Community Forums

wfcentral · 03-02-2023, 03:55 PM

We have been RVing for about 4 years with dogs. We started with two and everything was fine... if we stop at a museum or roadside attraction we always started the generator, turned on music and the AC.

Now that one dog has passed away and the remaining dog is older (13) she is getting bored / anxious and damaging the RV. We have been asking more of her as we now have a grandson and cannot take our dog to their house because she SHEDS like crazy. So, she ends up in the RV for a week from 9am - 3pm. If we need to be gone longer we come home and walk her. If we try to go a park like Disney someone has to leave the park in the middle of the day to go check on the dog.

We have tried kennels with mixed results. She is an escape artist and is very strong.

We don't want to get rid of her, but we are about to retire and start traveling and don't want to be held hostage by the dog.

I'm curious what others have done to deal with dogs who are anxious and such. We tried some anxiety meds and you have to up the dosage to almost knock her out before it does any good - we don't want that.

We have thought about getting another dog to keep her from being lonely, but at the same time we are looking forward to a day when we don't have to worry about dogs (we've had dogs for 35 years) while traveling. When we decide to stop traveling then we can get dogs again.

TandW · 03-02-2023, 04:07 PM

Pets surely do tie you down. It's too bad we can't ask them what it is they want out of the relationship. But you know they do have a keen sense about their surroundings. Wishing your dog well!

tcg · 03-02-2023, 05:14 PM

We changed our lifestyle to accommodate the pets that have given us so much joy.

As they age out and pass on we won't be doing anymore rescues but for now all of our plans take into account our fury family members.

jacwjames · 03-02-2023, 05:33 PM

Talk to your vet, there are medications that can help anxiety.

My wife had a Curly Coated Retriever that was very anxious with separation anxiety. It got worse so my wife asked her vet and she prescribed medication which helped a lot but was not a cure all.

caninecop · 03-04-2023, 07:09 AM

We have a similar situation with our coonhound. Our problem is when we take her with us in our jeep she paces from one window to the other none stop. Our vet said it was anxiety, and gave us a calming collar to try to see it will calm her down. He said it might take a month for us to see a change. I hope it works for she has worn a hole in the neoprene seat covers.

Camp CA · 03-04-2023, 07:33 AM

We purchased our 1st rv (fifth wheel trailer) 20 years ago since we liked traveling / hanging our with our dogs and did not want to sneak our 2 greyhounds into motels. If we leave the rv we limit time away to up ~3 hours.........but our current dog is happy chilling out in one of his beds with food and water. Otherwise, we bring the dog the with us. We also try to let our camping neighbors know when we have left the dog in the rv in case of fire or emergency and find a dog walker if we plan to be gone for more than 3 hours.

We also have a 5 inch Please Rescue Our Pets sign on the front door window with dog name and size (small) and our names and cell phone numbers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMN9PTK2...roduct_details.