15 Tips, Tricks & Lessons: RVing with Dogs
WHY DID WE START RVING back in 2019? As I explained in a prior blog, RVING WAS ALL ABOUT OUR DOGS!
We love to travel. However, we missed those waggly mutts on long road trips, and wanted to take the dogs with us. Our solution was to buy an RV. Since then, we’ve owned a travel trailer (2019 Coachman Spirit Ultra Lite 2245BH), traditional Class C RV (2019 Jayco Greyhawk 31F), and a Super C RV (2022 Entegra Accolade XL 37L).
Traveling in any RV with dogs raises a lot of issues. Those issues multiplied when we increased our household to FIVE DOGS (Billie, Sophie, Percy, Earl, and Earlene). Then, we had even more issues to consider when we decided to live in our RV full-time. We’ve learned a lot along the way and wanted to share some tips for RV life with dogs. We’ll also share some things we wish we would have known sooner about #RVdoglife.
Let’s get to it:
#1: How to Fence Those Puppies In — Our Pet Fence System
#2: How to Deal with the Deuce — Our Pet Waste System
#3: Safety First — How To Secure the Dogs on Travel Days
#4: "Pet Friendly" Campgrounds — What Does that Mean?
#5: Keep it Cool — Invest in a Pet Temperature Monitor
#6: Spy On Your Dogs With Security Cameras
#7: Turn it up to 11! — With a Noise Machine or White Noise Mobile App
#8: Treat Yo Self (or at Least Your Dogs)
#9: Suck It Up! — Buy a Lighted Vacuum
#10: Blow it Off — At Least the Dog Hair
#11: Towel Off — Our "Dog Towel" System
#12: Play Tag — Microchips, Pet Tags, & Pet Collars
#13: Take As Needed — Including Dog Medications
#14: Keep Vaccination Records
#15: Walk it Off — Lessons on Dog Walking
Tip #1: Fence Those Puppies In — Our Pet Fence System
A dog fence around the RV door makes life much easier when RVing with dogs. We have a couple of “runners” in the family so finding a way to corral the herd outside was a no-brainer for us. The pet fence comes in handy when we are leaving the RV and the dogs want to go along with us but can’t. The pet fence is also nice when we just want to spend time outside with the entire crew. The best part of the enclosure is that it allows for a quick potty break without the necessity of leashing everyone up.
Pet fences are constructed in many different ways. We tried a very heavy duty metal fence at first, but that was cumbersome to haul around. Our current pet fence system includes three lightweight 16-foot foldable wire fences (each of which includes 8 foldable 2-foot panels that are 30” high) that we link together to make a pet enclosure with an area of about 150 square feet. We position the panels in a stretched accordion manner so that they stand upright without any stakes.
One problem is that the metal pet fence is too tall such that the panels won’t fit underneath the RV door. In that area, we’ve custom-cut a couple of sections of plastic lattice that fit snuggly underneath and around the RV door. The plastic lattice is fastened to the wire pet fence with carabiners and/or velcro.
Plastic lattice can be purchased at many hardware stores, such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, or Menards. In terms of constructing the pet fence, a few things are worth noting:
While the plastic lattice comes in 8-foot sections, we found that using two 4-foot sections makes storage and setup easier.
The plastic lattice is less likely to scratch the RV compared to the wire fence. Therefore, we orient the plastic lattice so that it is the only part of the fence system that touches the RV.
We cut and position the lattice so that it extends a few feet away from the RV door. In turn, the wire fence also starts a few feet away from the door as well. We found out the hard way that if the lattice was cut shorter, Billie could just jump over the wire fence while standing on the steps.
Lattice sections are fastened together with velcro or caribiners in our RV pet fence system
Cuts in the lattice used by the door of our RV pet fence system
Lattice of our pet fence system is attached to the wire fence with carabiners.
Caution: It's important to check an RV park’s rules and regulations on pet fences. Some campgrounds don’t permit them at all. Other campgrounds prohibit placement on any grassy area. Still, other RV parks specify that pet fences are okay as long as there are no stakes in the ground.
