Swaggers travelling with dogs.. your input please ?

[rokster72]

Hi all,

We're about to venture into travelling longer distances with the kids'  2 dogs in tow.. and there's a couple of questions we'd love to have some experienced travellers answer for us.

1. How often do you stop to let the dogs have a leg stretch ?
2. How do you handle travelling though areas that's baited with 1080.. muzzle the dogs ? Keep them on a very short leash so you can monitor everything they investigate ?
3. What do you do with your dogs overnight ? Back in the cage / container they travel in ? Or just on a short leash tied to the camper ?
4. What do you do with your dogs during the day ? Longer leash so they can float around the camp site.. but not long enough for them to get into trouble ?
5. What do you do with your dogs when you want / need to enter / pass through a national park / area where dogs are not welcome ?

Any other tips, advice, ideas or ramblings will be greatly appreciated !

[oldmate]

Hi all,

We're about to venture into travelling longer distances with the kids'  2 dogs in tow.. and there's a couple of questions we'd love to have some experienced travellers answer for us.

1. How often do you stop to let the dogs have a leg stretch ? When we stop

2. How do you handle travelling though areas that's baited with 1080.. muzzle the dogs ? Keep them on a very short leash so you can monitor everything they investigate ? Just keep them close and watch them, ours dont wander too far from us anyway

3. What do you do with your dogs overnight ? Back in the cage / container they travel in ? Or just on a short leash tied to the camper ?We sleep in our camper with the dogs,when they let us. it is their camper

4. What do you do with your dogs during the day ? Longer leash so they can float around the camp site.. but not long enough for them to get into trouble ? Again our dogs dont wander. we leash them on a teather if we are somewhere they have to be on leads

5. What do you do with your dogs when you want / need to enter / pass through a national park / area where dogs are not welcome ? We avoid nat parks! but i think you are allowed to pass through if you dont stop and let them out if you are on a main road so to speak.

Any other tips, advice, ideas or ramblings will be greatly appreciated !

It all comes down to how your dogs travel. Ours have done it their whole life, so they can easy do 5 hours without stopping, by then you are stopping for lunch/fuel/set up camp anyway. ours get a walk then.

[rockinj]

Hi all,

We're about to venture into travelling longer distances with the kids'  2 dogs in tow.. and there's a couple of questions we'd love to have some experienced travellers answer for us.
 

1. How often do you stop to let the dogs have a leg stretch ?
I have travelled with dogs/horses all my life - camping, showing and general travelling - and use the same general rule of thumb for both without any incident. The stretch your legs bit can be up to each dog however when driving LONG distance I tend to look at around 5 hours for dogs 6 months and over. Younger dogs generally can't hold a wee that long. If I am travelling through the night, I have had plenty of dogs curl up and sleep for hours on end. The longest I have gone was with a 4 month old pup through the night - 9 hours. She just slept curled up on the back seat with my 5yo the whole way. Luckily, when she woke in the early morning I pulling up for fuel anyway.

2. How do you handle travelling though areas that's baited with 1080.. muzzle the dogs ? Keep them on a very short leash so you can monitor everything they investigate ?
If I know bait is around, I would muzze AND leash. It is not something to mess with.

3. What do you do with your dogs overnight ? Back in the cage / container they travel in ? Or just on a short leash tied to the camper ?
This again depends on the age and type of dog. I have both big and small dogs. Big dogs on a CHAIN or in a cage on the back of the ute. Small dogs in a crate. With small dogs, it is too easy for someone elses big dog to come and attack. Not often happens but CAN happen. Good luck to them if they want to take on my big dogs. This again depends on the age. I don't tie a young pup up for long periods of time.

4. What do you do with your dogs during the day ? Longer leash so they can float around the camp site.. but not long enough for them to get into trouble ?

Similar to above. If I am there, I am happy for my small dogs to be tied up. Remember though, some dogs CHEW. I have had horse floats in the past lose wiring to an ADULT dog. Some dogs have never chewed anything in their life, they see wiring and go yum! Tie them away from trailer wiring. Always go for over kill when tieing up dogs. I have seen far too many dogs break the rope they are tied up with as the owner has not thought about the weight of a happy/cranky dog hitting the end of the rope at full bore. I almost had my newly purchased expensive puppy eaten by a great dane hitting the end of $2 plastic rope from Waynes World. You know the stuff most of us use for hanging our towl on when camping. Chain, chain, chain! Remember, if you are not there, you really do not know what your dog is doing.

