Cross Country Driving with Two Canine Co-Pilots
After a grueling cross country move with two small dogs, my fiance and I are now bi-coastal with a new home on the East Coast. We weighed the different options for moving our belongings from San Francisco to the DC region and for a few reasons — mostly that we are clearly crazy — we decided driving everything ourselves in a U-haul was the best option. This, of course, meant our two dogs would be coming along for the ride. For your reading pleasure, here are Ten Takeaways from a Cross Country Trip with Two Dogs:
- Your dog will bark more than average if you sneak them into a non-pet friendly hotel.
- Grooming wipes and a roll of paper towels are a must.
- Poo bags double as great trash bags for the car.
- Attempting to feed dogs while car is in motion will result in a lapful of dog food. Same can be said for water.
- A related note: if driving through high elevations, the Gulpy water bottle will explode water all over you when you go to use it.
You and everything in the car will be covered in dog hair by the end of day one. Just go with it.- The dog(s) will be the most comfortable beings in the car at all times. You will be jealous.
- Forego any “daily bone allowance” you may have in place. Happily chewing pooches are quiet, content pooches during a long car ride.
- Leave collars and harnesses on the dogs at all times so it’s easy to hook on a leash for quick potty breaks. Place the leash in the same spot in the car after every walk.
- Having a dog who’ll pee on anything/any surface is most beneficial. I’m looking at you Joey a.k.a. “Mr. I Prefer Grass.”
For a perspective on this type of trip with cats as your animal companion, check out Sonia’s series of posts “Tails of two Cities” when she too moved cross country with pets in tow.
Images via Katie Redmiles
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4 Responses to “Cross Country Driving with Two Canine Co-Pilots”
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Love the photos!
This reminds me of a long-ago cross country (Canada) trip with two cats in a small Mazda 323 caravaned with a UHaul, who handled it very well. I have a nice shot of the cats gazing out at the Rockies on their leashes and harnesses – how many felines can brag about that?
The worst night though (for humans only) was when we rolled into Kenora, Ontario at 2 am. I had a migrane, needed a room, and the only room left was in the basement of a fleabag hotel because we arrived during “Bass Fest” or something (fishing town). We walked into the room, and it looked like where people went to die. We used another term… but this is a family site :) It was horrid. We let the two cats off their leashes, and it was like Disneyland for them. They spent the ENTIRE night bouncing and flying around the room chasing and catching the many many things in there I didn’t want to know about.
Yes, the animals fare much better than we do :)
Thanks Jen! I do have a cell phone pic of Happy (the driving dog above) at the Grand Canyon which I think earns him some bragging rights too. Unfortunately with all the preparing I did, I forgot to charge the camera so the first day and half of the trip are undocumented. Whoops.
Sorry to hear about your fleabag hotel stay. At least you can laugh about it now and I’m sure your cats remember it fondly. : )
Definitely! And I’d imagine great inspiration for digging holes in the backyard :) Congrats on a successful trip though, that sure is a long one to survive! And thanks so much for sharing it.
I just found some pics on Flickr (brings up … assorted memories):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdehaan/tags/crosscountrycats/ (Vancouver to Toronto… never documented Toronto > Calgary, or Calgary > SF!)
Cool story and tips, thanks for sharing. Congrats on everyone making it unscathed!