Let me introduce you to my dog ‘Jada’, she is a ten year old Labrador with the most gorgeous personality.  Recently we took Jada along on our ‘adventure of a lifetime’ on our six month tour circumnavigating Australia by caravan. We were a little apprehensive about taking her with us initially, but as it turned out we are glad that we did. The three of us had a wonderful time together.

So for those thinking about travelling with their furry friends, here is the lowdown on the pros and cons. There is also a great website that is dedicated to dog friendly travel around the world.

Transportation for Dogs

First of all you need think about how you are going to transport your dog. There are a couple of options:

1. A car restraint or seat belt especially designed for dogs so that they can sit on the back seat.
2. A hammock that fits into the back of your car that encloses the dog so that they can’t move around in the back seat.
   

   Doggie Hammock for back seat of car

3. A canopy that fits on the back of your ute which gives the dog their own kennel and area to themselves whilst travelling.

In our case we got a canopy fitted to our 4WD ute, because our dog is large and sheds copious amounts of hair which we didn’t want to clean up every day. With the enclosed canopy we could just sweep the hair out of the back on a regular basis. When we were travelling we opened both side windows for ventilation, but we have heard of people having air conditioning in the canopies of their utes. As we were travelling during Autumn and Winter the heat was not a concern for us.

Jada’s own little space

Also the canopy was used as a kennel and where our dog slept most nights on her dog mattress. She was more than happy to jump into her bed each night. When we were driving long distances we stopped every hour to let Jada out to have a run around and go to the toilet, replenishing her with water as well.

Pros of Travelling With a Dog

• We found that there were numerous caravan parks that now take dogs and as long as you follow the rules of keeping them on a leash and picking up their doggie poos, then the establishments are happy. Most caravan park managers admitted they had more trouble with their human guests rather than their furry guests! In some cases caravan parks had designated areas of their park away from other ‘dogless’ guests that they put you on.
• In other places the caravan parks that would permit pets were a little out of town and not in prime locations, however this didn’t seem to worry us. Broome was an exception, because only one caravan park which was around 30 Kms out of the town would take dogs. Otherwise you are limited to one week only at the PCYC Grounds in town, which was perfectly fine, but we would have preferred to stay longer than a week here.
• People’s reactions to our dog was predominately good. She is a friendly easy-going dog and most people adore her.  So my advice would be to ensure that your dog has the right personality to cope with meeting lots of people and other dogs. I met several pet owners who said that their dogs suffered from anxiety and they could not leave them alone for even a minute without them fretting. If you really want to enjoy your holiday experience you need to be able to leave your dog to go off exploring places which don’t allow pets, for example National Parks. We did leave our dog with other caravan park guests or had her put into a kennel for a day on several occasions so that we could go off exploring. We even took her out for dinner regularly and left her happily in the back of the car whilst we dined.

Jada with the Pilbara Wanderer, Red Dog

Cons of Caravanning With a Dog

• The biggest disadvantage of having our dog with us was that we couldn’t camp in the many campgrounds within National Parks. We would have loved to do this at several places but we weren’t prepared to put our dog in a kennel for days on end and in some cases there were no boarding kennels available. So if you are planning to camp in National Parks on your trip then think again about taking your dog.
• We also couldn’t do a lot of day tours, but we did manage to do a couple separately while the other looked after the dog. Once again we did use boarding kennels or other campers to mind our dog to allow us to do a day tour at a couple of places. I have to admit that I was disappointed on several occasions of missing out on tour opportunities, particularly to the Horizontal Falls north of Broome.

The biggest advantage of having your dog with you is pure and simply the great companionship that they provide and they tend to get you up and about exercising every day. We did so many long walks and hikes with our dog which we enjoyed immensely. Needless to say, she also enjoyed this!

So my advice is definitely take your dog with you on your trip, but before you do plan ahead so that you won’t be disappointed. There is a great book available called “Holidaying with Dogs”, which I found useful and the Wikicamps App also advises whether a campground is ‘dog friendly’ or not. Happy travels!