Car Travel with Pets: A Complete Guide for Safety & Security

For pet parents, one of the major concerns involving their fur children is to leave them behind in pet boarding houses to go on an unavoidable trip. We’ve all heard incidents of pets being abused in boarding houses often. Are those just stories or rumors?  Guess we will never know. However, instead of mulling over our fears, we can look for feasible solutions.

Is there a road trip coming up that you cannot cancel? Are you secretly wondering if you can take your pet along with you safely and hassle-free? if your response is yes to both these questions, you are in the right place. In this blog, we will guide and educate you on how to travel with your pets in a car safely.

Let’s get to it right away!

5 Safety Tips for Traveling with Pets

1. Before Your Actual Trip, Practice Traveling with Your Fur Child

Is your road trip a month or a couple of weeks away? If it is, then you have the opportunity to use the time in between to help your fur child get comfortable being in the car. You can make their very first experience of being inside a car positive by making them comfortable and assuring them they are safe.  Take your fur child in the car and reassure and reward them with their favorite squeaky toy and crunchy treats. Since being in a car for the first time puts them in a non-familiar environment, you can train them to be comfortable with the aid of positive reinforcements. Once your fur child gets comfortable being in the car, take them for a quick spin. You can go around for as long as 10 minutes but not more than that since it is their first time. If they feel uncomfortable or whine for some reason in between, pet them and offer them a treat to calm them down.  This will certainly reassure your fur child that they are safe with you in this unfamiliar environment. And soon, with enough practice sessions, these unfamiliar surroundings will turn into a safe space for them.  Do practice traveling with your fur child every other day or two days, and gradually increase the trip time. Usually, a couple of weeks is enough for your pooch to adapt to road trips with you.

2. Take Them to the Local Vet a Week Before Your Trip

Just a week before your trip, take your fur child to the vet for a regular check-up. Make sure that they are vaccinated against:

● Rabies

● Canine Distemper

● Hepatitis

● Corona Viral Enteritis

● Parainfluenza

● Parvovirus

● Leptospirosis

If their vaccinations are not up to schedule, or if they need booster dozes, then make sure to get them vaccinated a week before your trip.

3. To Ensure Safe Car Travel for Pets, Put Them in the Backseat

One of the major safety tips for traveling with pets is to never put them on the front passenger side seat or your lap when you are driving. The front seat is not an ideal place for an animal to sit, and even if it’s a small breed dog, that doesn’t give you a pass to let them sit on your lap either. The passenger side seatbelt won’t fit your fur child, and they would be at risk if ever there’s an accident. Your car’s seat belts are designed to fit on the human body. Therefore, it is best to always put them in the backseat of your car. Also, your fur child might be a fan of fresh windy air; nevertheless, don’t let them hang their head out of the car’s window while you are traveling. Your fur child can fall sick or be in a lot of discomfort if something goes into their eyes or nose or ears. And if they see another dog or a squirrel, they might even jump out to catch them and hurt themselves.  

4. Prepare a Supply Kit Completely for Them

You need to gather all the necessities your fur child would need while traveling in the car and for the rest of your trip.  

● You must pack sufficient food that is easily digestible and they would eat without making a fuss. Make sure that your fur child’s food would last the entire trip, till the time you are back home.

● You must pack all their favorite chew toys that would keep them engaged for a long time. You can also bring their favorite blanky or cushion to make them feel extra comfy.

● Always bring an extra leash, collar, and harness on trips. You might need the extra in case you lose the one in use.

● Bring their food and water bowl and also sufficient water for them.

● If your fur child is on some medications, then bring all the meds.

● Bring essentials like a litter box, garbage bags, tissue papers, cleaning wipes, and all-absorb pee pads. You would need them certainly.

5. Ensure Their Identification Details Are Intact and Up-to-Date

Your fur child might run away if they feel threatened by the presence of another animal nearby. Since they are already in an unfamiliar place, things can get more difficult for them if, god forbid, they get lost due to some unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, before you begin your trip, make sure your fur child is micro-chipped and has a collar tag that has your residential address and phone number. This will help you locate them if they run off or go missing and someone finds them and wants to help them return to you safely.

Conclusion

By ensuring these five safety tips for traveling with pets, you can certainly be ready for your awaited trip before it begins. With proper and sufficient training along with positive reinforcements, your fur child will be ready for their car travel adventure just in time. However, you must remember that cats and dogs are sentient beings. They can sense and pick up your emotions too. If you are under stress, they will be anxious and nervous as well.

Now, we don’t want that, do we?

So be calm and relaxed since it’s a vacation, and have a nice fun and bonding time with your fur child.

Happy road trip!