5. What do you do with your dogs when you want / need to enter / pass through a national park / area where dogs are not welcome ?

Sorry, can't help you on that one. The ones I have driven though with dogs on board, I am literally driving though and they are highway National Parks mostly anyway or mapped thoroughfares.

Any other tips, advice, ideas or ramblings will be greatly appreciated !

[scrapsD40]

It all comes down to how your dogs travel. Ours have done it their whole life, so they can easy do 5 hours without stopping, by then you are stopping for lunch/fuel/set up camp anyway. ours get a walk then.

So now they've done the Cape, have they told you where they want to go next year?

[Fathom]

So now they've done the Cape, have they told you where they want to go next year?

Stanthorpe.

[scrapsD40]

Stanthorpe.

Ruff trip

[oldmate]

USA, but too bad

[LC]

My experience from owning our Cav King Charles Spaniel for 4months now (BTW this is the only dog I have ever owned!!! So massive amounts of experience here)

1) she gets out and has a wee / walk whenever we stop, which is roughly every two hours anyway. I have spent a bit of time teaching/reinforcing this with her i.e. a reward for weeing, just as she gets at home for weeing outside. She travels in her bed. She wont wee in her bed, and I'm now pretty confident she wont wee in the car. She gets very restless when she needs to go to the loo, so if I don't stop its my fault anyway. I have also told the kids if she does start weeing in the car they are to pick her up and cuddle her very tightly so they get covered in wee, not the car. I can easily wash the kids change their clothes, the car is a bit harder to clean. They seem "happy" with this concept.

2) cant comment on the baited thing, but keeping them very close sounds like common sense to me.

3) She sleeps in the camper, this translates to sleeping in our bed most of the time! Just like home really.

4) During the day she comes with us, if we around the camper then she just hangs with us. Depending on where we are and how much traffic is around will dictate whether or not she gets tied up. We put a mat down or her bed down on the ground and she knows this is her spot, and generally spends most of the time sitting there anyway. When we first arrive she wants to investigate every where - presume that is normal, but once that is done she does not wonder far anyway.

5) Never been to national park with our dog, so cant comment. Did however stay in a hotel with her one night though!!

[Desert lover]

We are owned by a Jack Russell.....
Since she was a pup she has been on the lead when outside the car, tethered when setting up or breaking camp and unless we are exercising her on an oval or similar (unlikely to be baited area) always kept close (lead,long lead) and watched closely to see she doesn't pick anything up which may be harmful.  Most National/State/Coastal parks have signs up if baits are laid but we never think they aren't there anywhere we go..
She sleeps in the camper with us and this ensures if she moves during the night she can be taken out for a toilet break.
We do have a soft sided crate (flywire sides, zippered etc) in which we can contain her should it be necessary.  this can be folded down and packed away for travel.
She is always tethered in the vehicle.
She lets us know when she needs to stop if travelling.
Can pass through National Park but mustn't leave the vehicle (my understanding) and so we no longer visit National parks - some state parks ok though.  We would be quite happy to leave her in the car overnight if we had too but would check her during that time.
In warm weather we have pet window frames (Supercheap had them) with flywire cable tied on.  Both sides of the vehicle allows a fair degree of ventilation.  She also had ice packs under one side of her bed on the back seat if we have had to leave her for a short time and it is warm.
I always do my homework and have a list of Vets, their opening hours, emergency contact numbers for the route we expect to travel and we carry a small doggy first aid kit -
All in all no problems to date and we love travelling with her.

[SambOz]

Just a health tip, get the Vet to give you something for the dog to cover it
for Heart Worm, it's very rare down south in Vic, but needed up north.

No idea if its in WA, you may have already covered it.

I wouldn't have the dog unattended and tied up, plenty of wandering mongrel
dogs that could give yrs a hiding, even walking them in some of the smaller
settlements needs caution.

[wakychapmans]

We have a white fluffy ball of fun... a 2 year old Samoyed. He our first dog and so he's being patient with us and teaching us at our own speed.

He comes everywhere with us. He's here right now at work. He's been coming to work since he was 8 weeks old. So he's very comfortable in a car.

