SAFETY - Traveling

I've written about traveling with my Pack, and here, I'll mention a few of things I do to increase the safety of my dogs when we're traveling. They're easy to do, and even though I am once again teased about some things, I keep doing them because they help us enjoy our travels completely. This is what works for us.

Seat Belts
I seat belt my dogs whenever we get into the car. We may be going 3 miles down the road or 1300 miles across the country. Each dog has her and his seat belt and each dog waits patiently to be buckled in.


Luna is always up for an adventure

The comments that are made are generally about how the person doesn't need to do that for his or her dog because his or her dog is so well-behaved in the car. I generally don't respond because my dogs are very well-behaved in and out of the car, but I still seat belt them. I seat belt my dogs because I don't want them to become projectiles if we are in an accident or if we have to stop short to avoid one.

When driving 35mph, a 60-pound unrestrained dog can cause an impact of 2700 pounds slamming into a car seat, windshield or passenger. (Bark Buckle UP, the leading research team on pet travel safety. http://www.barkbuckleup.com) I seat belt my dogs whenever we get into the car.


Fosse nearly asleep as we wait for Js flight to arrive from SF

Microchipping
I'd never considered microchipping until Foster came into our lives. He runs a bit, and since he looks like a Pit Bull to many, I envisioned people being unsure about bringing him into their homes to call me. Kind people might call Animal Control who hopefully would scan him and reunite us. Ideally, we will build our relationship so he doesn't run, and so far, he's run into the woods and then back to his yard. Luna has run away once her life; the very first time I left her in the care of someone else. She hasn't walked further than 60ft from me since. Still, I asked my vet about microchipping and she told me this story.

A client of hers has two dogs. They are each microchipped with the owner's information as well as the vet's. The owner and her husband, and their dogs, were driving to a wedding and were in a terrible car accident not far from home. The restrained-in-crates dogs were thrown from the vehicle which broke the crates open. Accident witnesses saw the dogs run into woods adjacent to the highway. These Good Samaritan witnesses coaxed the dogs out of the woods and took them to a local vet who assessed their injuries and scanned them for microchips. The dogs' vet, who is also our vet, was contacted and the dogs were transported to their vet's office for further assessment and boarding. The owners were unconscious following the accident, but when they regained consciousness, they asked about their dogs. They were told their dogs were safe and being cared for at their vet's office. I walked out of our vet appointment with TWO microchipped dogs.


Foster LOVES being on the road

Meds
I always have a car first aid kit (jumper cables, fix-a-flat, etc.) and a dog and people first aid kit. For the dogs, I have wound care items and medicines like buffered aspirin, a prescription anti-inflammatory and antihistamines. We've only needed the prescription anti-inflammatory once when I let Luna overdo it on Lake Michigan, but I feel that if I'm prepared, we won't need anything!


I have the best traveling companions. Ever.

There was that time in our neighborhood when Luna and I stepped onto an underground yellowjacket nest...we needed the Benadryl out of the first aid kit that day...