Another important thing to note is a pet fence is not the same thing as a fenced-in yard that comes with many sticks-and-bricks homes. We never leave our dogs unattended outside, and the pet fence is no substitute for walking the dogs frequently.
Tip #2: Dealing with the Deuce — Our Pet Waste System
Tip #2 on our list is about #2.
Rant Alert: One of the first things we learned when we started RVing is that there are some RVers who just leave pet waste on the ground. If you are one of those people, please stop it. No one likes to see dog poo, smell dog poo, or step in dog poo. And, as gross as this is to say, some dogs like to eat dog poo and have an uncanny knack for sniffing out those brown logs. No one wants a dog with poop breath so pick up after your dog. Rant over.
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While our dogs are #1 in our lives, they also have to go #2….A LOT.
We purchase poop bags in bulk and go through multiple poop bags each day. While many campgrounds offer disposal sites for pet waste, many don’t. Therefore, an RVer needs to come up with a way to dispose of the bagged pet waste. I suppose that a pet owner could somehow place the pet waste in RV’s toilet (but then what do you do with the poopy bag?). Alternatively, the bagged pet waste could simply be placed in the RV’s trash. But with five dogs, our experience is that the trash starts to get really stinky really quickly. The bottom line is that we don’t want to dispose of the pet waste inside the RV. And, walking to the campground’s trash area 2-3 times per day to get rid of the pet waste is inconvenient.
Our solution? We place a small bucket outside where we place the filled bags of pet waste until we combine that with our regular trash on trash days. One of these days, we will get crafty and decorate that bucket.
Caution: Try to remember to place the bucket underneath the RV when the forecast shows rain. Otherwise, you are likely to end up with some poo water in your bucket. Yuck!
Tip #3: Safety First — How To Secure the Dogs on Travel Days
Remember Tooces the driving cat from Saturday Night Live? Hilariously stupid.
As much as our dogs would all like to drive the RV or be on my lap on travel day, that probably isn’t a good idea. So what do we do with the four-legged family on travel day?
Pet crates are an obvious solution. We crate two of our dogs (Earl and Earlene) in a wire crate that fits snuggly beneath our dinette. The pet crate is wedged so that it is unlikely to move in the event of an accident or sudden stop.
For the other dogs, we insert a seat belt adaptor into one of the seat belts on the RV’s dinette. The adaptor has a clip on the end that is fastened to each dog’s harness. We also place a dog bed next to the dinette so that it should provide a cushion in the event of an accident or sudden stop.
Tip #4: “Pet-Friendly” Campgrounds — What does that mean?
Many RV parks boast that they are “pet friendly,” but I’ve learned to read the fine print. Some “pet friendly” campgrounds don’t allow certain breeds of dogs or cap the number of dogs (usually two dogs per site). As noted above, some RV parks don’t allow pet fences either.
The biggest issue for us has been the two-pet per site limit. I’ve never understood that rule. Most campgrounds don’t limit the number of people at a site. Yet, if someone has three 12-pound chihuahuas, that’s a problem?
We try to do our research before heading to a new RV park. Most RV parks post their rules and regulations on their website so I always begin our search for an RV park by reviewing the “pet rules” at any campground.
On a couple of occasions, we’ve just knowingly broken the two-pet limit rule because we couldn’t find any other place to stay in the area. If we are just staying a night or two, we adopt a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy. If we are staying a week or more, we’ve usually just fessed up to the management AFTER we check in. Showing the management a photo of the dogs and letting the management know that our dogs weigh less than 60 pounds all TOGETHER certainly helps.
We’ve never been kicked out of an RV park, and hope we never will be.
Campgrounds also differ dramatically in terms of a good place to walk the dogs. Some have large fenced in areas similar to a true dog park; other RV parks have might have trails that are separate from the main roads in the RV park. We look for those “amenities” when selecting any RV park. While not always possible, we prefer campgrounds that are not adjacent to busy highways…just in case one of the dogs might get loose. Google maps is a great way get an actual bird’s eye view of what to expect at a campground.
