Traveling With A Dog

Bringing your furry family member along with you on the road

If you’re anything like us, your dog is not only a pet – they are a loved member of your family! Traveling with a dog on the road full time, however, presents a new set of challenges that completely changes what life on the road is like. We already had our dog, Sadie, when we started thinking about van life, so we considered her in many aspects of our build.

Your van is your dog’s home. It is important to make that a comforting space for them. For us, that meant bringing along her favorite cushions, blankets, and toys. Another thing to consider is the temperature. We purchased temperature readers and placed them all over the van. We can read the current temperature directly inside the van or via the app. Although we try to chase the temperature when we travel, sometimes extreme weather in unavoidable. In our experience, this is anything above 85 degrees and below 35. This number may fluctuate for you depending on how well your insulation is (check out our insulation plan!). It is important to have a plan in place in case of situations like this. We installed A.C. to help cool down the van. We installed one vent on the floor so it will hit Sadie directly when she lays on her bed. If this isn’t enough to cool down the van, or we don’t have enough electric to run it longer, we need a plan B. For us, this meant finding somewhere inside we can hang out for a while. Not surprisingly, this was very difficult. Many stores do not let dogs inside. We lucked out a few times with Barnes and Noble. Many stores are dog-friendly, so we walk to the cafe and get some work done for a while. This isn’t the case for all locations, however. Always make sure to call in advance and ask. Finally, if there isn’t anywhere to go inside, we will run the van and idle it during the worst hours of the day. This charges the battery and keeps everyone nice and cool. 

We were very nervous about leaving Sadie alone in the van when we first started on the road. Of course, you don’t want anything to happen! The way we saw it, we had a few choices here. We could either never leave her alone, and one of us will always be with her, or, we could make updates in the van enough where we feel safe leaving her for a short time. The answer, for us, was a hybrid of the two. When we can, we try to have one of us stay in the van with her. This includes activities like grocery shopping and laundry. When we can’t, like when we shower at Planet Fitness, we leave her alone for a short time. To help us feel better about leaving her, we installed security cameras that we can view right from our phone. We get notifications when there is any sound or motion detected. This lets us check on her in real time.