Taking a dog on holiday

[anyoldname76]

We're thinking about going scotland for a week over new year, the journey is roughly 5 and a half hours.
We've never taken him on holiday before and hes only been in the car for short trips to the park, vets etc
just wondering what its like with a dog in tow, the cottage we've seen is dog friendly so that's no problem, im just a bit worried as its the 1st time.

How does your dog usually cope with change?

I'm in the middle of a long distance house move with anxious DDog and Adaptil seems to be making a difference. I've also got one of the chase n chomp sticky bones which I'll fill with peanut butter and stick to the inside of the car window for the next long distance journey.

He's only been in kennels once and it did stress him so we havent been on holiday as a family since, dh has stayed home to look after him, other than that hes not had any change in his routine, hes quite a lazy dog and wont go out for a walk if its raining etc.

How old is he? If he’s not done any longer trips could you start taking him with you in the car more so it becomes more normal? Not suggesting you leave him in car when hot obvs.
We take ours on holiday every year; we have a 10 hr+ drive and she is absolutely fine.
I think going in holiday with your dog is one of the nicest things!

Obviously you're sorted for this holiday, but if you want to go somewhere he can't go in future eg abroad, you might like to consider home boarding, where your dog stays in someone else's house. I doubt mine would cope with kennels but home boarding was fine. I pay £30 per 24 hours in inner London.

We took our dog to Cornwall this summer, she’s not quite a year old and is used to fairly long car journeys when we visit family but the holiday was the longest she’s been on.

She was absolutely fine, slept in her travel box for most of the journey and came out for a wee and paw stretch every few hours. She was also fine with our accommodation, but again she’s stayed a night or two away from home with us since she was tiny. I always take her bed and blanket and favourite toys, she seems to accept that if her things are there it’s her “home”.

Before you book I’d check what places around are dog friendly. We found our nearest beach wasn’t so had to go a little further away to a dog friendly one.

We used to take our dog away to Wales, Lake District etcetc. She was fine but we stopped regularly to allow her a little walk around and a wee. Also drinks.

Ours regularly has a 5 hour (or more if traffic is bad) journey with us in the car. He falls asleep on the back seat and is fine (we have one of those harnesses that fits to a seatbelt so he can move around a bit). We break the journey half way and give him a walk and the chance to relieve himself - we also offer water but he rarely seems to want to drink 'in transit'.

For the holiday itself, we take his crate (no longer used at home, but kept from when he was a pup) and blankets so he has a familiar place to sleep - he drops straight off and sleeps through. We used to take him camping, but now we're getting older we prefer self-catering or a static. We shut the door of his crate in case he has ideas about sleeping on the furniture as he does at home, which is usually against the rules in accommodation, for understandable reasons.

We also take a stake for outdoors as there's no guarantee of a dog-secured garden as at home - he can roam about on the long line but no danger of him getting lost.

We take three dogs on every holiday. For us, as long as we are there they could not care less where they are and settle within minutes.

We would stop half way for a pee and leg stretch and other than that they sleep all the way.

We take spare lead, collar, poo bags, food, bowls, towels for muddy paws, cages, blankets and toys. We had one broken collar on a walk so have an emergency backpack that comes with us now.

Winter perfect time as you can leave them in car for ten minutes or house for short period to go to shop etc. Summer can be harder to coordinate as cannot leave them at all.

The house we stay in during November has a brilliant warm boot room which they love and are safe and cosy in. Meals out we are a bit soft and tend to sit outside wrapped up so they lie under table or sometimes go inside but with three, and one very sociable that can be a pain in itself.

Had some lovely walks on holidays and it certainly makes us explore more than we would normally.

We take our dog on a 3 hour journey. He is fine, and the DC behave better when I say "stop bickering you are upsetting ddog"
Make sure you have a few stops and take something for him to drink

We always take our dog on holiday with us, mostly the Lake District as it's so dog friendly. He is fine in the car, likes to have some familiar toys with him, and we take plenty of towels and wet wipes.

We often take our dig eith us to Scotland - he's even been on a ferry to a Scottish island.
Our dog uses a crate to sleep in so in some ways that makes it easier.
We always have one long and one shorter stop and just plan it into the journey.

We’ve just taken our 2 dogs on holiday to Scotland and they coped great with the journey. It might be worth planning a nice walk or something an hour or so away first, as we did this and discovered our puppy got travel sick! We got tablets from the vet, and don’t feed him before travelling now. One other consideration is making sure you have enough space in the car, my two travel in a crate that takes up just over half the boot, so we have to pack light.

We take our dogs to Spain twice a year its 24 hrs on a ship and 12 hrs in the back of the car, we stop every 3 hrs.
They just sleep no ill effects at all

We always take our dog on holiday to Skye with us. She has done lots of ferry crossings. Cal Mac are excellent and have seating areas set aside for dogs and their owners.

I do recommend the seatbelt harness if your dog is of a suitable size. A bonus is that the normal lead just clips onto it, so minimal faffing when you come to let him out. I can testify to its safety, too, after DH had to do an emergency stop - seatbelt kicks in as normal.

One of our dogs loves holidays, the other hates them, so much so we have decided no more holidays. You just need to take a chance and see how your dog reacts.

We always used to take the dog beds to make them feel more at home, our little dog used to sleep in his in the car.
I would also say bring loads of dog towels. We came unstuck one very wet holiday in Cornwall when we only bought with us two towels and I spent the whole time washing and drying the bloody things. I imagine Scotland at New Year will be quite wet and muddy!

We take our dog, just a tip - if you haven't done particularly long trips I would hold feeding before the journey- dogs can get travel sick too. Also definitely make sure you have regular breaks. My dog always has a poo the car motion seems to bring it on without fail even if she has already been before we set off. But she loves coming away with us.

Ps make sure you check regarding rules for the cottage- some allow dogs but don't allow you to leave them like you do in your own home x