Traveling with pets is never easy, so the article title is a little misleading. But traveling with pets can be easier. I’m not a pet expert, per se, but I am an authority on the subject by default, considering I’m the proud papa of four dogs and a cat, while also having raised several others over the years and fostering a few along the way. It’s part of the reason that you’ll find my name attached to so much of our pet content on the site.
Like many pet owners, I consider my dogs and cat family members, and every year I travel from Tennessee all the way down to South Florida with my dogs. I’d take my cat, but she prefers to stay at home with her favorite babysitter. I’ve done this same routine year after year, and I’ve finally got it down to a science, so I thought I’d share my experiences with all of you in the hopes that it makes your holiday a little easier on you and your pets.
Traveling with Pets: No Fly Zone
When possible, I recommend avoiding hauling your pet to the airport, stowing them like luggage, and hoping they arrive at the same airport as you… And alive. Here are the stats for 2014 concerning pet safety while flying.
While 45 incidents may not seem like a lot, that’s partially because it was a down year for pet deaths and injuries on American carriers. This doesn’t even account for the trauma that your pet experiences on the trip, often being shoved into pitch black cargo holds, where the temperature fluctuates dramatically, as does the air pressure. Unless you have to do this, please do not.
Traveling with Pets: Don’t Worry About Your Time
Remember, you can’t rationalize with your dogs and cats. Try as you might, when you tell them they just have to stay calm while driving a few hours to your destination they will never understand you. In time, and if you travel with them enough, they’ll learn what vacations are and know what to expect, but that takes time and several trips together. Which means at first travel may be very, very stressful.
Stress manifests itself in many ways for animals, including creating nervous energy. It’s important that your animal has a way to release some of this energy. If you’re traveling with dogs, be sure to take frequent stops early in your trip. As your pup builds up that nervous energy from being in a car for a longer-than-normal amount of time, he’ll get nervous and very likely misbehave. That’s why I recommend making frequent stops early in your trip, where you can walk your dog and let him see that everything is fine, that you’re not going to abandon him and you can let him expel the energy that he stored up. As your trip continues the stops can become less frequent, and your dog will eventually settle into a groove.
You can also find cat leashes so you can take cats out on short walks, but try this at home first, as most cats will not willingly go along with this. I also recommend the SENTRY Calming Collar for traveling with cats.
Traveling with Pets: Make it Feel Like Home
Cats and dogs alike know where home is. They also know what home smells like and what you smell like, which is why I always make a bed in my car out of a blanket I used the night before while sleeping. That blanket then smells like my home, but it also smells like me specifically (any my spouse). These familiar scents will help put your pet at ease, helping to reduce the amount of stress he’s feeling. They’re also great if you have to stay overnight in a hotel, which will be completely unfamiliar to your pet.
Traveling with Pets: Ask for Help
I’ve driven long distances with several animals in my life, whether moving or traveling for pleasure, and the one thing I’ve come to realize is that each animal handles things a little bit differently. That’s why I always ask my vets for his/her recommendations for my specific animal. I recently fostered a homeless cat and had to drive her from Nashville to Florida to her new home. Well, my vet and I both knew that this little kitty was a pretty high strung booger, especially in cars. Because of that we both agreed that it would be easier on her to sedate her for the drive. One pill and she slept for all 10 hours of driving, without one peep. It was almost as if I were driving alone.
On the flip side, I have a wisened, elderly chihuahua-rat terrier mix who can sleep on her own for that 10 hour drive without bothering me, so my vet would never recommend giving her something to make the trip easier. The one time I drove my own cat a significant difference, my vet recommended a little kitty dose of Valium, just to mellow her out a bit. My old flat coated retriever did well enough with 25mg of Benadryl to make it 9 hours in the car. This year I’m taking two new dogs, a good ol’ mutt and a yellow lab, with me to South Florida, and I know they’ll both need something stronger than Benadryl to feel comfortable.
My point here is simple: it’s okay to let your vet prescribe something to make the trip easier on both you and your animal. If your animal gets stressed out, don’t you want to do everything possible to make it less stressful? Well, sometimes that means knocking your little furball out for 10 hours.
Traveling with Pets: Hotel Stays
Lastly, we have to address hotel stays with animals. You can find Pet Friendly Hotels easily enough these days, but there are a few more things to think about beyond just whether or not you can use the hotel. Firstly, if you’re staying in that hotel with a pet, the chances are good that someone else has before you, and the scent of other animals may put your pet onguard or stress them out. That’s why I grab dinner/lunch before checking in, so I don’t have to immediately leave my pets alone in a foreign place without me. I’ll also make sure that they have water and food first thing when I check into a hotel. Providing food and water signals that it’s okay for your pets to settle in where you are. Secondly, bring that blanket inside from your car. It smells like you and your home, which is exactly what your pet probably wants at that moment.
Preston Hemmerich is the Content Manager for 301 Digital Media, overseeing MensTrait.com, OutwardOn.com, DailyBeautyHack.com and more. He enjoys writing about food, politics, travel and sad attempts at humor. Follow him on Twitter — @pkhemmerich