We've done multiple trips interstate and he's just fine. When he was very little he was crate trained. So he now won't go to the toilet unless he's on grass or dirt. He's happy to allow us to do the driving and he can sleep in the backseat. Normally we crack the rear windows a few cm to let him sniff the world. But I just found this... (see below) available from Supercheap. http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Pets-on-Tour-Window-Vent-Large.aspx?pid=385380&menuFrom=1021358#Recommendations

When camping, we originally tried having him in the camper with us... but he's border collie sized and so he warms the place up easily. Might be nice in cooler temps... no so much fun when it's 30 degree at 9pm.

We're adding an awning and under awning tent to the camper soon and I know that he will be happy to sleep in that. (As long as he can keep an eye on us... he's happy)

We also have an enclosure from his puppy years and a large fold up soft crate that we can use in a pinch. (the soft crate fits just nice behind the back seats in the 105 series). At camp, we have a 6 metre webbing lead that he's happy to sniff about on the end of.

Not yet been to baited areas... so will be following this thread with interest.

[Desert lover]

The picture in the post below of the window vents are what I referred to in my previous post.  We fly wired ours after some nights in the bush during a mouse plague.... also helps to keep out any flying bugs or other insects.  Ours originally (pre puppy) were to ventilate the fridge which is carried in the patrol. 

[baggs71]

curious...so when a dog farts...WTF do you do?...just suck it in and laugh every 100klms around oz?

[Nomad]

I think Desert Lovers approach to baits is the safest. Don't assume there are not baits around.
Birds will quite often pick up a bait and drop it somewhere else. Have seen the effects on a farm dog and it wasn't pretty. Better to be cautious I reckon

 

[Discoduck]

While travelling my 48kg German Shepherd has the entire back of Patrol. I have cargo barrier against front seats so heaps of room all covered in thick bedding. He is happy but if he gets restless I stop for a break. Otherwise I tend to stop ever couple of hours to let him wee if required and stretch his legs. I always carry water and his bowl so is offered drink at stop time too, more frequent if hot.
If in caravan park I have a 10' steel wire covered in plastic sheath to clip him to draw-bar, usually only when going to ablution block or maybe camp kitchen. Good guard dog! Only ever barks if threatened. Slept in van (now sold) and plan to sleep in hard floor area of Tvan when it arrives. He is well trained now at 4yrs old so if remote and having a break he is free to wander; he NEVER picks anything up but I still keep a VERY close eye on him. Snakes can also be as big a risk as baits. In areas posted with notice re baits I would keep him on lead for all walks etc. Oh, and he doesn't fart. He is great company and makes me laugh, good company and I feel safe with him. Yes, it means no go to Nat Parks, but gosh, there's so much country to see.

[Tim - Stratford]

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=6942.0

In the showroom section GG makes dog cables for securing to your camper or trees.

Sarah

[Fathom]

Ours travel pretty well too.
They'll easily sleep 5 or so hours and not worry.
If they need to go, they'll let you know.
Sometimes not so subtly...
Pfft..
While camping they won't wander far from camp, generally not out of eye sight. (But can if something piques their interest...)

If other dogs/ dogs they don't know/or it's the rules we keep ours tied to the camper. (Although one chews through rope)
And.. Securing  them to the camper can be a pain.. Especially with awning poles and ropes.
Also they are capable of dragging the camper if something riles them up.
We don't leave ours alone at camp.
However generally during the day they're happy to sleep under the camper.
At night they sleep in the camper... It's their camper..
I won't argue with them.

They generally go to bed before us... They want in pretty early.
The biggest drama with that is where our light switches are.. They can wag their tails and turn the lights on.. Midnight disco tech.
If baits were about. You would have to be more carful again I spose.
It's not much different to having younger kids. You have to watch them...

It can be a pain in the proverbial taking them sometimes.   But still rewarding.
We only take them on trips when we know it will be easy for them and us..

[oldmate]

Where do you store your saddles?

[rockinj]

Where do you store your saddles?

Is that question for me?

If so - I tow the camper behind our horse truck when showing. Plenty of room for horse and saddles.

:-)

[Fathom]

Where do you store your saddles?

I'm too lazy for saddles

[oldmate]

Bare back all the way.

[BaseCamp]

o'dear.....   that warrants the response:     bbxj.....   LOL....

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