Which would be least traumatic for my 10-year-old dog?

[Scootergrrrl]

We're moving to Germany soon because of my husband's job and are having a dilemma about what's best for our dog. He's a 10-year-old Lab/collie cross, who's always been a bit highly strung. As we've started packing, he's become quite anxious (we've moved around a lot while we've had him). The only way for us to get across to Germany, because of where we live and where we are moving to, is on the overnight ferry. This involves the dogs being crated in a kind of holding area on the ferry down on the car deck overnight and you're not allowed to go down and let them out or anything while the ferry is moving.
I'm really worried about this because he's started to get anxious when, for example, he got himself locked in the bathroom one day while we were out and nearly clawed the door down to try to get out. He does have a crate of his own but it's never shut and I don't know how he would cope with being locked in, other dogs howling, the odd smells and noises and so on.
We do have the option of leaving him with DHs parents - he's stayed with them before, they've got a dog who he gets on well with and there's someone at home most of the time so he wouldn't be alone too much.
What would be best for him? He's already got a pet passport so it's no drama for us to take him with us, but I'm incredibly concerned about the ferry journey and the crating. Any advice would be welcome.

It really depends on your dog. If you can get the crate that he needs to go in before you travel you could get him used to it without much hassle. Your vet can also provide medication to calm/sedate your dog whilst travelling.

Or if your PIL are happy to have him until your return to UK and your dog knows them well maybe leave him here.

Nobody can tell you what to do, you have to make an informed decision regarding your dog based on how he reacts and behaves when travelling and how his health is now.

Good luck OP.

I hadn't thought about sedation, so thank you for suggesting that. The crates are already in place on the ferry so I think you can put their bedding in there but otherwise it's a case of put them in and leave them to it. I think he might be ok if he was sleepy and there were no other dogs kicking off in there but I'm really not sure how he'd react if it was a bad crossing. Thanks for the advice

how long will you be living in Germany?

i took my dog to germany - he was a bit younger though.

We got sedative from the vet and requested that he stay in our car. He was fine, they say you arent allowed to check, but we asked and somone kindly took us down. He was well out of it and fine.

My lab has also moved a lot and hates being shut in anything, but he is always fine and does not worry in his own souroundings, hence leaving him in the car, that he knew was far less stressful for him.

Or, if you wanted a shorter time ion the ferry, you could go via france and drive.....( i would possibly do this with an older dog)

I can highly recommend the sedation, we took our 2 across to Ireland last year, left them in the car, it was a rough crossing and they both slept beautifully, I was so worried about it, but I wouldn't hesitate to do this again and wouldn't worry next time.

Hello! When we moved to Cyprus we took our (then) 7 year old GSD and last Xmas brought him back, by which time he was 10! He had to fly obviously, and sedation wasn't allowed. It was a five hour flight both times and he was absolutely fine. I would recommend not feeding doglet before the journey, long walk and water while in the crate. He will be fine, I promise. Our dog was. He is very highly strung and knows exactly what the removal boxes are for and has frequent experience of moving . the other thing we did both times was sleep with a soft toy in our bed for a week before, then we put it in the crate with him. Good luck! I suspect our DH have similar jobs...

Also we fed him in the crate for a couple of weeks beforehand.

Haven't used sedation for travelling, but have used valium for extreme fireworks. Result was a very relaxed dog. However the vet did warn that it can make some dogs hyper rather than relaxed, so if you use that it might be an idea to try before travelling.