Traveling with a four legged family member.

[willemkoeslag]

Again not sure if this warrants a new thread, however.... We have been camping for a number of years but are mostly weekending it at the moment with the occasional week thrown in. To date traveling with our Lady, a four legged rescue girl, has not been a huge concern. When we got her she was able to walk for hours, be it on a hike, or sight seeing, she was only two years old after all. Now she is nearly eleven years old with some hip issues, like me. She tires easily and needs help getting into the RV. We purchased a ramp for her and this helps a lot, particularly my back. She is not small, weighing in at about seventy pounds.
As stated earlier, she is a member of our family and we want to include her in our activities but she often is unable. We are about to retire and do some extensive traveling and this includes sight seeing. This, of course, will require us being away from the RV several hours at a time. I hate to leave her at the camp ground but I am not sure how others deal with this issue. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I have included a pic of our girl.

[Mike in AZ]

She's a beautiful dog!

We just started RV'ing, first trip was this past week. We left our Great Dane at home, worried it might be too much to handle him in this new environment and deal with my own learning curve with the rig. But we took our 9 year old Puggle. Tiarra did well, but we also would like to read how others handle it when they want to do an activity where they can't take their furry family along. Leaving her in the coach just briefly led to howling!

Mike

[woody]

We travel with out two little dogs, Puddles and Sheba. We also tow our two motorcycles behind us so the dogs have to stay in the RV when we go on our sight seeing rides. We leave the music on, usually some classical or oldies. They are good little dogs and are used to being left alone while we ride. We also have a temp stick monitor that is set to send an alert to our cell phones should temps inside the rv reach high levels in the event of a power failure knocking out the ac.

[JamieGeek]

There are a lot of pet owner's here (see: http://www.thorforums.com/forums/f28...they-2378.html ). With many discussions about what to do when you are away from the unit. I'm sure there will be more than a few informed responses.

[steve76]

Beautiful pup you've got there.

[Laco]

We always take Samantha with us, she is a Bischon Poodle mix. We do leave her in the motorhome, leave the AC on for her, and have a Temp Stick monitoring the inside temperature, which will notify me if the inside temp goes above a pre-set level. It connects to the internet via park WiFi, or uses a hot spot on my wife's tablet. (Some WiFi's require a log in which I can't get the temp stick past) We don't leave her for more than two or three hours at the most, she does fine, probably barks at people and dogs that go by.

[willemkoeslag]

Originally Posted by woody

We travel with out two little dogs, Puddles and Sheba. We also tow our two motorcycles behind us so the dogs have to stay in the RV when we go on our sight seeing rides. We leave the music on, usually some classical or oldies. They are good little dogs and are used to being left alone while we ride. We also have a temp stick monitor that is set to send an alert to our cell phones should temps inside the rv reach high levels in the event of a power failure knocking out the ac.

The Temp Stick is a great idea, thank you all for the response. I was not familiar with the Temp Stick. This will make us feel a lot better about leaving her. I don't believe she barks when we are away, she just sneaks up onto our bed curls up and goes to sleep.

[Laco]

I didn't mention, yes we always leave the TV on or music going for her. I think she sleeps most of the time we are not there. Yes the Temp Stick does make us feel better, knowing that in the event of an AC failure or power outage we would know and could scramble back to save her.

[tnedator]

Originally Posted by Laco

We always take Samantha with us, she is a Bischon Poodle mix. We do leave her in the motorhome, leave the AC on for her, and have a Temp Stick monitoring the inside temperature, which will notify me if the inside temp goes above a pre-set level. It connects to the internet via park WiFi, or uses a hot spot on my wife's tablet. (Some WiFi's require a log in which I can't get the temp stick past) We don't leave her for more than two or three hours at the most, she does fine, probably barks at people and dogs that go by.

On the temp stick connecting to WiFi with a password, one thing to consider is a travel router like this (TPLink N300):

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wirel...eywords=tplink

They are meant to use when you go to a hotel with paid WiFi and lets you connect multiple devices to one login. In essence, using a PC or tablet, you can login to the admin page of the router and from there, log the router into the camps wifi (or other wifi) and then any device connected to the router will be using the camp's wifi via the router.

