Preparing for a Road Trip

Sometimes I just need an excuse to post pictures of my boys.

In years past when we wanted to travel with the dogs, we just threw them in the back of the car and planned for an extra long day of driving. Okay, that’s not quite true, we did get Moree and Smokey seatbelt harnesses, but the truth is, there was not much more thought than that to taking them with us on the drive from Seattle to Reno.

This weekend, we are taking Larry and June with us on a short trip to the southern part of the state. Instead of a sixteen hour drive each way, it will be about four hours. And yet, it feels like a lot more planning is going in to taking them than it ever did with Moree and Smokey.

Now, we bought the wagon specifically so we could have a car that could travel with the dogs and a car seat. That would have been true given the adoption process, regardless of the dogs, so I can’t say that is really different. Nor can I say the divider we bought to keep them in the back of the wagon is different from before, as it very possibly would have been bought even sooner with the bigger dogs (Moree was 55lbs and Smokey was 65lbs, compared to Larry and June at 25lbs and 35lbs). And in that sense, the divider is much like their seatbelt harnesses. It is meant to keep them safely in their space and not impede on the driver.

But today, we also bought the dogs thundershirts for the drive. Here’s the thing- both Larry and June and much better car dogs than Moree and Smokey were. We used to have to drug Moree with Benedryl to get him to calm down on long car trips. He responded really well to his seatbelt harness and probably would have been much happier with a thundershirt (if they had existed/I had known about them). But Larry does get pretty excited, and when he’s going, it can be hard for Junebug to relax- so thundershirts for both of them.

Our other plan, since the drive is only four hours and not sixteen, is to start the morning at the dog park and let them run out some energy before we hit the road. I’ll also be putting a giant dog bed in the back of the wagon so that they have something comfy to lie on. I’m also debating one of the rubber bottomed water dishes so that they can have water in the back whenever they want, instead of just on stops.

It will be our first road trip with these two, and it’s possible we’re over thinking it. I mean, Junebug is a champion sleeper, and Larry is able to (mostly) calm down on the freeway (where there’s no joggers or dogs being walked by), as long as there aren’t too many motorcycles. But still, four people and two dogs in a car requires some planning ahead, at least for sanity’s sake.

Naturally, I’ll report back here next week to tell you how it went.