Are We Crazy?

[Jaime + Oliver]

I currently live in California and my husband brought up the idea of driving back to the midwest for the Holidays.  It's a 2000 mile, 30 hour trip.  In theory we'd break it up in to 3 days of driving.  Are we totally crazy for doing this just so we can bring Oliver, who will be 6 months?   The thought of boarding him over the holidays makes me feel so sad.  I've read through some of the old posts here and am really torn about trying to pull this off.  So, are we crazy?

[Sonja]

We have traveled with our labradoodle for four years every fall in our small van rv. We are doing it right now in California visiting relatives. I think because we took our dog everywhere she learned to be adaptable. We found motels and hotels also who allow dogs. Take your six month old make lots of stops and have a better holiday because you did.

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

No you are not! I drove from NC to Washington Sate to California and back with my doodle in a Jeep. It was a blast.

[Ann Kendig]

When my Sheba was around 4 months we traveled from Ohio to Moab Utah. We stopped every couple hours for potty breaks and to stretch our legs and always had water available at all times for her to drink. She did great and we had the best time! Later Duke joined our family and we traveled with him from a young age also. We were lucky as our dogs didn't get car sick. I can't imagine not taking our dogs with us! They've traveled with us out west several times, Florida a few times, Niagara Falls, Maine etc. They've stayed at hotels with us, with family and friends and tent camped with us. It is a wonderful way to socialize them and let them experience new things. It's a good time to continue obedience training training too while traveling. I thought it would b difficult to travel with dogs but we found it to be pretty easy. We love our traveling buddies!

[Tammy (Tanner & Molly) Houck]

We travel with 2 of them in a small 19' camper, and wouldn't have it any other way.  We take them with us everywhere, and wouldn't dream of boarding them, they are family.  When we go to visit our son in college, they go there, too.  Every summer for our family reunion, it's just a fact of life that our family consists of 3 adults and 2 doodles.  We started taking both of them from the time they were puppies, and they are pretty terrific travelers!  You're not crazy, just takes a few extra stops and some minor adjustments - but it's so worth it.

[Jaime + Oliver]

I'm of course worried about all the car time and hoping he wouldn't get sick during 10hrs of driving every day.  So far he's been great in the car.  One of my biggest concerns is staying in hotels.  I was checking out dogfriendly.com, and know La Quinta, Ramadas etc usually allow pets (some without deposits).  I'm worried about hotel noise causing the puppy to bark and remain unsettled through the night.  Anyone have tips there?

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

we always ask for a room at the end of the hallway so that there aren't a lot of people walking past and making noise all night.  you can also ask if there is a section where a lot of the rooms are empty which will help also.  I'd feed small amounts at each break during the day and then his regular dinner after you get to the hotel at night.  Don't fill him up in the am and then put him in the car.    We traveled with Lucy and Sophie all the time.  We will find out how AnnaBelle does when we go to FL in January.  That will be her first lengthly trip.

[Gail and Bailey]

Country Inn and Suites allows dogs too.  We have had good luck with them.

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

Quincy is a trooper in the car.  We brought his dog bed and positioned on the back seat so he could look through the two front seats and was higher up on it, too.  He loved it!  He wore his harness and we attached it to the human seatbelt with a latch type device we bought at PetSmart.  It was about was 6-7 hour drive each way, and we only stopped once.  I would so love to drive to Florida with him to see my son, but I don't have the extra few days to tag onto a vacation for the travel time.  anyway! go for it!  good luck 

[Gail and Bailey]

We do the same thing with Bailey's bed and I love being able to just reach back between the seats and pet her.  She sleeps most of the time but she does like to be able to see out the front window as well.  She does amazingly well on long trips.  We travel 2 or 3 days in a row @ about 10 hours a day.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Just do it! Enjoy.