet-friendly cabins or motels. In most cases dogs aren’t allowed on the furniture however our Jack Russell is very curious or wants to sit with us, that’s where the spare sheets come in handy.
Most dog owners do the right thing its the 1% that make it hard for the rest I find most dogs better behaved than kids Like the old saying Dogs welcome kids must be on a leash
Love travelling with my two dogs and they are welcome in more places than you think you just have to ask if its ok to bring them in and carry them
This article underplays the effect of those dogs that bark at and rush up at people. They scare me! And the people who say “it’s alright he/she won’t hurt you” ignore the fact that the dog already has ruined my day and set my heart rate and blood pressure spike off!
Thoroughly agree Jim,,,this has happened to me a number of times, when it was unexpected and has literally ruined my holiday,,speaking of which my wife and I work very hard to have a couple of weeks off in peace only to be ruined by some one elses selfishness to take any type of dog into a caravan park and ruin our holiday!!!!!
ps Im not against dog lovers but the money spent on dogs could be directed to children who need a break..
Cheers Lance Pratt
As an avid bushwalker in our national parks there is no way i would wish to share with dogs! All wild life is at risk and even the natural smell of dogs can scare away many wild small animals. I am not a dog hater, but, dogs in travel have their place
For those who travel or want to travel with their dogs or cats or birds. This facebook group provides plenty of useful information on both camping and non camping styles of travelling with pets. https://www.facebook.com/groups/CampingTravellingwithpets/
Ouyen CP have a very clean unit available where you can have your dog inside. Save yard also. Sleeps 5.
certainly prefer dogs in the van next to me rather than noisy children. We will be travelling soon with our cat on a trip to Tasmania. She is trained to be on a harness and leash, but unfortunately will not be able to take her into National parks even though she is never allowed to run free. It is a shame but as Judith Martin says 1% make it hard for the rest of us
leave peter brown at home
In reply to Jim O,connor ,i feel for your anxiety when a dog runs at you ,you deserve a good day also,i own 1 dog at a time for 55 of my my 57 years and even a big friendly dog jumping at me on a leash makes me weary of it.some people encourage those dogs to do it,thankfully not all
We have gone on small trips with our dog while touring in our caravan for up to a week . Now we are slowly getting organised for the BIG one around our great country – for us not taking the dog with us has not even entered our minds .
We hope more caravan sites have more pet friendly sites such as pet wash facilities etc. which in return for them means more caravan sites will be even fuller !
We once stayed in a van park with our Jack during the Christmas holiday period. We had two (unrelated) children in particular constantly visiting to play with Jack. We couldn’t relax outside reading etc as we ALWAYS had to supervise these visits. It got so bad that we would go on outings just to find a quiet spot to relax or we had to put Jack in the van and tell his visitors that he was having a nap, though they would return every five minutes to ask if he was awake yet. After a few days various parents of these children came down to meet this new friend as all they heard about was Jack this and Jack that. Both sets of parents were absolutely stunned when we introduced them to Jack…they had believed that Jack was another child – NOT a furry canine. Oh, and while we love children, no more van parks at holiday time for us!
so many negative comments about dogs! I find peoples anxieties about dogs ruin their holidays, more so than the actual creature itself. we are taking our st bernard and terrier for a six week journey and i know they will prove to be wonderful travelling companions for us and our two little children. I hope to raise my kids to be tolerant of others as we have with our dogs.
best of luck to the people who don’t believe dogs should go on holiday. You are missing out on something wonderful and special.