Taking you dogs with you

[modhatter]

Now I have another question. One of the reasons for wanting a RV was to be able to explore the US and take our pets with us.

So I was on line looking at the "pet friendly" RV parks, and see that all of them post a message stating "No pets are to be left in the RV unattended." Well, this might really put a cramp in being able to do any real sight seeing, explore the city, go to an attraction, eat out at a restaurant, etc., etc.

For example: I want to be able to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico, cause I want my son to see the town, go to the museums, visit the art stores, etc. I doubt I would be able to go into these places with our dogs. So what do you do if you can't leave them in the RV for a day out?

[Beak12]

:rolleyes:I guess we never read the fine print. We just got back from a 12,524 mile trip. And we left the Cat in the RV (Elkmont) every day as we went out looking at stuff. We never left her over night. Just on Day trips.

[AstroBruce]

Find a place to leave the dogs, or don't bring them. I would love to have my pets with us on camping trips. It just doesn't work for us, so we leave them home.

[RogerR]

I have traveled with our Beagle for about 10 weeks total. We frequently leave her alone, always with water in case the power fails and there is no AC. We usually leave the end windows open for emergency air.
I do usually ask the office to call if there is a power outage but have never encountered one to date.
Some suggestions is to always look for a shaded site if possible and stay away from areas that are not dog friendly.
If your dog is a barker this can change the whole equation as it may bother your neighbors. As always, take a bag and pick it up.

[modhatter]

There would be no one home or relative to leave them with, and I am talking extended trips of 30-60 days. Also, our one dog is a little "over attached" I guess, and refuses to eat when we have tried twice before to board him for a two week period.
When we got back, he was skin and bone and losing his hair. A real problem child, but we love him.

[Alvega007]

I usually bring my two dogs with me. I always leave them alone leaving the AC on and at least a window open just in case of a power outage. My experience have been that if they are quiet and don't get bother (bark) by the noises of the campground they are not a problem. So if your dogs can be quiet most of the time when left alone for periods of time I don't see a problem.

[ThePair]

Ditto here. We leave our dog when we go out and about, AC running and a window cracked open. He'll bark if he knows we're outside, but he's quiet when he knows we've gone. Not been an issue.

Like you, we purchased the TM so that he could come with us on vacations. It's worked out great for us, so far. I think the rule is there so that the park has recourse if you have a very noisy dog that you leave alone and it begins to disturb the neighbors. But if the pup is quiet, then (a) who will know, and (b) I find it very unlikely that you'd get in trouble for it. They simply won't even know he's in there, right?

[modhatter]

Well I do have to "fess up". He does bark when we leave the house, but stops the minute we are out of sight. (Live in an attached house and spoke with my neighbor about it) So I guess the duration is a couple of minutes, so people would know he's in there.

Actually I recently read some stuff on line from dog trainers explaining how to stop that. We are working on it now.
But I also worry about the barks when people walk by.

When we first traveled with him in the car cross country and
stayed primarily in Motel 6 and the other pet friendly motels,
the first few nights were murder in the morning, as when people got up early in the morning and started rolling past our door with their suit cases or talking, he would bark at them, and of course wake us up way before we wanted to get up. But that subsided after a few nights and he got familiar with the noises, so I assume that is what will happen with the RV experience the first few times. He is now a seasoned motel traveler, we just need to change sleeping quarters a bit. He is not a barker by any means, just the normal "what's that sound" kind of bark and "don't leave me bark". We had our first success last night when my son left the house. No bark, just a few little whines. We will continue to work on it.

How does that shoe fit any of your pets?

[Bill]

Modhatter -

That sounds like us. Our dog, a cockapoo, never barks - except when someone is coming to the door. We had a single sad experience in a campground in Benson, AZ, when someone approached the TM when we were not there, and knocked on the door. She barked. Someone complained. The campground owner came out and banged long and loud on the side of the TM, yelling "Shut up! Be quiet!" - in Korean!

Needless to say, we haven't gone back to that campground - and both we, and the Korean owner, are happy with that arrangement.

Point is, though, that I'm not sure any dog is totally bark-proof under the right circumstances. And the campground owner has a legitimate interest in keeping the campground quiet. So we are very careful about leaving our dog in the TM, and take her with us whenever we can.

Bill

[PopBeavers]

Check the laws for each state you camp in.

As I recall, California has a law regarding pets in cars. Not sure bout trailers.

It would not be unknown for the temperature inside a car or truck to reach 120F. Water would not be adequate.

It was 105F in Sacramento last week. Not sure how much hotter it is inside a truck or trailer.

The all-time record in downtown Los Angeles was broken on September 27, 2010 when the temperature reached 113*F.

Infants have died because people left their child in a car unattended.

Alaska is probably less restrictive than California. But that is a guess.

[ThePair]

I'll bet Alaska has cold weather restrictions.

The difference between car an TM is that the TM can and should have AC running, and legally it counts as a residence not a vehicle, iirc. That being said, I'd be a little surprised to find a state law regarding a pet in an RV or trailer. It's a good idea to check, nonetheless.

