Summer Travel~Taking Man’s Best Friend on the Road

As you all well know by now, my husband and I adopted a dog a few months ago.  While I was very prepared for all of the dog’s needs in the house, I found that on the go was a whole other story.

I travel a lot for business.  We have a Joyful Organizer branch in Maine and we are up there quite frequently.  We did a lot of research before we got Roxy to make sure we would be able to take her just about everywhere we go.  And so, she comes on all of our business trips to Maine.

I very quickly found out that a dog’s needs on the go are a little different.  Our first trip was a little rough around the edges but since then I’ve created a doggie system that can go with us very quickly.

The first thing I did was establish two bags to be hers.  They are canvas bags and they have zippers on the top.  One is for food and supplies and the other is for toys and treats.  I put these bags with our luggage so we can grab them on the go very quickly.

In order to be able to feed her on the go, I purchased a weekend food bag like the one seen here:

I then put a small inexpensive measuring cup inside it so I have no problems measuring out food when the time comes.  In order to be able to feed her on the go, I threw in a two in one water and food bowl like this one:

So, now having her food taken care of, I turned to other supplies.  I threw in an extra leash into the travel kit.  I never want to be without one and most of us have at least one extra tossing around.  I also threw in some waste disposal bags.  Rest stops all have different types of rules.  Never knowing what I’m going to encounter, I wanted to be prepared.

Finally, I put in some styptic powder for first aid.  I also make sure to grab out tick kit when we travel.  (Its not part of her travel kit but I do have a small plastic container with a tick remover, rubber gloves, treats and antiseptic spray ready in case we need to remove a tick.)

While we have been able to stay at some of our old hotels, we have had to find some new ones that take dogs without a large extra fee.  I’ve used this site a couple of times and been quite happy with it:

http://www.bringfido.com/

Finally, I have a s mall crate that I can carry into a hotel very easily.  It allows her a place to sleep at night and some hotels even require your dog be in a crate in the room if you are not with them.  A crate like this is inexpensive, easy to travel with and gives you all peace of mind.  Just make sure that your dog tests it out BEFORE your trip!

The other bag is filled when we leave home.  I throw in some treats, some toys and we are ready to go!  I want to purchase a book like this one to help me find more and more places to take our Roxy so we can all have fun together.