Traveling with our pets

For many of us our pets are the children we never had, the faithful companion and friend who

is always there no matter what the situation might be.  There are some circumstances in which we may not be able to bring our pets on a trip; however, we still want them to have a good time.   For the last two summers we were not able to take with us our chocolate cocker spaniel Hershey, as his back problems made it difficult for him to get in and out of the RV.  Although we took him camping occasionally he was more comfortable staying home with the dog sitter.  Sadly, age and illness took over Hershey and he passed away last November.   We used to leave our miniature dachshund Pudgie, with his pal Hershey as they were always together and could not be away from each other.  I will write some Hershey stories on another blog.   Ladybug our female black miniature dachshund, always came with us in all of our trips.  It was sort of like “girls time out.”

Since Hershey’s passing there was no reason to leave Pudgie behind and he has become part of the “girls” pack.  Ladybug is used to traveling and once she gets placed into her booster safety seat she puts her little doll by her side and falls asleep.  That is until she hears the sound of a bag of chips opening or the scent of some food.  She is food driven and can pick the scent of food and the sound of a bag of chips even when she sleeps!  Pudgie, on the other hand, was used to shorter trips and being on mommies’ lap!!  We knew Pudgie could not go on a longer trip seating on mommies’ lap since it would not be safe and he needed to get used to a safety seat.  We purchased him a booster seat and went for a trial run.  As soon as the truck started to move he began to cry.  It didn’t matter what we said to him there was no way he was going to stay in his seat and travel quietly.  He was used to travel on our laps and he was trying very hard to make us take him out.   After 20 minutes of travel, there was no luck he was going to be quiet and enjoy the trip so my partner climbed to the back seat and sat next to him.  He got quiet and began to enjoy the trip.   He has used this trick every time we get in the car and start driving, however we have not given in.  His new trick is that now on most trips we end up stopping somewhere in order for him to get off the car and “pee,” sometimes he just walks around.  You may think “don’t stop you are enforcing his behavior” you are absolutely correct we are fully aware of that

however, try driving for 6 hours to West Virginia from NY with a dachshund crying in the back seat for the length of the trip!!!  Children know how to manipulate parents!!! LOL Now we talk about how we used to see people on the side of the road letting their dogs out to go to the bathroom and we thought it was cute that they stopped for the dogs.  We find ourselves in the same situation except that we find a rest stop or get off on the next exit rather than be at risk stopping on the side of the highway.

On one of our trips we let him seat in the back seat without being inside of his safety seat and he just slept until we got home.  We know now that he just doesn’t like the safety booster seat.  We are going to get him another seat a little bit bigger to see if he is more comfortable and he can stay in it without wanting to get out and have a better ride. Overall taking Ladybug and Pudgie with us has been great for them as they have met many of their kind throughout our travels and they too have found fun around the corner!!

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