Tip #5: Keep it Cool — Invest in a Pet Temperature Monitor
As much as we would like to take five dogs with us when we explore an area, that isn’t practical. Without properly functioning air conditioners, the temperatures inside an RV can quickly reach over 100 degrees in a very quick timeframe. Our Entegra Accolade has an auto gen-start (AGS) feature that starts our generator if certain pre-set parameters are reached. If the AGS kicked on, we would want to IMMEDIATELY know if there is an issue with the temperature though. We invested in a RV pet monitor device for that reason.
We own and use two RV pet monitor devices: the Govee WiFi Thermometer Hygrometer H505 (which is wi-fi based) and the MarCELL PRO (which is cellular-based) as I wrote in detail about here. As explained in the video, they each work a little differently, which we learned the hard way down in hot hot hot Oklahoma City.
With our two pet monitoring systems, we get a notification every time the power goes out and also get an alert if the predetermined temperatures or humidity levels are exceeded. We can also just get real-time temperature data. Knowing that our dogs are safe gives us great peace of mind.
Tip #6: Spy on Your Dogs with Security Cameras
Have you ever wondered what your dogs are doing while you are away from the RV? Are they sleeping? Pacing? Barking? Crying? Having a party? We wondered as well.
We’ve placed several Reolink security cameras throughout the RV. We can watch and even talk to the dogs using the Reolink mobile app — as long as there is a good WiFi signal at the RV. One of our dogs will sometimes exhibit really bad separation anxiety, and it is nice to be able to check on him to see if he is panting, pacing, or stressed.
These security cameras are also good for security as well (duh!). We can set them to record upon motion detection, and we have a couple of them placed so that they will detect humans in the RV but don’t go off when the dogs move.
Sometimes it’s also just fun to spy on other people in the RV. Here’s a screenshot of me spying on myself and four of the dogs as I write this blog. As you can see, the camera is pretty good!
Reolink Screenshot of our RV. Earlene is on my lap, Billie is across from me, Percy is on the sofa, and Earl is on the ottoman.
Tip #7: Turn it Up to 11! ... with a Noise Machine or White Noise Mobile App
Every dog is born with the instinct to bark in response to a potential threat. Ours are no different. When we are with them, we can usually control their behavior. But what do we do when we are away from the RV to control their barking or howling? We turn it up to 11!
More specifically, we’ve found that turning an ambient noise machine often helps. That noise will help mask a neighboring camper or another dog barking in the distance. This noise also helps sooth Percy to assist him with his separation anxiety.
We also sleep with the ambient noise machine on so the dogs are used to hearing that at bedtime. I think that helps the dogs think that the noise isn’t just a signal that we are going to leave the RV so that they don’t get worked up when they hear it.
Pro Tip: Several free ambient noise mobile apps are available on the iOS and GooglePlay store. If you have an old phone that you aren’t using an can leave at the RV, you can download one of the white noise mobile apps and see if that works.
We’ve also found that leaving the television on while we are away from the RV on can also help keep the quieter. Billie really likes the cartoon Spanish channels 😊.
Tip #8: Treat Yo Self (or at least Your Dogs)
Let’s face it, an RV is a VERY SMALL SPACE. As much as we love our dogs, there are times that we don’t want to interact with them. This has been the biggest issue when trying to work out in the RV. To our dogs, a sit-up is interpreted as playtime. Those windmills look like a game of “gitcha.” We cannot really escape the dogs by going to separate “gym” room so what do we do? Distract them.
There’s probably no better distraction that a dog’s favorite treat or something savory to gnaw on. Our preferred distraction are yak treats. Yak chews are also known as "himalayan dog chews" and can be thought of as cheese for dogs. The chews are generally made of yak milk, cow milk, and lime juice that have been hardened into a long-lasting treat. Although yak treats aren’t cheap, they’ve worked for us!
We’ve also had moderate success with food puzzles like the one we have below or Kongs to keep the dogs busy. Unless each one of dog’s has their own toy, they tend to fight over them though. The yak treats just seem to work better for us.
