Concerns about leaving a dog in a Motorhome for a few hours.

[Riding with Miss Ellie]

Hi, all!

My husband and I are first-timers, and are pretty excited! We begin our journey in February, heading from southern Ontario, to California.

We have recently lost our beloved boxer, Olive. It’s been so hard, and I miss her terribly. We were great companions for each other, and she was very emotionally supportive. It’s hard to be stressed or anxious, when your buddy is with you. We are considering a puppy, and I’m a bit apprehensive, because I don’t know much about travelling with dogs. I’m sure that those of you guys with pets, probably know, that having a dog can do wonders for you, and you get to give a dog lots of love, and a great life!! My husband does a lot of travel for work, and we would love to be able to bring her, and want to get her used to travel. I’m also going to be licensing her as a service dog. 
 

If we decide to get the pup, we’ll have a 6 month old boxer with us, and I’m concerned about what to do, if we want to go and do a day trip. Not only for having the pup cooped up for too long (what’s too long?), but also... how do we keep her nice and toasty in the cold, and cool and comfy in the hotter weather, when we aren’t there for any length of time. From popping out for groceries, to day trips, what can I do? 
 

I do know that daycare is an option, but would rather not have to send her somewhere. So, I guess my dilemma is, is it doable to RV with your dog in hot and cold weather? It’s a huge decision to get a dog, and I just want to be sure I’m doing the right thing. If we weren’t doing the RV thing, I’d get a pup in a heartbeat. 
 

Any help and advice would be kindly appreciated 😊🐾❤️

[remoandiris]

IMO, you will be MUCH better off if you RV for SEVERAL MONTHS before you decide to get a pup.  That way you will have an idea of how often you take day trips, how long you typically stay out on those trips, how the coach's temperature feels when you get back, etc.  It will also offer you the opportunity to talk face to face RVing dog owners.

A young Boxer needs opportunities to burn off energy.  Not all RV parks are set up to make that easy.

[Jim1521]

We have the Motorola MultiSensor and it’s great. Can not recommend it highly enough.

[Riding with Miss Ellie]

2 minutes ago, Jim1521 said:

We have the Motorola MultiSensor and it’s great. Can not recommend it highly enough.

Great!! Thank you for the info 😊

[TXiceman]

We use a Marcell cell connected dialer to monitor RV power, temp and humidity.

Marcell

It can be Verizon or AT&T connected.

Ken

[Riding with Miss Ellie]

Thanks, Ken! 

[agesilaus]

We carried a 4 month old Aussie with us on a 4 or 5 week trip. He mainly traveled parked in my son's lap. But unless forbidden we take our dogs on trails with us. But we occasionally leave them in the RV for a few hours with the a/c on. They are well behaved, but if you dog starts barking and whining the whole time he is left then that will be a problem.

The dogs travel in the back seat, they get half and we cover the seat to protect it from their claws. The other half is used by a small ice chest and a geedunk box for road snacks.

If we ever have to replace one of our dogs I'm inclined to get a little smaller breed, miniature aussie maybe. Something in the 20-25 pound range. We just are not interested in anything smaller.

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by agesilaus

[2gypsies]

I'd recommend, especially for a puppy, to have it crate-trained.  Then you can be reassured that it will not damage anything.  You'll also need to know if it's a barker when left alone which isn't good.  Only you, once you get to know the dog, can judge how long it can be left alone with needing to void outside.

One thing to consider is what kind of siteseeing/activities do you normally do.  For one thing, national parks typically don't allow pets on hiking trails although there are some exceptions. They aren't allowed in buildings.  You'll have to read each park's take on it before assuming.

[Kirk W]

We had a similar experience to you in that we began to travel fulltime with our mini schnauzer and about 18 months into our travels our 9 year old companion suddenly became ill and died. We missed her so much that we did get a puppy soon after and like 2gypsies, we strongly suggest crate training. If you plan to leave the pup in the RV you need to be sure that yours is not one that barks much when alone as that can cause problems for you when in RV parks. We found that living in an RV made the training easier since we were so close to her most of the time and the bond that developed was probably the strongest of any of the dogs that we have had over the years. The pup that we adopted was only 6 weeks old when she became part of the family and we had her for 16 wonderful years. She passed away about a year ago. 

