Travelling tips needed

We are leaving this friday after work for a nice long trip to BC. It will take 10 hours from my house to the ferry, about a 2 hour wait at the ferry dock (depending on arrival time) 1 hour ferry ride and about 2 hours driving after we get off the ferry. All with 3 dogs!

We are driving all night so the dogs will sleep most of the way and to beat the heat. 10 day visit and we do it all over again for the drive home!

The longest drive we went on was about 4 hours to my family's on an acreage and that was only with my 2 older dogs, they did great for the most part! Wolf has never been on a trip, the longest in the car was 20mins.

Anyone have any tips for making this long drive stress free for everyone?
Thanks
Sarah

Bring a cooler and pack it with stuffed kongs?

I've never been on a 10 hour trip...we've done 3-4 hour trips. Luckily for us Toby tends to pass out as soon as we get on the highway! But, when we get to the backroads he starts to move around quite a bit. Last time he kept himself busy with pig ears...but then I was kept busy for most of the camping trip with cleaning up ucko poop! (and being woken up all night long with a whining Toby who needed to potty - and fast!) :yuck:

So a healthy filled kong is probably a better alternative! :thumbs up

Last time he kept himself busy with pig ears...but then I was kept busy for most of the camping trip with cleaning up ucko poop! (and being woken up all night long with a whining Toby who needed to potty - and fast!) :yuck:


That doesn't sound fun at all!!!!

Kongs! I have lots of those and the dogs go crazy for them. Thanks for the suggestion. Im worried they will get ansy after awile with the constant driving, the kongs should keep them occupied for sure!\
Thanks again
Sarah

I also get a couple of those 3 litre plastic bottles of water and freeze them. Even at a motel, if you ask the front desk, they'll let you put them in the Ice machine, you know what I mean, where you get ice from. They thaw out quickly and should last all night. I freeze my kongs too!

Have a great trip :grouphug:

I also get a couple of those 3 litre plastic bottles of water and freeze them. Even at a motel, if you ask the front desk, they'll let you put them in the Ice machine, you know what I mean, where you get ice from. They thaw out quickly and should last all night. I freeze my kongs too!

Have a great trip :grouphug:

I never thought of that! Theres nothing worse then drinking warm water on a hot day :yuck: We are visiting relatives so thankfully we dont have to stay in a motel, we wont have a problem freezing water for the way home.
Thanks!!

If you have enough time before the trip get Wolf used to a drive a little longer than 20 min. On the trip, as long as they are content don't give the goodies. Some get car sick. Stop every couple of hours for washroom, drink, stretch etc.

Agree with travel tips provided by other posters. If you do reach the ferry landing with 2 hours to spare, hopefully there will be an area where your dogs can get some exercise and air - tire them out for the next leg - not to mention ferry ride. I expect you will have to "report" for your ferry spot an hour or so before - maybe you can leave one person in charge of that and the other can care for the dogs. Personally, if it were me, I would want to stop at a pet friendly establishment 1/2 way into the trip but then with 3 dogs it might be hard to find a motel that pet friendly.

Agree with travel tips provided by other posters. If you do reach the ferry landing with 2 hours to spare, hopefully there will be an area where your dogs can get some exercise and air - tire them out for the next leg - not to mention ferry ride. I expect you will have to "report" for your ferry spot an hour or so before - maybe you can leave one person in charge of that and the other can care for the dogs. Personally, if it were me, I would want to stop at a pet friendly establishment 1/2 way into the trip but then with 3 dogs it might be hard to find a motel that pet friendly.

We are booked in for the 6:20am ferry and we expect to arrive at about 4:00am. There is actually a huge field right beside the line-ups so we could definatly go for a run and play a bit! Hopefully they will go straight back to sleep after, they have never been on a ferry or anything like that before! We can take them outside of the vehicle for a walk on the ferry aswell, we will have to see how they handle that!

We usually go grab a bite to eat when we are waiting for the ferry, you can see it pull in so you just hop in your car then! They dont have a 1 hour check in anymore.

Thanks for all the tips! and thanks stacy for the reminder about car sickness!

