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Traveling with Your Dog

Pets are a large part of many families, and if you are going on vacation or taking a car trip you may still be able to take your family dog with you if you are careful about your planning. While some people do not want the additional hassle of caring for a dog while on vacation or traveling, many people love to travel with their pet. In this article, I am going to offer you various ideas about how to travel with your dog, and how to plan while traveling with your dog. 

No matter what type of dog that you have, traveling with a dog in public places can be cumbersome. Your dog has to be trained to stay by your side, stay in your arms, and not to attack for the most successful trips. A dog that is going to bark often, run often and that is going to scare other people is going to be a dog that is hard to handle while you are on vacation and traveling. You want to be just like all the others traveling, not scaring people, so your pet will be permitted in hotels, motels, in parks and such. 

Your pet is a big part of your life, and often if you are traveling with your pet dog, you think that you dog is more like your child than a pet. It is always important to remember, especially when traveling with your dog, that children are going to think your dog is cute, and they are going to want to pet it – even if they don’t know you. Hold your dog or keep the dog within your sites while strange child play with your pet so problems don’t occur while you are traveling. Dogs can be unpredictable around a child. A child could put their hands or fingers in the wrong place and irritate the dog. 

When traveling with your pet, you should remember that you will need to take enough food for however long you are going to be away from home. Traveling from city to city or state to state, it can often be difficult to find the exact same brand of dog food that your pet loves the most. Giving your dog different types of dog food while traveling can cause their stomach to be upset, to change their bowel movements and can cause gas that could be smelly. Pack or take along enough dog food for your pet while you are on the road for a healthy and happier pet. 

Traveling with a dog can be difficult if you have not done so before. Your pet will need to go to the bathroom about an hour after eating, and sometimes more often if they are more nervous. If you are traveling by car, you can easily stop to allow your pet to go to the bathroom besides the highway. If you are traveling by plane this is a different case. 

If you are traveling by plane, one of the best things that you can do is not to feed or water your dog for about three hours before you are going to board the plane. Try to take your pet to the bathroom a few times before entering the airport, and before they are crated or entering the plane, this will help with accidents when the dog is overly excited and you are in the middle of take off. 

The pet that does have an accident in the airport or on the plane can be smelly or messy. It is going to be your responsibility as the pet owner to take care of your pet. If your pet is in a crate in the baggage area, they most likely will be fine and able to hold their urine until they are left back out of the crate. 

Traveling with your pet does not automatically mean that you know for sure if you are going to be able to take your pet into every restaurant, hotel or even location that you are traveling too. If you are going through a travel agent be sure to specify that you are taking your dog with you so special arrangements can be made, even if you are traveling on a bus. If you are booking your own travel, tell the hotel, the cab company, the airline and so on. There are beaches that don’t permit dogs, there are beaches that do permit dogs, you will have to inquire when making your travel arrangements for the best situation.