If you’re a pet parent, you know that RV trips are always better when your happy canine co-pilot is along for the ride. But grabbing a leash is only the first step to fun and safe RV pet travels. Before you hit the road on your next journey, make sure you pack these four things RVing dogs need inside your rig.
Four Things RVing Dogs Need in Your RV
Don’t leave home without these essential RVing dogs supplies.
Restraint Device
Nobody expects to be in a car accident. But if one happens while your RV is in motion, your best pal can get tossed like a rag doll. Check out this shocking doggie crash test dummy video that shows what happens to dogs who travel unrestrained in vehicles:
Dog restraint devices consist of a high quality, hard-sized or wire kennel, or a crash-test approved dog harness.
Doggie First Aid Kit
RVing dogs need their humans to be prepared.
From thorny plants to angry porcupines, your dog can be in harm’s way whenever you enter a new environment with unfamiliar surroundings. Pack a first-aid kit to help your dog if an injury happens. You can buy a doggie first aid kit online, or better yet build a custom kit with your vet’s help.
“Your vet knows the specific needs that your dog has, and can help you find items to include in your kit specifically for your dog, and the activity you are planning,” says T.C. Wait, a sled dog team captain and safety expert. “The vet can also identify items in your kit that should NOT be used on dogs, which you might want to mark somehow so that any future need can easily identify and avoid them.”
Calming Aids
Pheromones mimick a mother’s soothing hormones.
Doggie stress manifests in all sorts of ways, like bathroom accidents inside the RV. Keep your pet calm when the road gets bumpy. Reach for any of the doggie calming aids currently on the market. Some work better than others, results can vary depending on the dog.
One good option is known as an “anxiety cap.” This simple cloth device works like a horse blinder; it goes over your dog’s head and tones down visual disturbances that cause anxiety.
Other over-the-counter holistic remedies to help anxious pets calm down include pheromone collars, sprays and diffusers. Pheromones are undetectable to human noses but calming to pets. They work by mimicking a mother dog’s hormones that sooth and calm her young offspring.
Dog Waste Bags
Dogs get a bad rap when someone steps on poop in a campground. Those of us who go RVing with dogs always need to set a good example and pick it up. Stow plenty of doggie waste bags in easy-to-reach spots near the door. Even better, stuff the bags into a doggie waste bag leash attachment. That way you’re always prepared for your dog’s deposits.
If you consider your dog a family member, be sure to treat her or him like one. Show the respect your dog deserves by making these five essential things for RVing dogs part of your camping and RVing travels.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
I only count four…but they are MUSTS and I travel with all of them with my dogs. My dogs are crated near the motorhome exit door when we are underway. That way if there is an emergency, I don’t have to go looking for them…they will be out the door first.
Doh! Thanks for catching that Debby. Your feedback is always awesome.