Tips How to Travel with A Dog Cross Country?

Traveling is fun. But being able to come with your puppy can make it even more fun.

With more fun, however, comes more responsibility and challenges. If you’re planning a long-distance journey with your dog, you’ll need to plan to the last detail so you can have as many as possible variables under control.

Whether you’re traveling by train, bus, or air, this guide on how to travel with a dog cross country will help make your trip a little less challenging for you and your furry friend. Hopefully, this will help make the journey thrilling, fun, and stress-free for your pooch.

How do you Travel Long Distance with a Dog?

The longer your trip, the more challenging it’s likely going to be.

But planning can help you better deal with these challenges. And that’s what we look at in this section on travel with your dog.

Here is a brief expo on what you should include in your plans:

1. Visit the Vet before your Trip

A trip to the vet should precede every long-distance travel with your pets.

There are a lot of reasons why you will need this. First, it’s essential to get your dog in perfect health and form before traveling. The vet might even be able to prescribe medicine for your pets if it appears they have a fear or anxiety to travel.

Again, it’s vital to get your dog up to date on its vaccinations. Certain airlines also require a vet authorization to allow pets onboard. Given all of these, you’ll be better off visiting the vet before traveling on long trips with your dog.

2. Keep Accommodations in your Plan

Now that your furry friend will be coming along on this journey, you need to make provisions for their housing. That means your choice of hotels and lodging, in general, must be dog-friendly.

The good thing is most popular hotels tend to allow pets.

Still, you have to be sure of the costs, size requirements, and other things that may be tied to this. Along with pet-friendly hotels and vacation rentals, you might also want to consider researching the nearest vet places, pet supply stores, dog parks, dog-friendly beaches, and more close to your destination.

3. Don’t Forget to Check Travel Regulations

Whether you’re traveling by air, bus, train, or car, it’s important always to check regulations, so you don’t find yourself having to deal with avoidable issues.

For instance, if you’re going by air, you can quickly look up these regulations online as most airlines often have these clearly stated on their websites. Most airlines will let your small dogs travel with you, usually in a cabin under your seat. The cost of this, size requirements, and even the breeds allowed may vary with each transporter. Greyhound only allows service dogs on board, and Amtrak now seems to permit small dogs less than 20lbs. But don’t just assume. Be sure!

4. Pack Familiar Items Along for Your Dog

It’s going to be a long trip, so make enough provisions for the long haul.

While there may be limited space depending on how you choose to travel, it’s still important to pack along with everything your pet will need throughout the journey and even beyond.

These will include;

• Food and treats
• Medications and supplements
• Food and water bowls
• A compact litter box
• Tissue paper rolls to clean up the mess after your dog and waste bags
•  First aid kit in case of car sickness and emergencies and
• Your pet’s bed and toys to help it ease into unfamiliar environments.

5. Choose a Mode of Transportation

Planning is always important for success, even beyond this travel.

Planning here includes factoring in your mode of transportation, whether it’s air, bus, train, or car, so you can make other plans to make the trip as easy and enjoyable for your dog as possible. Typically, traveling by car is usually the easiest, as far as your dog is concerned.

How you plan to travel will also affect other things, such as ensuring you stay in compliance with applicable rules and regulations, ensuring your dog drives with you safely, or even things like planning potty breaks for your dog along the way.

6. Try Out Short Trips

This should not come last.

But we’ve brought it to the end so that you can know how important it is. It pays to get your pet used to travel before you just hit the road with them for a long drive.

These short trips will give you a picture of how they may behave on longer trips just by studying their body language. Do they look frightened? Nervous? Excited? Relaxed? This can help you know if it would be an excellent decision to take the long ride with them.

What is the Best Way to Travel with a Dog in a Car?

We mentioned that how to travel with your dog across the country is more convenient than most other transportation modes. But there are things you may want to do to ensure your dogs’ safety and compliance with local laws. These may include;

• Buying pet seat belts before the journey.
• Using a dog harness or travel crate as some states may require dog owners to restrain their dogs while inside the car.
• You might also consider getting a pet blanket or seat cover to ensure your pup stays comfortable every moment of the trip.

Take more precautions to keep your dog safe as anxious dogs may run off.

This can become a problem in unfamiliar environments. Experts recommend microchipping your pets as the best way to avoid losing them if things like this happen. But at the very least, you can make sure they have a dog collar on with details of your name, contact number, and where you’re currently staying.

What is the Best Way to Travel with a Dog?

The best way to travel with your dog is by traveling in a car, whether it’s a long or short trip. But even at this, there’s more to traveling with your dog in your car than just bundling up the dog in the back seat and then speeding off.

Remember we talked about dog safety in the car already, so you have to adhere to these rules not just for compliance but for the safety and convenience of both yourself and the friend traveling with you.