Pets and Traveling

We travel with a 100+ pound Great Pyrenees. She travels fine but when we leave to go sightseeing for the day, we just close up the night shades, turn off all lights, leave the TV on, and make sure that she has plenty of water. We have had no problems for the 8+ years of travel with her.

No real problems with our dog. He doesn't like the coach moving around when going down the road but he finds his confort spot and pretty much stays there until we get to where we're going. Leaving him alone while we site see hasn't been an issue either. He's not much of a barker and doesn't have much of a seperation issue but be close the blinds just to be sure. Only worry is if there's a power outage during a hot day but we normally open the ceiling vents and turn the fans on even with the AC(s) running just to be sure.

We travel with a smaller dog, miniture schnauzer, who loves to travel in a car, Not so much in the motor home. She gets in her favorite spot and does not move until the coach stops. She does like to ride in or out on the living room slides. When we leave her, blinds closed, TV on, of course vents or acnd on. She does very well. One word of caution; Many people think there dog does not bark because they are not there to hear them. Reason we close all blinds is ours will bark at everyone she see's, even a block away. Can't see them does not bark.

Our 2 dogs enjoy riding in the MH and toad.
Staying alone in the MH is no problem either.

Maybe you Lab. Needs a young companion.

We have a small dog that rides on the dash of the motorhome, I guess she likes to see where we are going. When we leave to go sight seeing or whatever we bring along a kennel that we put her in. We also close the blinds leave the air on so the fan runs all the time to block out outside noise. Plus we turn the radio on low. At least when they are in the kennel you know they aren't looking out the window barking at the other campers or whatever.. ;)

After you get the coach, take him on frequent short times around he neighborhood to get him used to traveling.

Once he becomes familiar he will relax some.

Trust me ... this really isn't off topic.
Your Lab sounds a lot like our cats when it comes to traveling. "Most" cats are wildly adverse to getting in a vehicle of any type and then moving down the road. As has been explained to me numerous times over the years, cats just can't focus on fast moving scenery from a vehicle so they get confused/scared and start screaming. That was true with our three until we started traveling in the MH. When we're under way, each goes to the back (where the shades are down) or stays on the floor and they relax. The actual movement of the coach doesn't bother them and they don't even try to look out any of the windows. They're quiet and we're happy.
As soon as we stop, for whatever reason, they're up and wandering all over the coach - on the dash - looking out the window, etc. Break's over, put the MH in gear and PRESTO the cats disappear!
As everyone else has mentioned, when we leave for any period, the vent fans are left open with the thermostat set to turn on at a very low setting in case the A/C fails. We don't worry so much about them barking at neighbors so the curtains and drapes are left open enough for them to entertain themselves looking outside.

Our pets stay in the MH while we sight see. They all travel with us in the MH on all our trips.

Our 35# mutt had a difficult time getting comfortable in our MH. We finally tried a Thunder Shirt. He was happy to have us put it on him for trips in the MH and it also helped with heavy rain storms. After about 6 months of using it he was reluctant to have it on and no longer uses it.
He goes to sleep immediately in the coach and doesn't mind the thunder storms!

Dave
07 Rev 40E

Our two Shelties got car sick and we didn't know what would happen when we started traveling full time in a motor home.
We started spending evenings and nights in it. We told the dogs that we were going to the little house. After a few days they would run to the door all excited to go when we told them "going to the little house". Then after we got everything out of the house and into storage we lived in the motor home for a month while we did repairs, painted and so forth.
When we started the engine and pulled away they were a little surprised but neither one got car sick and they adapted well to life on the road.

They really loved the attention they got when we walked them on their leashes in RV parks.