Road Trips With a Large Dog
- andreanpellegrini
- Jan 11, 2022
- 4 min read
I love road trips, and, luckily for me, so does my partner and greyhound (pictured below). Unity (our greyhound) has been to so many places since we adopted her in 2014, and we've learned a lot about the best ways to road trip with a dog thanks to our numerous family adventures. Since I get asked a lot about tips for road-tripping with dogs, I decided to finally write a blog post on it.
If you've ever done a road trip solo, it can be quite easy to just go without a lot of planning. The pandemic has made it so planning is a little more necessary, but, depending on your comfort level, you can still just drive until you don't want to anymore and check into a hotel or car camp if you're into that.
It's not that easy if you travel with dogs, especially a large breed dog.
Research
There's a lot more research that goes into planning our adventures now than before my partner and I adopted Unity. We have to (1) consider whether or not the destination is dog friendly, (2) plan our route with time for sniff/snack/potty breaks, and (3) have our lodging figured out both for the travel to and upon arrival at our destination.
We use a combination of apps to find dog friendly lodging and/or activities:
Go Pet Friendly. The Trip Planner is the most helpful for lodging.
Bring Fido. I have found helpful only for events or lodging in larger cities.
Roadtrippers. This site is not made specifically for dog-friendly places, but we’ve found unique stops, and you can usually communicate with the business to see if they’ll allow your dog ahead of time. You can also filter by type of stop for forest preserves. (Not all forest preserves allow dogs. I learned this the hard way.)
The pet-friendly filters on AirBnB, VRBO, and hotel search engines also help a lot, but watch for those additional pet fees. They can be very high and hidden in descriptions. Same goes for traditional hotel lodging with the pet fees.
Watch for limits on dog sizes. Some places only allow up to a certain weight… I’ve seen as low as 20 lbs. (Not helpful for a 70 lb greyhound).
Overall Travel Tips
Lodging. Have your lodging plan figured out at least the morning of your travel for that evening. We have tried to plan as we go, but since not all places allow dogs or the vacancies for pet-friendly rooms fill up, it can cause more driving and stress.
Stops. Allow more time for stops than you might think. Increasing frequency is also helpful, especially for higher energy dogs.
Heat. Be careful about the heat. We traveled to Oregon in the summer and burnt Uni’s paws at a stop because the asphalt even in the shade was just way too hot.
Dinner. We used to power through driving, but Uni didn’t have enough time to acclimate to the new place so she’d eat before bed. So now we try to stop driving by 6:30 or 7 to give her enough time to chill and eat dinner before bed. Our most recent trip led us through a snowstorm, so it was a very late night.
Helpful Devices
Disclaimer: Any links shared in this blog post is for example purposes only. Nothing is sponsored and feel free to look for options that align with your needs and values.
Travel Comfort
We have a pet hammock in our backseat and put up additional shades on the back windows for her even with the tinted windows. It helps keep her cool.
Food & Water
We have a travel water bottle for Uni that makes quick drinks much easier too. This one is similar, though there are many options out there.
We bought a larger collapsible bowl for feeding. Since Unity is a tall, deep-chested dog, we put the bowl on a chair for elevated feeding so she doesn't get bloat.
We brought her snuffle mat on our most recent road trip, and that was helpful for feeding in the car since she tends to lay down anyway to search for bits of food and treats. For dogs that need more stimulation, having a filled kong, snuffle mat or another type of treat puzzle would likely be helpful.
Safety
We have an orange soaker coat/cooling vest which is helpful if we have to walk her in wooded areas where there might be hunters. We had to camp in a 90 degree heat advisory once and it was very helpful to keep her cool.
And, finally, the most useful device we have for travel is a collapsible soft-sided crate. Most lodging will require you to crate your dog if you leave them alone, so this is very helpful. This device would not work for all dogs, but Unity loves sleeping in it when we travel along with several fluffy blankets and her travel companion, Gordon. Plus, it lays flat in our trunk so we can put our luggage on top of it.
Always Learning
There are always new things to learn, and we tend to tweak our plans as we go along, but hopefully the lessons I've shared will help another family looking to road trip with a dog!
-Andrea
See some of Unity's adventures on Instagram: @UnityTheGirafficorn.
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