[Bob&Karen]

We have four that we take with us when we travel. We, too, have one "problem child" that suffers from separation anxiety (he's not destructive, just barks). After numerous talks with out vet, she said we could try 'medicating' him about an hour before we plan to leave the camper for the day. She gave us a prescription for acepromazine and we give him 1/2 tablet (he weighs about 18 lbs.) when we are going to be gone. Works great for us. We typically don't leave them alone for more than 4-5 hours at a time, and also leave the AC on and the Fantastic Fan on low in the event of a power failure. In addition to keeping the camper cool, it also provides the noise so that they don't hear people walking by, etc.

We have never had a problem.

Regards,

Bob

[PopBeavers]

We have four that we take with us when we travel. We, too, have one "problem child" that suffers from separation anxiety (he's not destructive, just barks). After numerous talks with out vet, she said we could try 'medicating' him about an hour before we plan to leave the camper for the day. She gave us a prescription for acepromazine and we give him 1/2 tablet (he weighs about 18 lbs.) when we are going to be gone. Works great for us. We typically don't leave them alone for more than 4-5 hours at a time, and also leave the AC on and the Fantastic Fan on low in the event of a power failure. In addition to keeping the camper cool, it also provides the noise so that they don't hear people walking by, etc.

We have never had a problem.

Regards,

Bob

How well does the fantastic fan work when the a/c fails, for whatever reason, and the outside temperature is higher than 100F?

Perhaps you never am where it get hot.

[allenj]

Since one of the primary reasons we got our trailer is so we can take our dog with us, often to conferences etc where we have to leave her all day, we are in the same situation.
While I'm sure some campgrounds are stricter than others, our experience and impression has usually been that the 'no dogs left alone' rule is one of those that is in place to allow enforcement against owners with very loud or otherwise obnoxious dogs or dogs left outside. I know plenty of people including us leave dogs in their campers at these places, and as long as they are quiet or only let out the occasional muffled 'yip' as someone walks by no one will complain.
That just addresses the social aspects, the possible hazards from power outages etc are something you will have to judge for yourself on each trip based on weather etc.

[Bob&Karen]

How well does the fantastic fan work when the a/c fails, for whatever reason, and the outside temperature is higher than 100F?

Perhaps you never am where it get hot.

Wayne,

I'll admit that we've never camped anywhere the temp got over 100 degrees. In addition to the fantastic fan, we will open the large window above the counter about 2" so that fresh air can be pulled in, and will slightly open the two roof vents. We close all the curtains so that sunlight through the windows will not cause a rapid warm-up. And, even with cool morning temps, we turn the A/C on if we're going to be gone for a few hours to kind of "pre-cool" the TM. We've yet to have a problem, but we've yet to have a power outage.

Regards,

Bob

[Virginia Deacon]

Our two miniature schnauzers look forward to camping trips with us, and we enjoy camping as much as we did before we got them. We take our dogs with us whenever we can, and take turns shopping and staying in the truck with them. We would never leave them unattended in the TrailManor all day.

We've found that KOAs are "pet-friendly" and that most other campers have pets (usually dogs), too. And, they tell us, their dogs bark, too. After a few minutes, most dogs seem to stop barking, we've observed. Lately, we've noticed a LOT of campers have dogs and that they are also quite tolerant of ours.

Some places strictly forbid dogs - Assateague Island is one of them. When we go there, we leave our dogs with our (and their) favorite kennel, where they are played with and looked after most of each day, and where we know they are safe. We are free to enjoy shopping, sightseeing, and togetherness, without our dogs being a distraction. And, we have the joy of being together again - later.

I hope this helps you. Enjoy your camping!

[BruceM]

We had a problem with a little bichon that we had once.
She would bark incessantly whenever we left the trailer.
Boarding her was not an option as we were on the road for the summer with our TM
We purchased a no bark collar - it gives a small electric shock whenever the dog barks - and it worked perfectly.
When we returned to the trailer she would whine and wiggle but would not bark until we had removed the collar!
If this sounds cruel think of the consequences of an accidental overdose of medication (we had been using anti hystimine to try to calm her down).
This seemed like the better alternative.

[ThePair]

Shock collars aren't cruel at all if used properly.

We had one for training, 9 strength settings. I tried it on my arm first, level 1. Quite unpleasant, didn't want that repeated. Put the collar on my dog, starting the training. Needless to say, he didn't even notice the collar was being activated until level 5, and that just made him pause and look around, like "what touched me". No pain, no discomfort, just enough stimulation to distract him from whatever it was he was doing (or not doing). An excellent training tool, by the way, especially to teach him not to do dangerous things...

[Paco's Mom]

We traveled 7,000 miles this summer with a mix of camping in our TM and staying with family/friends. We had our two Havanese with us and initially were hesitant to leave them in the TM alone. They travel in crates in the TV. On a few occasions we crated them in the TM, left the AC on and were able to enjoy a dinner out or a non-dog friendly sight seeing excursion. They did fine and were quiet according to neighbors we asked. We were at some campsites however, where a dog was left behind and howled or barked for hours, so bottom line, guess you have to know your dogs and see how they do.