Tip #9: Suck it Up — Buy a Lighted Vacuum
Dirt. Sand. Hair. With two humans and five dogs, all of that filth accumulates rather quickly. When we lived in a sticks-and-bricks home, we vacuumed once every couple of weeks. In the RV, all of that dirt and debris is now in a space about 1/10th of the size of our prior home. We quickly learned that in the RV, we now vacuum daily…sometimes twice a day.
There are lots of vacuums on the market, but we really like the Laresar that has a light to show all stuff on the floor. The vacuum is lightweight, and it is also every easy to clean out (which we do EACH DAY). I like this vacuum so much that I even bought one for my mother (and she loves it as well!).
Pro tip: In our opinion, the best way to vacuum (in the RV or otherwise) is in the dark because the vacuum light will make the dirt and hair much easier to see. If you don’t have a vacuum with a light on the end, just take a flashlight and place it on the floor with the lights off. You will be surprised what you see!
Tip #10: Blow it Off — At Least the Dog Hair
A lot of dog hair and other stuff gets trapped underneath our slides. It’s like a reservoir of never-ending filth! We’ve tried using Swiffer-like products with little success. Instead, to clean underneath the slides, we get out our battery-operated Ryobi leaf blower.
Using an outdoor leaf blower inside isn’t as easy as you might think, but we’ve developed a good technique. I usually start at one end of the slide with the blower on a low setting (for our Ryobi blower, that means pushing the trigger only about half-way in) and gradually push all of the debris to the other end. Meanwhile, Kasie will lift the rubber seal at that second end so that the debris will ultimately be blown outside of the RV. We then repeat the process with the blower on a higher setting (the trigger is fully engaged) for another cleaning.
We typically always use this blower method on travel days to make sure that dog bones or toys are not inadvertently trapped underneath the slide. While we do checks with a flashlight first, the blower did dislodge a Nylabone from underneath the slide that we visually missed on at least one occasion.
Tip #11: Towel Off! – Our “Dog Towel” System
Billie gets her morning massage with one of our dog towels
Did we mention how much dirt our dogs track into the RV? The problem grows exponentially when it is rainy out or there’s dew on the grass. Our longer haired dogs in particular are notorious for gathering mud or sand on their fur and then tracking that inside.
We have a drawer near the RV door devoted to what we call “dog towels.” These are old towels that no longer use for ourselves. Instead, we use the dog towels for drying off the dogs, soaking up urine accidents, dabbing up other spills in the RV, and cleaning generally. However, I secretly think that our shih tzu Billie gets dirty on her outdoor walks just so that she can get her dog towel massage every morning.
I know the idea of packing dedicated cleaning towels or rags (our “dog towels”) in the RV may be obvious to some people. But sometimes people forget this on their RV trip packing list.
Tip #12: Play Tag — Microchip, Pet Tags and Pet Collars
Having a pet run away is a horrific experience. Losing one when on the road in a strange area just makes things worse. Microchips, collars, and dog tags with contact information are easy ways to ensure that a lost pet can be found.
All of our dogs are rescues and were microchipped as part of their adoption process. It’s always good to make sure the microchip works and contact information is up-to-date. Most veterinarians or pet rescue groups have devices that can read RFID microchips so the next time you are there, think about having the vet check the information.
Tip #13: “Take As Needed” — Including Dog Medications
Our dog Billie gets motion sick during when traveling so it is good to give her a dose of dramamine before every trip. Our dog Percy is diabetic and requires insulin at every meal. All of the dogs get monthly heartworm medicine. In the summer, they all get flea and tick medicine. Suffice it to say, we travel with a lot of dog medications.
Many state laws require that a vet see a pet in person before they can write a prescription for a pet. (For details, check out https://televet.com/vcpr). I bring this up only because folks should be aware that if pet medications are needed on the road, it may be difficult finding a local vet with appointment availability. We learned that the hard way and now try to stock up on all medications during our annual visits to the vet.
Tip #14: Keep Vaccination Records
Most people have access to their electronic medical records. But what about vet records? Most veterinarians don’t have an EMR system. We brought paper copies of all of our vet records with us in the RV.