So, the way you can use this is have your tempstick and any other device, say streaming devices, all connected to the travel router. Then, based on where you are at, you can have the travel router connect to either your tablet's hotspot or camps wifi, but ONLY have to change one thing, the travel router.

Anyway, hopefully that explanation made sense.

[Laco]

The travel router looks interesting, will look into it. So far just using our hot spot is working ok for us, the temp stick uses very little band width, but I like the idea of the travel router.

[UrbanTarzan]

Originally Posted by Laco

We always take Samantha with us, she is a Bischon Poodle mix. We do leave her in the motorhome, leave the AC on for her, and have a Temp Stick monitoring the inside temperature, which will notify me if the inside temp goes above a pre-set level. It connects to the internet via park WiFi, or uses a hot spot on my wife's tablet. (Some WiFi's require a log in which I can't get the temp stick past) We don't leave her for more than two or three hours at the most, she does fine, probably barks at people and dogs that go by.

Another option is to share the parks wifi via a laptop. You sign into the Parks wifi with the laptop and then connect a regular wifi router to the laptop with an Ethernet cable . The laptop keeps the connection open and your other devices connect thru that.
This is a perfect setup for a drop cam of some kind too .
You can also use this to share a mobile hotspot with multiple devices .

[Steve70605]

Originally Posted by willemkoeslag

The Temp Stick is a great idea, thank you all for the response. I was not familiar with the Temp Stick. This will make us feel a lot better about leaving her. I don't believe she barks when we are away, she just sneaks up onto our bed curls up and goes to sleep.

Not sure on your unit... Ours has a setting for the generator to come on if power goes out or temperature exceeds certain limits.

We travel with our Pomeranian. She does well when left alone. If you need to see how she reacts, may i suggest a baby monitor or voice activated walkie to see if she is barking or howling when left alone. You could go out in the campground and monitor for a time to see.... Just a thought.

[Bob Denman]

You may have to "modify" some of your planned activities.
Our furry friends often need us, more than we need to go sightseeing...

[jpmihalk]

We have a few different things we use to take care of the pups while we are away.

One, we have a Samsung internet camera mounted up front that looks down the length of the RV and broadcasts a stream out to a website (free Samsung hosted.) The camera also has sound and a speaker so we can talk to them if they are misbehaving, barking or such. We also bought a large LED thermometer so we can see the temp on the camera when we check in.

Our RV also has an automatic generator start (AGS) system that can be programmed to turn on the genny when it gets too hot so the AC will start. That is what Steve mentioned above.

We also have stickers in the windows that say "Pets Inside" so that in the event of a fire or other emergency, someone will break in to save them.

Otherwise, we just make sure we don't stay away for too long. If we can take them with us, we usually do.

[Mo_Mike]

We have chosen the CANARY, as it monitors temperature, humidity, as well as notifies if there is activity in the coach. Our pups are kennel trained so any human activity would be something we would want to be aware of.

It also will transmit video when activity is detected as well as let you live view video of the coach.

It runs on a USB plug, so it is powered off the coach batteries. And uses out WIFI hotspot for notifications and access.

They do have a subscription plan, however, contrary to what some have posted about a subscription being required, we do not have a subscription and everything we want is included for free. Basically it is the combination of the TEMP STICK and the SAMSUNG CAMERA.in one device.

At least for us, so far.

[ACEroad]

Where did you purchase and what the cost for a Canary?

[The Gritz Carlton]

While I'm very sensitive to traveling companions, I've camped next to people that left "rover" behind for hours. What they don't realize is the stress some dogs experience. There was a dog next to us in Charleston this spring that literally barked and screamed the entire time they were gone. I didn't complain to the park as I have two labs and felt so sorry for the dog. When they got back he immediately quit as they drove up. I politely "reviewed" the day (truly from a concern for the dog) with them and they acted as if they couldn't care less. She said..."he doesn't like being left alone". I said..."No S**T...what makes you think others like him being left alone as well?". After she got really nasty I then went to the office and they were asked to leave. I told her, as she was leaving, I can find a loving home for him if you wish!!