[filthy-beast]

16 hours ago, Riding with Miss Ellie said:

Hi, all!

My husband and I are first-timers, and are pretty excited! We begin our journey in February, heading from southern Ontario, to California.

We have recently lost our beloved boxer, Olive. It’s been so hard, and I miss her terribly. We were great companions for each other, and she was very emotionally supportive. It’s hard to be stressed or anxious, when your buddy is with you. We are considering a puppy, and I’m a bit apprehensive, because I don’t know much about travelling with dogs. I’m sure that those of you guys with pets, probably know, that having a dog can do wonders for you, and you get to give a dog lots of love, and a great life!! My husband does a lot of travel for work, and we would love to be able to bring her, and want to get her used to travel. I’m also going to be licensing her as a service dog. 
 

If we decide to get the pup, we’ll have a 6 month old boxer with us, and I’m concerned about what to do, if we want to go and do a day trip. Not only for having the pup cooped up for too long (what’s too long?), but also... how do we keep her nice and toasty in the cold, and cool and comfy in the hotter weather, when we aren’t there for any length of time. From popping out for groceries, to day trips, what can I do? 
 

I do know that daycare is an option, but would rather not have to send her somewhere. So, I guess my dilemma is, is it doable to RV with your dog in hot and cold weather? It’s a huge decision to get a dog, and I just want to be sure I’m doing the right thing. If we weren’t doing the RV thing, I’d get a pup in a heartbeat. 
 

Any help and advice would be kindly appreciated 😊🐾❤️

1st and foremost, being in RV for puppy training is no different than being in a house or apt, the same issues and process would apply for training, leaving for a few hours, separation issues.  Research all of these issues and have a plan, crate training is a great way to go.  Start with short duration absences and build up.

Now you need to have a way to monitor the RV in-case heat or AC stop working, so you'll know to head back.

 

 

[LindaH]

15 hours ago, Jim1521 said:

We have the Motorola MultiSensor and it’s great. Can not recommend it highly enough.

 

15 hours ago, TXiceman said:

We use a Marcell cell connected dialer to monitor RV power, temp and humidity.

Marcell

Each of these appears to need Internet access, so how does it work when you leave the rig?  When we leave our rig, we take our phones with us, which we use as hotspots, so our Internet access goes with us.

[TXiceman]

3 hours ago, LindaH said:

 

Each of these appears to need Internet access, so how does it work when you leave the rig?  When we leave our rig, we take our phones with us, which we use as hotspots, so our Internet access goes with us.

The Marceli is cell phone based,  As said you choose AT&T or Verizon when you order it.   The unit has a cell connection.  And as I said, it monitors power, temperature and humidity.

How it works...

Ken

Edited November 24, 2019 by TXiceman

[Jim1521]

3 hours ago, LindaH said:

 

Each of these appears to need Internet access, so how does it work when you leave the rig?  When we leave our rig, we take our phones with us, which we use as hotspots, so our Internet access goes with us.

The Motorola system uses AT&T cell phone service.  It is totally self-contained, you pay $5/month.  It is it’s own cell phone account.  Any problems and it sends messages to your cell phones and email.

[Blues]

On 11/23/2019 at 3:45 PM, Riding with Miss Ellie said:

 I’m also going to be licensing her as a service dog.

If it's a service dog that is individually trained to perform a task for a disabled person, why would it be left behind?

[orca]

Make sure you don't have a dog like this.

 

[NDBirdman]

30 minutes ago, orca said:

Make sure you don't have a dog like this.

 

That's one mean looking image!

