Car travelling with dogs on board

[Nifty staffy]

Do you have advice, tips, experiences to share regarding travelling hours in a car with your dogs?
When/how much do you feed and water ?
Toilet/stretch legs breaks to be taken every x ?

In my case, it would be round day trips, starting and ending up at home.

[Guest]

Our only long distance trips are to France and they have punctuations within the journey. A couple of hours to Folkestone, where the get a leg stretch while waiting to board. We then do crossing to the supermarket which is another couple of hours, then 40 mins or so to destination. Including waiting round and a walk with George while I do the shopping, it's usually between 5hrs30 and 6hrs. They get offered water but very often don't take it, and no food because it's not meal time.

If we were going longer without breaks otherwise I think we'd still stop every couple of hours for a leg stretch, and we always offer them water then just in case someone does want it.

[Nifty staffy]

Thanks
This is in prevision of trips here as well as a possible day trip over the Channel.
What is the UK’s obsession with tapeworm treatment though ??
Rabies ?, ok but tapeworm ?!

[-Ian-]

I would say a stop every couple of hours for a stretch and comfort break, that's what we've done when travelling in the uk unless we are close to our final destination.

Not sure what the big deal is with tapeworm, I think that's included in Flo's worming tablet.

[Nifty staffy]

Apparently tapeworm treatment has to be vet stamped in passport and travel only allowed between 24 hours and 120 hours from treatment

[Guest]

That's right. It used to be tick & worms in general with a shorter window then they changed it a couple of years back to tapeworm with the 24-120hr window. Our French vets just roll their eyes.

We're just keeping everything crossed it doesn't all go pear shaped with Brexit.

[Nifty staffy]

Ah yes, brexit has the potential to wind back 50 years to apply 6 month quarantine again

I can understand the problem with rabies but tapeworm ?
Could almost be seen as an elitist measure to disuade people popping over the channel with their pets.
It's almost easier to ship a horse over

[Paris1990]

We haven't done a big trip with Hank yet so we are still to find out what he can deal with but where I live I don't need to go far for dog friendly as I'm right in the middle of it

[gillybrent]

tapeworm has been largely eradicated in the UK, but is still a problem in Europe.

don't forget that humans can get tapeworms as well, so it's a necessary precaution.

[Nifty staffy]

tapeworm has been largely eradicated in the UK, but is still a problem in Europe.

don't forget that humans can get tapeworms as well, so it's a necessary precaution.

Ah, ok. Thanks for the explanation.
I know tapeworm is still a problem in horses so wouldn't have guessed that it had been almost eradicated in dogs.
I supposed it’s also a way to ensure travelling pet is seen by a vet just before travelling ensure it’s more or less healthy.

[MattsBabe7]

Before we moved to Hampshire Chase travelled from Somerset to here twice.

It's a four hour trip with a stop for food, nappy changes, leg stretch and toilet break.
We can stop for upto an hour sometimes.

Chase is offered water and most of the time has a few laps but not much more.

We feed food when traveling but only if it's mealtimes.

Chase is happy traveling in his crate and watching out the window.

[Nifty staffy]

Thanks for that advice
I may have underestimated break duration.

Nifty usually sleeps in her travel crate most of the times we travel short trips. This Sunday, we have a good hour’s drive to see friends competing so we’ll see.

All of your advice will be very precious, thanks again !

[Guest]

On something like a 4 hour trip, I think I'd want to stop for at least half an hour, so more than just a quick wee, a few laps of water and then off again.

What we used to do when we were going to different places for holidays was plan the route in advance to find somewhere suitable. In the UK you've got the Ordnance Survey maps but in France, to find the place we now stop at, I used Google maps satellite view. That found us a supermarket just off the motorway with a park and river .

For an hour I wouldn't worry about needing to stop. Unless you've got a car sick dog I've not met one that's worried by a couple of hours.

[Nifty staffy]

Hmm, food for thought.
I have roughly 2 1/2 hours drive to tunnel and the same in the UK before reaching destination along south coast. So maybe arriving early at tunnel and long break there could be enough for intermediate break ?

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