Advice on 1st time travel with dogs

Honey65

Honey65

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Hi all. We're new members of this group (and motorhoming too!). We have 3 dogs and a Burstner Lyseo and looking for tips on travelling with dogs for the 1st time.

we picked a MH with a good lounge and floor space so dogs can relax too. At home they are used to coming and going freely in and out of house and garden so worrying how we provide something similar whilst out and about.

I was thinking of portable dog fencing or something...?
 
Welcome along.

We park our pooch on the sofa on cushions right up behind the drivers seat so that if there was an impact he couldn't be thrown forward. He doesn't try and move in transit and is in a harness so we are fairly confident that he can't come to too much grief.

It does cross my mind though that in a serious accident the harness could trap him in the vehicle but I think it's the only option open to us.

3 dogs would be more difficult though so take extra time and keep a reasonable distance to avoid sudden braking (yeah I know, common sense!)

On site, there is nothing worse than being bothered by somebody else's dog so portable fencing/wind breakers can work well. We recently saw a motorhome with a completely closed in area for his 2 Boxers and a German Shepherd which was made up of a couple or 3 sets of these;

www.winfieldsoutdoors.co.uk

Kampa 6 Pole Windbreak XL

Offering quality materials and a very impressive 750cm width with six upright poles, the Winfields exclusive Kampa Windbreak XL uses Robust steel poles combined with peg down points and high visibility guylines for a sturdy structure. A quality Weathershield 63D fabric features a clear...
www.winfieldsoutdoors.co.uk www.winfieldsoutdoors.co.uk

It worked well. Good luck.
 
I've seen ads on FB for a really good looking metal type dog door guard, may someone on here knows the name. A fly screen does not work as a dog guard, it's cheaper to buy one that repair or buy a new door fly screen.

Dogs Trust do really good no-spill dog water bowls for about £2. They do spill when you tread on them though.

20230828_114125.jpg


If you're thinking of crossing to France, the Chunnel is a breeze with dogs.
 
A lot of dog safety harnesses are labelled as 'crash tested' but that means they prevent the dog from becoming a missile inside the crashing vehicle and prevent injury to the passengers, they do little to protect the dog.

Kurgo do ones that protect the dog too.
 
Make up long tether leads for them that can be tied off to the motorhome steps for example. Ours enjoyed laying out in the sunshine watching the world go by.

For travelling we always put small dogs in cages. The bigger ones were not tied down but like Robmac says, they found good spots for themselves and we placed their beds there.
 
Jo001 said:
A lot of dog safety harnesses are labelled as 'crash tested' but that means they prevent the dog from becoming a missile inside the crashing vehicle and prevent injury to the passengers, they do little to protect the dog.

Kurgo do ones that protect the dog too.
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Thanks Jo, I will take a look at the Kurgo.
 
Honey65 said:
Hi all. We're new members of this group (and motorhoming too!). We have 3 dogs and a Burstner Lyseo and looking for tips on travelling with dogs for the 1st time.

we picked a MH with a good lounge and floor space so dogs can relax too. At home they are used to coming and going freely in and out of house and garden so worrying how we provide something similar whilst out and about.

I was thinking of portable dog fencing or something...?
Click to expand...
Best tip I can give you is get a French pet passport when you get over there.
It will save you a lot on future trips.
Shop around if they say you need a French address.

You most definitely don’t.

You might want to have rabies jabs at the same time as it makes sense and less chance of mistakes on passports
 
It's not exactly that you need a French address for the passport itself; but before applying for the passport the dog should be registered on the ICAD microchip database - and that's what needs a French address.

Most French vets are interpreting that as ”must” be registered, it's fewer and fewer that are issuing passports now without ICAD / an address. They are really hard to find.

However if the OP is interested in a passport, a quick trip into Belgium can get round that.
 
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Jo001 said:
It's not exactly that you need a French address for the passport itself; but before applying for the passport the dog should be registered on the ICAD microchip database - and that's what needs a French address.

Most French vets are interpreting that as ”must” be registered, it's fewer and fewer that are issuing passports now without OCAD / an address. They are really hard to find.

However if the OP is interested in a passport, a quick trip into Belgium can get round that.
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Easy to do in Spain too
 
Don't forget, if you get a pet passport from Europe, you will need to get all future jabs done there also. Any stamps from an English vet invalidates the passport. We stuck with the AHC as I can't guarantee that I will be in Europe every year.
 
sydnsue said:
can't guarantee that I will be in Europe every year.
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You can get a three year rabies vaccine un a lot of Europe, its only southern Spain and perhaps Portugal where the proximity to North Africa raises the risk and boosters are annual.
 
Jo001 said:
You can get a three year rabies vaccine un a lot of Europe, its only southern Spain and perhaps Portugal where the proximity to North Africa raises the risk and boosters are annua
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I was thinking of the annual all-in booster but I'm not sure if that is required by the EU.
 
sydnsue said:
I was thinking of the annual all-in booster but I'm not sure if that is required by the EU.
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Do you mean the Leptospirosis booster? Just take your UK vaccination card, I've only ever been asked once to show it on a campsite though.

But if you get a three year rabies booster in any of the northern EU countries (and the northern parts of Spain and Portugal) it will be recorded in the passport as expiring three years later and is fully valid until then.

You could also cross over to Southern Ireland for a rabies booster if you wanted. A vet there is able to enter it into a passport without invalidating it.
 
Honey65 said:
Hi all. We're new members of this group (and motorhoming too!). We have 3 dogs and a Burstner Lyseo and looking for tips on travelling with dogs for the 1st time.

we picked a MH with a good lounge and floor space so dogs can relax too. At home they are used to coming and going freely in and out of house and garden so worrying how we provide something similar whilst out and about.

I was thinking of portable dog fencing or something...?
Click to expand...

There are now a very limited few small sites in France that have fully fenced dog pitches.

The site I built and owned for several years known as La Tournerie Ferme was I believe the very first site of its kind in Europe to have these exclusive fully fenced and gated dog pitches and what is more we didn't charge any extra for this service despite the largest of these pitches being more than a third of an acre in size!

But sadly that is now all in the past and I believe the few sites that there are do charge for the fully fenced pitches.

I suggest you do a careful search for dog friendly sites in France and this is one which popped up when I just did exactly this https://campingmonpazier.com/dog-friendly/

Good luck

Phil whose entire life revolves around the need of my belved four legged friends!
 
Jo001 said:
To be fair, the OP never mentioned going abroad. We seem to have strayed a little!
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Ahh, so I now see................... as this is the case, then I suggest the OP joins the Caravan & Motorhome Club and makes use of their mostly excellent CL sites.

I know of many of these sites where we take our 3 dogs many of them when we visit only having our outfit there, a large number of them have dog walks and some even have fully enclosed fields where your dogs can run free.

But what I do when selecting whichever one of these sites we might next go to is to do a very detailed search of the sites immediate area, making use of GPS location codes along with the very useful https://footpathmap.co.uk site to thoroughly check for the closeness of good dog walking in the immediate area.

The one thing that most users of sites share in their pet hates is uncontrolled dogs or constantly barking dogs, let alone dogs which are allowed to run free by their totally inconsiderate owners.
 
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