Do You Camp or Do RV Travel with Dogs? Or Want to?
Woodall’s Camping and RVing with Dogs, by Jack and Julee Meltzer, is not what I expected. I thought it would have lists of dog-friendly campgrounds, but I guess the main Woodall’s RV guides cover that.
This is instead an overview of what to do, with comments on where to stay, how to be safe, how to deal with emergencies, pet identification. The authors have been fulltimers for over five years. It’s a useful guide to have along.
Kelly and I fulltimed with dogs for over a year, and later with two other dogs for half a year. We’ve gone on other long trips with them. I thought this covered things well. As a publisher myself, I did wonder why the book uses such large print but that’s a minor point. Here it is at Amazon.
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Interesting! When we moved back to the US from Mexico two and a half years ago, we were surprised that more motels had become dog-friendly. But we didn’t try camping on that trip.
Campervans of that sort are great, in my opinion. Much better in traffic.
You may want to get your dogs used to peeing on grass BEFORE the trip.
Since Weasel the whippet arrived last autumn, we’ve discovered just how many places here in the UK are dog-unfriendly. For example, one of our favourite parks displays big messages at both gates: “DOGS NOT ALLOWED”. Presumably this is because the park, which has a tearoom, is a summer afternoon resort for mothers and babies, and it’s not nice for your baby to crawl in a litter of dog-poop. Yet it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve crossed that area of the park in the evening and negotiated a litter of discarded nappies (diapers, for US readers). How about a message like: “DOGS ON LEAD. PLEASE PICK UP YOUR LITTER”?
Pubs are the same. On our holiday to the West of England early this year, the only pub in town that didn’t exclude dogs was one that I wouldn’t want my dog in anyway. When you find a local pub that welcomes your dog, treat it like a small miracle and patronise it as much as you can.
I dread to think what driving across Europe in our RAV4 would be like for overnight stops. We have friends in Slovenia, about 20 hours from the French coast, and we’d like to take Weasel with us to visit them next year. But I can’t face the thought of trailing from hotel to hotel, at the end of the day, trying to find somewhere to put up for the night.
The upshot is, yes, we’re thinking quite strongly of hiring a campervan (not one of your Winnebago-style RVs; more an updated version of the old-fashioned VW microbus) and doing the journey that way. At least then we can please ourselves where and when we stop. And if J has to pee in the grass for once in her lifetime, so be it!