We will travel extensively next year with two labs who currently live in a 4400SF home with multiple dog doors and 3 acres of fenced property with a pond. We have already started training them on test runs on the weekends for living in such a small environment. They love traveling and seem happy just being with us. We leave them for a bit and extend this timeframe as time goes on. They sleep when you're gone if they are comfortable and secure. For the trips we travel with them, it will mean not being able to tour as much so we will pick and choose locations accordingly. Leaving them in the camper is fine but controlling their barking is as important to me as keeping them alive and comfortable. Whatever you do, make sure you have a redundant backup program for power outages at the campground. If your pets are unhappy and can't behave in the tight quarters of campgrounds...don't take them with you.


I love dogs...I hate barking dogs....I despise entitled owners who are totally insensitive to the comfort of others. traveling with pets requires more planning than traveling with food and water for yourself.

[DogLovers]

We travel quite a bit with our pups Baily, Bella, Baxter & Buster, 3 Shi Tzu's and a Maltese. We also love them more than we love most people. I tell friends all the time, “You know if there’s a Zombie apocalypse and a resulting food shortage, you just might have to die so my puppies can eat”. So far this year we have taken 3 trips.

Indiana to Texas South Padre Island 1 week.
Indiana to Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois over 3 weeks.
Indiana to Ky, Tenn, Virginia, North & South Carolina. 2 weeks.
2 more before winter arrives for sure.

When leaving the pups in the RV we always turn on the TV, A/C, use the Temp Stick, Nest Cam when able, RV Alarm that makes noise and messages me if tripped.(Don’t want them doggie napped) and leave water out. Mine seem to keep each other company and don’t have any separation issues (one more and we can start a doggie basketball team). On hot days we leave roof vents open a little as well as A/C on. Even then we don't stay gone more than 1-3 hours. Like everyone else I always try to park in the shade. Even after all this we never felt comfortable leaving them alone for more than 3 hours tops. So we came up with a cure for it. I bought an aluminum tilt trailer to carry the motorcycle, golf cart or Polaris RZR 4-900. Now we select our trip toad based on our plans and destination.

If riding the motorcycle i's 2 hours away then back to check everything and give a bathroom break.

If using the golf cart it’s no issue at all because they are on it with us (yes all 4).

We wanted to be able to travel a far distance from the RV to see sights and explore while not worrying about the pups (like in Monument Valley, mountains, deserts, national forests) so I bought a Polaris RZR 4-900 off road 4X4. It’s comfortable to drive, power steering, auto trans and it will go 70 mph if you want to. If we are going relatively nearby or on smooth surfaces the puppies go with us, it’s a four seater. When we want to travel far or off-road sight see we can easily do 10 miles or more and be back to camp in an hour. Wish I would have bought one of these to tow behind 10 years ago. I didn’t know about these until 2 years ago when RVing in South Dakota and they rented them out. We rented one for a few hours and that was it, I knew I was buying one. Best RV accessory I ever bought. Now we jump in the Polaris, run 10-15 miles into the forest, up a mountain side, through plains and valleys and are back at camp in 1-2 hours dependent on how long we dilly dally. It really has changed our comfort level with the puppies. We now think nothing of running out 5 miles and returning in 30 minutes.

I ran the Polaris through Monument Valley Arizona 3 times in one day and was never away from camp more than 1 hour. Yet I was able to take in all the breathtaking sights left behind by God, John Ford and John Wayne.

[The Gritz Carlton]

Great setup and isn't it amazing how we form our lives and plans around our dogs? We feel the same way about Bugs and The Wild Child-Blondie. How do you get around town for shopping and sight seeing with the Polaris? I have decided to go with a trailer period over towing a car. Can you drive it on the streets? I've looked at a lot of small cars but the must-have is something with a hatchback or back seat and A/C for the dogs. Otherwise it would be a motorcycle or something similar.

[RichS]

I have 3 Poms. I have a Jeep Cherokee. No problem traveling. We always go to a restaurant that has seating outside. That way they are with us. We go to St Augustine Florida a lot. After they have been outside with us for about 3 hours they are behaved very well when we eat. Plus it's great when we get back to the RV. They sleep all night. Keep them active and they settle down.