5 Tips For Traveling With Dogs

After our weekend in Kailua, I wanted to share a few tips about traveling with dogs. In our dreams, we will take Judy and Bill on road trips across the United States in a big camper van, but for now, we will settle for traveling with them to the other side of the island 🙂 While we weren’t exactly going far, we were still taking the dogs out of their normal environment for an extended period of time, which meant we needed to prepare a little bit on our end to make sure they had an enjoyable weekend, too. Truthfully, I meant to share this post right after our mini-trip, but life got hectic. With summer on the horizon and many families traveling, I knew it needed to happen! Today I’m sharing 5 quick tips for traveling with dogs. 

5 Tips For Traveling With Dogs

Bring Proper Medication and Food – First things first – yours dogs aren’t going to be eating out at restaurants with you, so it’s important that you bring along enough food for them for the duration of your stay. This is particularly important if your dog eats a special type of dog food (ours do) or have allergies. Make sure to also pack any medication they need to take daily. 

Collapsible Bowls – We packed their Slow Feeders for meals (non-negotiable for us since Bill’s experience with bloat), but we also did a good bit of exploring, so it was great for us to have the collapsible bowls for giving them water from time to time. 

Find Pet Friendly Accommodations – This is a BIG one! We rented a house, so we were able to make sure ahead of time to pick a pet-friendly property by narrowing our search options. That said, if you’re taking a road trip, hotels are probably the better option. Picking pet friendly hotels is easy with resources like BringFido, that feature a full pet friendly hotel and dog travel directory.

Bring Some Comforts Of Home – Dogs can sometimes get nervous when they’re taken outside the comforts and familiarity of home. It’s important to bring a few items they know (and love) to make travel an enjoyable experience. After all – they’re with their favorite people…YOU! We brought along a couple of Judy and Bill’s favorite toys, as well as their beds. 

Have A Plan. Make pit stops, research dog friendly restaurants or activities. – Let’s be honest: pets can add a whole new layer of traveling stress. It is what it is. Taking Judy and Bill with us on our adventure meant we needed to look up what we could do that was pet friendly ahead of time. Doing this definitely added some additional pre-trip tasks, but it saved a boat load of stress when it came time for us to actually travel. 

Do you travel with your pets? If so, I’d love to know your best tip! 

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like 10 Life Hacks For Dog Owners or 7 Beach Essentials For Dog Owners. If you can’t get enough of Judy and Bill, be sure to check out all of my pet content featuring photos, tips and dog treat recipes 🙂