SarahLynn123 - you'll be in our neck of the woods - maybe our Shadows could meet and pee on a tree together :D Just kidding - they'd probably start a turf war... well my Shadow would! On the ferries as a rule you can leash and walk your dogs on the car decks - they are absolutely not allowed on the passenger decks. My dogs always like looking out the port holes and such, but I'm always afraid they'll jump out a window (the car decks mostly don't have windows). My girls travel well in the car, although we've only ever done 5 hours with lots of potty breaks. Have a great trip! I agree to keep a stash of frozen kongs, that would make my girls happy.

SarahLynn123 - you'll be in our neck of the woods - maybe our Shadows could meet and pee on a tree together :D Just kidding - they'd probably start a turf war... well my Shadow would! On the ferries as a rule you can leash and walk your dogs on the car decks - they are absolutely not allowed on the passenger decks. My dogs always like looking out the port holes and such, but I'm always afraid they'll jump out a window (the car decks mostly don't have windows). My girls travel well in the car, although we've only ever done 5 hours with lots of potty breaks. Have a great trip! I agree to keep a stash of frozen kongs, that would make my girls happy.


If you happen to be up and kicking at 4:00am on a saturday morning head on down to the ferry's! My Shadow wouldn't start a turf war but she would gladly join in and finish it! Nothing like a barking match to start the day of right!

Now Im going to have nightmares about my dogs jumping out the windows of the ferry's! I know they will be on a leash with me but I will still have nightmares!

Im definatly going to stock up on frozen kongs, will probably hold of on giving the kongs to them unless they are restless though. The last thing I want to do on the trip is pull over to clean up puke :yuck:

The last trip we went on, although shorter, the girls passed right out, woke up for a pee then out again until we arrived at our destination. Im hoping the same thing happens! It mostly Wolf Im worried about. He's young and hyper, the girls are old and layed back.

Thanks for the help! Ive only ever been on the ferry once so I was to excited to pay attention!

See you at the dock!! (just kidding its a bit early :D )

:eek: Okay, not a chance of seeing us there, Shadow doesn't do mornings. For real - some days I have to go into the bedroom and put her leash on her as she doesn't want to go out for her walk. She needs one of those t-shirts. There are tons of ferries here though, many terminals. But don't have nightmares, the dogs won't jump out. Shadow loves to stand on her hind legs and look out the windows. Halo's more of a wimp and sticks her head out the lower porthole windows. Sometimes the big back doors are open and that's what gives me nightmares :eek: They don't encourage people to stay on the car decks, but I do. Last time I had Shadow on the ferry for a couple hours and it was really rough they wouldn't let us stay down there and she had the runs for two days from her nerves (separation anxiety right...) But there's always people walking around down there and often there are lots of dogs. You'll love it, don't worry!

:eek: Okay, not a chance of seeing us there, Shadow doesn't do mornings. For real - some days I have to go into the bedroom and put her leash on her as she doesn't want to go out for her walk. She needs one of those t-shirts. There are tons of ferries here though, many terminals. But don't have nightmares, the dogs won't jump out. Shadow loves to stand on her hind legs and look out the windows. Halo's more of a wimp and sticks her head out the lower porthole windows. Sometimes the big back doors are open and that's what gives me nightmares :eek: They don't encourage people to stay on the car decks, but I do. Last time I had Shadow on the ferry for a couple hours and it was really rough they wouldn't let us stay down there and she had the runs for two days from her nerves (separation anxiety right...) But there's always people walking around down there and often there are lots of dogs. You'll love it, don't worry!

Thanks! I will try not to worry, Im sure they wont jump, Shadow is afraid of rain! Going for a swim is out of the question! Im sure they will have a great time, lots of new smells and sights will keep them busy. I will have to post when we get back and let you know how it went.
Thanks again!
Sarah

what ever you do dont make a fuss when you leave home, it will make them stressed... also try and pack the car discretly, i find the car pakcing is the worst for charlie, she goes nuts and carries o n...

also most importantly dont forget to keep fresh water and regular drinks, not the same amount as usual but definatly enough to wet the whistle...

have fun :D

We tried to leave at night, after a day of wearing Boo out. The result was, we were tired, impatient and Boo acted like he had just woken up...

On the way back, we stopped at a vet and got Atavet. I highly recommend it for the ride back (Boo was drowsy for 4 days afterward). But a possible side-effect is hyper-activity...

We just can't do it with Boo. He paces, steps on Jemma, cries, head butts us... etc etc... :rolleyes: