How to leave your dog alone in the RV??

[lauravanb]

What do you do to protect your dog and feel confident when you leave them in the rv alone? I am specifically worried about the ac turning off due to some power issue while were gone. We have a French bulldog and she does not tolerate heat very well at all. We are so nervous to leave her and come back to find her cooked in there. We are looking into surge protectors and voltage regulators (but aren't sure if the ac would turn back on once it was safe), temperature monitors (which are useless without WiFi and cell service), or even leaving a key with the park manager in case of an outage. Any tips or ideas would be great!

[cjoseph]

Little Kopit wrote:
Just back online after hard drive failure. I am answering without reading the thread through.

So, the quick and dirty answer.

Purina because you can cross the border at just about any small town and replace your dog food on either side.

:C

LOL, more like without reading the tread at all or even the Subject for that matter?

Hopefully you're not offended at my jab. You probably thought you were answering another thread.

[Little_Kopit]

Just back online after hard drive failure. I am answering without reading the thread through.

So, the quick and dirty answer.

Purina because you can cross the border at just about any small town and replace your dog food on either side.

:C

[irishtom29]

As has been mentioned just pull the blinds. I don't worry about the power to the camper going out, nor do I worry about the power to my home going out while the dog is alone. A few hours in a hot room won't hurt it; People and animals survived fine before there was air conditioning.

[DOTLDaddy]

lauravanb wrote:
...(but aren't sure if the ac would turn back on once it was safe)...

We just have a plain Jane, 30amp surge protector that we use on the shore power post at campsites. I know for a fact that if the power goes out for awhile, the AC will come back on when the power returns, assuming the thermostat calls for it.

You can certainly test your rig easily. Turn on the AC and have it running. Go outside and unplug your shore power cord or flip the breaker to "off" for a few minutes. Reconnect the power. Either the AC will come back on in a couple of minutes, or it won't. Simple dimple! 🙂

BTW, I think you're stressing out just a wee bit about the whole thing.:W

[Naio]

TyroneandGladys wrote:
Our voltage/surge unit will automatically turn the power back on to the RV as soon as it is safe to do so but it does have a 90 second delay before doing so.
We have also found that more and more private RV Parks offer a dog walking service for a nominal fee. You can set up the times and frequency that they will come by your RV and walk or check on your pets.

Oh, that is great to know!

[TyroneandGladys]

Our voltage/surge unit will automatically turn the power back on to the RV as soon as it is safe to do so but it does have a 90 second delay before doing so.
We have also found that more and more private RV Parks offer a dog walking service for a nominal fee. You can set up the times and frequency that they will come by your RV and walk or check on your pets.

[TragedyTrousers]

Regarding genset autostart option. Check this thread. http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php?topic=45206.0

[Vulcan_Rider]

Uppercrust wrote:
I just purchased a fan that runs on batteries in case of a power outage.

Maybe this would be a good place to ask:
I want a small 12 V fan, multi-speed, low power drain.

I got one from the RV section at WalMart but had to add a couple of resistors to get a "low" speed. Not totally satisfied with that.

[2dogtravellin]

We went to Arches National Park in July. It was at least 100 degrees. We decided to go for a 1 hr hike. We parked the RV in the trailhead parking lot, turned on the generator, and blasted the AC for the dogs. When we got back they were cool and comfortable. I certainly couldn't say the same for us.

[Uppercrust]

I just purchased a fan that runs on batteries in case of a power outage. We have never run into a problem, but I still worry about leaving my furbabies for a couple hours.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I agree with cjoseph - test your RV! Our 5er was just a basic white RV; and sat behind work. I would go out there from time to time, and even closed up in the heat of a Michigan summer (90 degrees or so) - it was NOT intolerably hot inside. Felt a bit cooler than the ambient air temp.

I always figured that even if we lost power and the A/C shut down, our dogs would be fine for several hours - no worse for the experience than laying on our deck at home. Disclaimer: I HATE hot humid weather, so my idea of "hot" is 85 degrees or higher and mid-60's dewpoints. We generally don't camp when it's hotter than that.

[cjoseph]

If you have a motor home with generator, check out Onan's website. They have several options for automatic start systems.

Our MH has a Fantastic fan with a thermostat control. We leave the AC on and the fan on with a window open. Before I did this with the dog in the MH, I tested it in the driveway. After sitting in the sun all day, the MH temperature didn't raise much above ambient temperature.

The reason cars over heat is the green house effect --closed windows with sun beating down on them.

We close the shades and provide back-up ventilation. Works for us.

[MetalGator]

lauravanb wrote:

MetalGator wrote:

We use a product called Temperature alert. It is a small device that hooks via a USB port to a computer. I have a small inexpensive laptop that I hook the device to. We use one of our cell phones (usually my wife's) for an internet hot spot (or if there is wireless at the park, we will use it).

Burch

Do you ever have issues with no wifi/cell service? We would love to do something like this but in the limited rv camping we have done so far in fairly populated areas we have had issues with wifi/cell service. I wonder how reliable this would be in the middle of a national park!

Only once have we not had cell service while in the RV but we didn't have the dogs with us on that trip (Yellowstone). I live in Florida and unless you are in the middle of the everglades, I don't there are many areas in Florida that don't have decent cell service. My phone has AT&T service and the wife's phone is Verizon. Whichever phone has the better signal in the area is the one we leave in the RV.

[lauravanb]

MetalGator wrote:

We use a product called Temperature alert. It is a small device that hooks via a USB port to a computer. I have a small inexpensive laptop that I hook the device to. We use one of our cell phones (usually my wife's) for an internet hot spot (or if there is wireless at the park, we will use it).

Burch

Do you ever have issues with no wifi/cell service? We would love to do something like this but in the limited rv camping we have done so far in fairly populated areas we have had issues with wifi/cell service. I wonder how reliable this would be in the middle of a national park!