While some campgrounds require every pet to be vaccinated, some RV Parks reportedly require RVers to provide proof of vaccination. (We have never encountered that). Regardless, it’s handy to have a copy of your pet’s vaccination records on hand. We have paper copies, as well as a photo of each vaccination record, for all five dogs that we can access from our phones.
A Cautionary Tail:
For what it’s worth, one thing that we DON’T LIKE about being on the road with dogs are the veterinarian options. Prior deciding to live full-time in our RV, we lived in Columbia Missouri, where we had a wonderful local vet and the University of Missouri’s Veterinary Health Center, a teaching hospital with specialists in everything from oncology to opthalmology. Frankly, we were probably spoiled with such great pet care options.
We learned the hard way that having a pet get sick on the road is tough. When we were in Tucson for a couple of months in 2021, our boy Brodie got very sick. We called nearly a dozen vets before finding an urgent care clinic who would even see him. Keep in mind that this was during covid-19 and the pet hospitals were understaffed and overwhelmed just like the human hospitals. Ultimately, the urgent care vet (“Dr. O”) was able to diagnose Brodie quickly and find us an emergency surgeon in a Phoenix suburb for some major surgery. Dr. O then continued give Brodie competent and compassionate care for several weeks after his surgery. While having a sick dog is stressful enough, having a sick dog on the road where we didn’t know really know where to find good vet is even harder. We chronical sweet Brodie’s journey and our own struggles in the video above. (This was by far the toughest video I’ve ever made, and it’s a tear-jerker).
We would love your feedback on national vet chains. We’ve talked about having our dogs go to a national chain like PetsMart for their healthcare. While that would certainly help centralize their vet records and make routine services like vaccinations easier, we haven’t yet done that. If you have experience with PetsMart or similar chains, we’d love to hear about them, especially as it relates to emergencies and non-routine care.
Tip #15: Walk it Off — Lessons on Dog Walking
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but full-time RVers have to walk their dogs A LOT. We don’t have the luxury of a fenced-in yard where we can easily just dump them for their dumps. While walking the dogs is usually enjoyable and relaxing, the truth is that sometimes walking the dogs is a pain. In particular:
Dog Walking is Time-Consuming
Keep in mind that with five dogs, a dog walk session usually takes about half of an hour. That’s and 1-2 hours each day that we spend walking the dogs. On some days, it just seems like a grinding commute.
Dog Walking Can Be Loud
Our dogs like to bark at other barking dogs and sometimes other people. It’s embarrassing at times because we don’t want to be “those people” with annoying dogs. Three things usually help: (1) training treats to try to redirect their barking behavior to the treats, (2) bark collars on the barking “instigators”; and (3) walking the dogs in two groups (Percy and Earlene get walked together; Earl, Billie , and Sophie get walked together).
Dog Walking Can Be Uncomfortable
Another challenge is the weather. We don’t just go on dog walks when it’s nice outside like we did in our sticks-and-bricks home. We now have to walk the dogs in all sorts of crappy weather. Stifling heat. Pouring rain. Frostbiting wind. And occasionally ice and snow. We’ve walked the dogs through all of that.
Pet Waste Clean-Up Never Ends
Picking up pet waste is just gross. When we had a sticks-and-bricks home, we had a large fenced-in yard. That meant that we could pick up pet waste about once every couple of weeks. As full time RVers, that chore is now one we on do 2-3 times a day on every walk. It just seems like the poo clean-up is a full-time job.
Carry a Good Flash-Light
Neither one of us are night owls, but occasionally we don’t get back to the RV until after dark. We have a couple of lightweight Ryobi flashlights that we use to make dog walking easier at night. However, walking the dogs in an unfamiliar RV park and clean up by flashlight isn’t always easy.
Concluding Thoughts
Our dogs are the reason why we started RVing. However, those pups are a lot of work, and living with them in a small space on the road comes with challenges and adjustments. I hope these tips help you with your four-legged family. If you have other tips or tricks, feel free to leave them in the comments or send me an email at classcbroads@gmail.com.
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