We are thinking of taking our 1 year old Bernese Mountain Dog on our month long family road trip this year. We live in PA and were thinking of the Grand Canyon area, but I don't know how dog friendly it would be. We have a teenage daughter that will be traveling with us. We are totally open to our destination now. We like to sight see and are not into sitting around at campgrounds. Can anyone offer advice of pet friendly road trips? Also, did you leave your dog in the rv when you couldn't take them on an excursion. Thanks for your help!Let me clarify my question...We spend a lot of weekends camping locally in different spots and we take the dog with us. She loves to rv! But we typically don't take a dog on our long multi-state summer road trips. Our last big trip was out to Tetons/Yellowstone/Glacier and they weren't dog friendly, so our beloved boy stayed home. He has since passed and we now have a 1 yr old female. We worry that she wont be able to handle being away from us for 3+ weeks, so we want to alter our travel plans. We are looking for suggestions as to places to visit that are more dog friendly from people who have traveled with dogs. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many RVers take dogs and sometimes several but we think they're nuts. It really can complicate the traveling, many Parks do not allow dogs on trails and what do you do with them while you spend a day sightseeing, hiking, etc. It can also reduce the number of sites you are allowed to use. I could go on and on but I understand (not agree) that many of you treat them like they are grandchildren or kids.

Many National Parks do not allow you to take dogs on their trails. You could leave your pet in your RV if you have the capability to run you A/C.

Have always traveled with 1-2 dogs and have never had a problem. Although they can't accompany you on trails in the national parks, we just walked them in the campgrounds and parking lots. They loved it. And so did we.

Take the dog! I have twice as much fun camping when I take the dogs and they have ten more times fun than I do. Guess I'm just nuts, but at least I'm not anal.

Some of us are RV'ers because of our pets.I'm not really clear on what you mean by a pet friendly road trip. As far as I'm concerned, all trips are pet friendly or they just don't happen. Because we don't leave home w/o our dogs. We have never found having them along to be a problem at all. In all the years we've been RV'ing we've encountered exactly one campground that didn't allow pets. So it's not exactly a huge issue. As others have said, national parks usually have pet restrictions, so that's something you'll need to consider. When we visit national parks we typically stay at a campground close to but outside of the park and do half day visits. If we're going to be gone for longer than five or six hours and the weather is nice we bring the dogs with us. If not, they don't mind staying in the comfort of the RV any more than they mind hanging out at our house.

road trip with dog??? | Good Sam Community

27 Replies

Redsky
Explorer
Mar 09, 2014
I traveled with two Belgian sheepdogs who had trouble coping with very hot weather. I would go places in the early spring and late fall and winter months when this was not a problem. It would have cruel to take them to hot areas in the summertime. Now if they had been a couple of Chihuahuas it would have been different. They were great mountain dogs with good endurance and as a herding they wanted to keep us, their "flock" in sight so we did to have to worry about them running off (for days at a time) as with a hunting breed.

With the death of my last dog we have not gotten another because it is too restrictive for traveling as we are still physically active and go places where we would have to leave the dog at home. I used to do that with my dogs and paid for a house sitter to take care of them and watch the house and take care of the plants, etc. but now all the watering and bird feeding is automated and we have an alarm system so there is no need for a sitter.
Raften
Explorer
Jan 31, 2014
Only road trips we have left dogs home were when we traveled on a motorcycle.
ClassBGirl
Explorer
Jan 26, 2014
The Grand Canyon dog kennel is on the South Rim. We used it a few years back when were were there and it was hot. Plus you now need to use the buses they provide to get around to many of the areas there, and we did not want to leave him in the RV for an extended time period. The kennel was very clean and took good care of our Basset Hound. We left him for half a day so we could see the sights.
dogdiva
Explorer
Jan 26, 2014
I lived and worked at the Grand Canyon for 5 months. You dog will love it. There is also a kennel there if you wish to leave your dog when you go on all day excursions.....Depending on the time of year, it is pretty cool in the RV if you wish to leave your dog during the day. I was there from May to October and rarely had to run the AC but your dog has a lot of hair>>>>>>
Uppercrust
Explorer
Jan 25, 2014
We try and travel with our dogs all the time. If they are not allowed on or in certain areas, we do leave them in the camper in their kennels. I can not imagine a trip without them, if they do stay home grama spoils them, no kennels for them.
I am also interested in the temp warning system, since I do worry about that.
ClassBGirl
Explorer
Jan 25, 2014
We were campground at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for seven days this past June. We took our Basset Hound, Bogie, and he had a wonderful time. You can't take dogs on the NP Trails as said, but there are plenty of places to walk in the campground and surrounding area. It was cool enough in the daytime that we could leave him in the RV when we drove to the Lodge Restaurant for lunch without worrying about a hot RV. The North Rim is so beautiful, less congested, higher elevation and therefore cooler than the South Rim.
rcarpe06
Explorer
Jan 24, 2014
MetalGator wrote:
We always take our dogs with us, if we won't be away from the RV too long. If there is going to be a trip where we will be gone from the trailer all day, I will leave the dogs at home. I have left them in the TT for 5 hours or so but don't feel comfortable leaving them any longer than that. I have a temperature monitor that emails me every 15 minutes (to my smart phone)the temp inside the trailer so I can make sure it doesn't get to hot (in case the A/C stops working, power outage, etc).

We want to start taking our dogs with us and our only concern is the temperature monitoring. What particular temperature monitor do you use?

Thanks,

Rak
MarshaNichols
Explorer
Jan 23, 2014
fil564 wrote:
We went to Acadia this past spring and saw many people with dogs, we took ours on the trip but not when we went to the park. When we ate at Jordan Pond, the guy at the next table had his long haired Rottweiler hooked to the table.

Acadia in Calif?? I traveled for the entire month of last Sept...along route 66 and then into Oklahoma, Texas, and southern NM and AZ...my dog (little Coton de Tulear) loved it...and I did because he did. Only place in Tucson open in Sept. and willing to let a dog in was the Air and Space Museum...fun and interesting place!

Hope all works out!!
fil564
Explorer
Jan 15, 2014
We went to Acadia this past spring and saw many people with dogs, we took ours on the trip but not when we went to the park. When we ate at Jordan Pond, the guy at the next table had his long haired Rottweiler hooked to the table.
2hams
Explorer
Jan 15, 2014
At Acadia don't miss Little Long Pond off leash area with swimming.

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road trip with dog???

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