Getting Ready for the Adventure
Tips on how to make your pups Adventure Ready!
Making your pups adventure ready starts with getting them acclimated to the car. Dogs need to be buckled in just like children, otherwise they may be thrown throughout the car should you need to stop suddenly. Additionally, dogs can become a distraction to drivers should they roam around the vehicle while it is in motion. I secure my dogs in the backseat with a restraint that goes over the headrest of the backseat and clips to their harness. Click here for more details.
It is important to ensure that the restraint is connected to a harness and not directly to their collar. Connecting the restraint to the dogs collar may cause serious injury to your dog. There are many different harnesses out there. My dogs both wear the Rabbitgoo Dog Harness. It's an affordable option and works really well for my larger dogs who like to pull.
While protecting the upholstry of your car may be one of the last things you are concerned about, I cannot recommend enough that you get a seat cover with a hard bottom for over your back seats. Beyond protecting the upholstry from muddy paws, a hard bottom seat cover often covers not only the seat but also the space between the backseat and the front seat forming a hammock of sorts attaching to the headrests of both the front and rear seats. We use the Elufa brand seat cover from Amazon featured here. It gives the dogs so much more space than if they were confined to the seat alone.
Now that the car is adventure ready for the dogs, you'll want to make sure that you have a bag packed for the dogs. I use the Baghler Dog Travel Bag when I travel with my dogs. It comes with accessories like collapsable food and water dishes and lined carriers that you can store your dog's food in while you travel. Depending on how long I plan to travel, determines whether or not I use these accessories. For longer trips, it's often more beneficial to buy a small back of dog food (5lb or 8lb bag) and tuck down inside the travel bag. For smaller trips, I'll fill a gallon freezer bag full of dog food and put inside one of the lined carriers.
Beyond food, it's important to keep any medication that the dogs need for their travels. I keep a bottle of Canine Aspirin in my bag in the event the dogs start showing signs of aches and pains from walking or hiking.
A paw balm like Primens Paw & Nose Balm is great to keep in the bag. I use it before our walks just to help give their paws a bit of protection from the pavement and after our walks to help sooth their paws from a long walk or hike.
I keep a good stock of Pet Waste Bags in my travel bag as well. There's nothing worse than running out and having to get creative about how you pick up your dog's waste. You never want to be that guy that walks away from it like nothing happened becasue you have nothing to clean it up with.
