Long Car Journeys With a Dog: The Bits People Get Wrong

Most dogs travel fine. The ones who do not usually fall into two camps: those who feel sick, and those who are anxious. They look similar from the driver's seat and need quite different handling.

Plus there is a legal bit that a surprising number of owners have never checked.

The legal bit

Rule 57 of the Highway Code requires that dogs are suitably restrained in a vehicle so they cannot distract the driver or injure anyone if you stop suddenly. It lists a seat belt harness, pet carrier, dog cage or dog guard as suitable.

Breaching the Highway Code is not itself an offence here, but it can be used as evidence in a careless or dangerous driving prosecution, and that carries real penalties. Insurers have also been known to take an interest in whether a dog was restrained if there is a claim.

Beyond the law, the physics is worth sitting with. An unrestrained dog in a crash becomes a projectile, at risk to itself and to everyone else in the car.

The options, roughly best to worst: a crash-tested crate in the boot; a dog guard with the dog in the boot; a crash-tested harness clipped to a seat belt in the back; a carrier for small dogs. Note that most harnesses sold as travel harnesses have never been crash tested, so look for one that says it explicitly.

Never in the front seat with an active airbag. Never with the head out of the window, however much they enjoy it. Never loose in an open boot.

Car sickness

Genuine motion sickness is common in puppies and often improves as they mature, because it is partly to do with the inner ear still developing. Many dogs grow out of it by around a year.

What helps:

Face them forwards. Sideways travel makes it worse.

Get them lower or higher depending on the dog, but the boot is generally more stable than the back seat.

Crack a window for airflow and to equalise pressure.

Drive gently. Corners and braking are what does it.

Feeding, which everyone gets wrong. A completely empty stomach can make nausea worse rather than better. A small light meal two or three hours before travel is generally better than a full meal just before, and better than nothing at all.

If it persists, ask your vet. There is a licensed anti-sickness medication for dogs that is genuinely effective, and it is a prescription item. Owners who have spent years managing around car sickness are often surprised at how well it works.

Anxiety, which is different

A dog who drools, pants, whines, paces or refuses to get in is frightened rather than nauseous, though a frightened dog may also be sick.

Often the association is the problem. If the only journeys a dog takes are to the vet and the groomer, they have drawn an entirely reasonable conclusion.

Fix it by rebuilding the association. Sit in a stationary car with the engine off and feed them something excellent. Then engine on, still stationary. Then to the end of the road and back. Then somewhere good, like a favourite walk. Short, positive, boring journeys, lots of them.

This takes a few weeks and it works far better than pressing on and hoping.

Planning the journey itself

Break every two hours. Toilet, water, a short leg stretch on a lead. Motorway services are fine and most have a grass area.

Water at every stop, not sloshing about in the car.

Do not feed a big meal before setting off. Light and early, as above.

Travel early or late in hot weather, and never leave a dog in a parked car. It takes very little time on a warm day for the inside of a car to reach a lethal temperature, and cracking a window makes almost no difference.

Bring a chew for the journey. A dog with something to work at settles better. Choose something low mess and low smell, since you are sharing a small sealed space with it for four hours. A tendon is ideal. A fish skin is a decision you will regret somewhere around junction twelve.

Pack the boring things. Lead, poo bags, water bowl, towel, their own bed or blanket, food, any medication, and a copy of your vet's details.

Arriving

Lead on before the door opens. Every time, no exceptions. A dog who has been cooped up for four hours in an unfamiliar place is exactly the dog who bolts.

Then give them twenty minutes to sniff around and decompress before you expect anything of them.

Low mess, low smell chews are the ones you want in a car. Filter our range accordingly. Comment TRAVEL on our latest Instagram post and we will suggest a few.