We are about to undertake a 9 week cross country trip. We may or may not be taking our border collie with us. .Are you able to leave your dog in crate in an ac trailer for a few hours as you explore. Or is this discouraged by most camp grounds?

Unfortunately the trend has been you can't leave your dog unattended, even inside the unit. What I'd do is sketch out where you are going to be staying overnight and check out a few campgrounds in the area. This may help you make the decision on whether or not to bring Fido or what campgrounds to stay at.

Not really fair to the dog or others in the campground if the dog starts to bark. Leave the dog home if you can.

It depends on the dog. A high energy, high strung dog who barks at the slightest outside noise would be a problem. A number of times we have been near an RV with a dog or dogs that would start barking as soon as the owners left and not stop until they returned. Our dog (and previous dog) is an older Golden. And a slug. When we leave, she goes into the darkest corner of the bedroom, tucks her face under the bedspread, and sleeps. And that is where we find her when we return. Even in a noisy park.

My dog has traveled over 30,000 miles with me, and I haven't had any troubles. We've been to Alaska and back one and a half times, California and back, out east, down south, all over. My dog is one of the main reasons I bought a trailer. I hate leaving him "at home", locked in a box at a kennel 23 hours a day. That's just CRUEL. Even the best kennels are still just a locked box. I wanted the dog for companionship, so he's my companion, and goes where I go. If someplace is not friendly to dogs (rare that I've experienced), they don't receive or deserve my patronage.

We've never had a problem leaving our dogs (either the current one or our previous two). They were all well used to being alone, no separation anxiety or anything like that. We always leave (left) them crated with the AC or fan and TV on for white noise.In ten years of RV'ing we've encountered exactly one campground that when directly asked said no to leaving them alone. So we politely told them we'd find somewhere else to stay. Although many do have a rule that pets aren't to be left unattended, when we've asked about it (and we always do) except for that one campground we've always been told that it's fine to leave well behaved dogs.One of the main reasons we bought an RV is so our dog(s) could travel with us.

Taking dog with us on a cross country tour | Good Sam Community

tbred
Explorer II
Feb 22, 2017
GordonThree wrote:
My dog has traveled over 30,000 miles with me, and I haven't had any troubles. We've been to Alaska and back one and a half times, California and back, out east, down south, all over.

My dog is one of the main reasons I bought a trailer. I hate leaving him "at home", locked in a box at a kennel 23 hours a day. That's just CRUEL. Even the best kennels are still just a locked box. I wanted the dog for companionship, so he's my companion, and goes where I go. If someplace is not friendly to dogs (rare that I've experienced), they don't receive or deserve my patronage.

Love this, same reason we "vacation" by RV !!!
Deb_and_Ed_M
Explorer II
Feb 23, 2017
Pawz4me wrote:

Agreed. But I'd also venture a guess that those are NOT the people coming here to ask if it's okay to leave a dog in their RV. ;) On the contrary. My guess is anyone hanging out and asking questions on an RV'ing pet forum is likely to be a conscientious pet owner.

Thank you!! Sometimes, it gets tiring, being painted with the same broad brush. A conscientious dog owner will use whatever resources it takes to make sure their dogs are quiet - and there are plenty of ways to do that. My previous Cattle Dog (R.I.P.) might bark in protest as we left - so he wore a no-bark collar. My other dogs just aren't "barkers" until there is a real, significant threat.
Crowe
Explorer
Feb 23, 2017
Thank you!! Sometimes, it gets tiring, being painted with the same broad brush.

No painting intended.

My guess is anyone hanging out and asking questions on an RV'ing pet forum is likely to be a conscientious pet owner.

I would like to think so but after some of the threads I've seen I'm not so sure!
Campinghoss
Explorer II
Feb 23, 2017
I agree with Deb&Ed and Pawz. I know for a fact ours do not bark when we leave them. As I said in my other post, I let the camp host know when we leave them in case something happens. It gives us peace of mind. My wife claims I can talk the bark off of a pine tree so obviously I always know my neighbors pretty well too:B

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