[Twotoes]

First off, you don’t liscense a service dog. No such thing as a liscense or certificate. The certificate is just a diploma from the school that did the training. And if you train the dog to be a service dog she would go with you and not be left behind. I rescued a boxer about two years before I wentfull time. She was about a year old when I rescued her. Trained her myself to be a service dog. After I recooperated we went full time. She was already house trained. Leaving her in the RV is no different than leaving her in the house. I just make sure I do leave her too long and let her out as soon as I get back, just like at the house. She’s good for an 8 hour day just like when I was working. 

[Carlos]

We have no issue with leaving the dogs in the trailer in the same way we don't have an issue leaving them at home alone.  Once trained and they get accustomed to the RV, it's just another home.  We spent a lot of time with them in the RV right at home.  When I'd work on it, I'd take them out there, so they'd see it's "ours" and they belong.  We also put their two favorite dog beds in there.  Now if you open the house door and the TT is outside, they run right into it ready for a trip.  They don't ride back there while moving, but they don't really get that part, they just think it's home.

[jamtracy]

We have Labs 4 and 2.  We started out with leaving them in a crate while we left for a few hours at a time. We love our dogs but we are not those people who have to have our dogs with us 24/7. If we are going to be gone a long time then we use a local Kennel. We do all of the Kennel research in advance.

They are great travelers in the the truck and camping. We do not have a way to monitor the inside while we are out and about but those monitoring devices look good.

Depending on where you are going in California (I live in NORCAL) the weather isn't to bad one way or the other unless you are in the mountains or dessert. We were in 115 degrees for a week once and never left the dogs alone.

I was doing some research on both of these items.

The Motorola seems to be $25 a month or $180 per year and doesn't have as many 1 star reviews as the other one. 

The Marcell is $5 a month but has a bunch of one star reviews from September 2019 for the service being inoperable. Maybe that is fixed now.

You can't put a price on pet safety but $25 a month is a little steep.

Good luck.

James

Edited December 28, 2019 by jamtracy

[Dutch_12078]

The Marcell service plan is $14.95/mo or $99/yr for either Verizon or AT&T. The Motorola MC4000 service is $5/mo for AT&T only.

[bluebird]

On 11/23/2019 at 4:02 PM, Jim1521 said:

We have the Motorola MultiSensor and it’s great. Can not recommend it highly enough.

Ah that's so smart! Literally right before I read your post I was thinking "I wonder if there's a temperature sensor that can alert people if it gets too hot (or cold)..." Will buy...have a dog and fish that will be full timing with me and my family! 

[SWharton]

With a MH you can program you generator to turn on if there is a power failure. That should take care of any temperature concerns.

[2gypsies]

11 hours ago, bluebird said:

Ah that's so smart! Literally right before I read your post I was thinking "I wonder if there's a temperature sensor that can alert people if it gets too hot (or cold)..." Will buy...have a dog and fish that will be full timing with me and my family! 

There's another post today asking if fish can travel well.  Hopefully, you can run across it and give her an answer. 🙂  It was titled "New Family to RV Living... in the Beginning RVing section.   OOPS..... I think that post came from you!!

Edited August 19, 2020 by 2gypsies

[Retiredin1993]

Might want to consider one of these, it records temp but don't send an alarm.  Bonus it sends you pictures so you can see what your pup is up to.

https://www.amazon.com/SPYPOINT-LINK-MICRO-LTE-Link-Micro-LTE-SPP/dp/B086SFX4VP/ref=pd_lpo_200_t_0/141-9302061-2293009?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B086SFX4VP&pd_rd_r=d258a5e6-6b84-4873-ab7f-3ce70eea712b&pd_rd_w=AeeTH&pd_rd_wg=0Ox76&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=Q8GF8AR8SHKK7NHJR3J3&psc=1&refRID=Q8GF8AR8SHKK7NHJR3J3

[LPD218]

Hello,

We have found that crate training to be very constructive to keeping a puppy safe and quiet.  It provides a comfort to the pup.  We continued to crate after they have grown up if they display destructive behavior.

We also use Nimble Pet Safety.  It is a Verizon product that uses cellular to report temperature and power issues.  You can set alarms that text your phone if temps get too high or power goes out.  Subscription is $120.00 per year or you can do less and pay as you go.