Do you keep your pets in your camper?

[monkeybug]

While you're at the park?
I'm pretty sure we'll kennel our goofballs before heading down to the Fort, but reading about the dog park this morning had me considering letting them tag along.
We have a 14 year-old Golden who mostly just likes to sleep all day, and a 2 year-old Golden who mostly makes mischief all day.
I would certainly kennel the youngest during the day, but our old-lady dog is past her trouble making days. I just worry about what would happen if for some reason the air conditioner malfunctioned? We do have a hybrid so maybe the tent-ends would allow in enough air if that were to happen? Or does it not get as hot as a car would inside a camper?

 

[FtW Mike]

We bought our coach to bring our two with us. They love when we take them Adventureing and trips to Mommy Daddy camp are high on their list. Not sure how old your new TT is but if it is used I would try the A/C before hand to make sure everything is in order. Having them does make for a some adjustments in our touring plans but nothing we can't live with. when weather is hot I do open roof vent and run at least one of the fans in addition to A/C. Disney does have Pet center on Property that we did check out and found exceptional. We arrived unannounced and they gave us a full tour. If we decide to do some off property attractions we have no worries about leaving them there
Suggest you try setting it up at home leave the A/C off place a thermometer inside and come back in a few hours and you'll know how hot it can get inside. We do shortsnowbird trip to the fort mostly in Jan and use just a small electric heater (looks like glass paned wood burning stove) our bigger one puts her butt near it and refuses to move. Like your older one ours are both 14

 

[CamperMouse]

Our goldens were the same age as yours when we first took them to the Fort. The only concern I had were those afternoon thunderstorms. They handled it all very well. We did leave a tv on for a little noise.

 

[kazlac4]

We place our pooch in the kennel for the days we know we will be at the parks because we always stay for a long time and thus we don't need to worry about her. We know she is being watched and attended to. Sometimes we leave her overnight and pick her up the next morning, sometimes we go to the kennel and pick her up after closing. It usually depends on what we are doing the next day. On days we don't go to the parks (sometimes we stay at the Fort, other times we leave to visit other resorts), we will then leave our Miss Molly in the camper with the air going and the TV usually playing for white noise. We make sure she gets lots of visits to the dog park and lots of walks on those days in between our own fun. So far it has worked out great for us. Like others have suggested, I would do a trial run with leaving them for a while to see how they deal with it. Hope it works out good for your!

 

[hsmytwins]

Disney has a kennel (Best Friends Pet Care). We are using that for park days and keeping our pooch in our RV the rest of the time.

 

[rajak73]

We've used the kennel before, thought it was great. We also kennel if we are going to be gone all day, otherwise, our yorkie is kennel trained and we leave him in the camper, a/c going, tv on, food and water dish in kennel and he is just fine until we return. He also gets a lot of play time after we get back.

 

[peg110]

We had our 130# yellow lab with us in 2010. He is very excitable and very lovable. He is cranky (barking) when we first leave but settles down very quickly. We had "Scheduled" the Best Friends Pet Care for our trip there. But we actually didn't use them every day. While the Kennel was AWESOME (as others had said) we didn't want to leave our "Pup" if we didn't have to. Our criteria was more like our normal day. If we were going to be away longer than a normal day at home (with work and school) then he would go to the kennel, otherwise we'd just leave him in the TT with the AC/Heat set appropriately. (It was late November).

So you know what your pets are like. As has been mentioned you should also make sure the heater/AC are working well. I think that mishaps with power are few and far between so as long as your equipment is working well, I think you should be fine.

 

[garneska]

We keep them in the rv, however when we get there in a couple days, we will setup our third auxiliary dump ac. Our rig is 40 ft with 2 rooftop ac and I don't think they keep up in Florida. The auxiliary really helps and we plug it into the pedestal. When it is really warm we do check on them every four hours just too make sure it does not get too warm. While yeti is a barker, I think he sleeps most of the time. Mallory's bark has been affected by her spinal issues so most can't hear her except when she really tries. Plus mine are old. Yeti is arthritic and mal can't move much. When I have a younger dog, he would probably go to best friends.

 

[KristinU]

Our boys are 4 and 5 year old labs. They stay in the camper in the AC. They are also in crates, which they are at home as well. Our older one is an old soul and was fine un-crated, but when the second came along they just get into way too much mischief together to have free run at home or the camper. They are happy and content in their crates, so it works well. For my own selfish reasons I'd prefer to travel without messing with crates, but I know they are safest using them.

 

[sippican]

We take our 2 pups almost everywhere with us except The Fort. They are 5 and 2. We leave them in the loving care of our dog-sitter for a couple of reasons. We do not want to schedule our park visits around their established feeding times and potty breaks and to do otherwise would not be fair to them. Probably the most important reason is that we are not absolutely confident that they will be good camping neighbors while we are away - meaning will they bark at a level to disturb others?
We have spent a great deal of time and effort on other extended trips assuring ourselves that they remain relatively quiet. We have gone so far as to park our car away from the site and staying at a distance to observe their behavior when we both leave and return. Unless we are confident that they are exhibiting good campground etiquette, we will not subject our fellow campers to barking. We are hopeful they will accompany us to WDW in the near future.
I know many of you think that everyone is in the parks all day (and night) but you'd be surprised at how many enjoy the peace of the Fort during those hours. Believe me, many fidos are NOT happy campers and bark, whine and even howl incessantly.
I applaud those of you who use your judgement to place them in the care of Best Friends for long or short periods. Our friends have high praise for the facility.

 

[North of Mouse]

We take our 2 pups almost everywhere with us except The Fort. They are 5 and 2. We leave them in the loving care of our dog-sitter for a couple of reasons. We do not want to schedule our park visits around their established feeding times and potty breaks and to do otherwise would not be fair to them. Probably the most important reason is that we are not absolutely confident that they will be good camping neighbors while we are away - meaning will they bark at a level to disturb others?
We have spent a great deal of time and effort on other extended trips assuring ourselves that they remain relatively quiet. We have gone so far as to park our car away from the site and staying at a distance to observe their behavior when we both leave and return. Unless we are confident that they are exhibiting good campground etiquette, we will not subject our fellow campers to barking. We are hopeful they will accompany us to WDW in the near future.
I know many of you think that everyone is in the parks all day (and night) but you'd be surprised at how many enjoy the peace of the Fort during those hours. Believe me, many fidos are NOT happy campers and bark, whine and even howl incessantly.
I applaud those of you who use your judgement to place them in the care of Best Friends for long or short periods. Our friends have high praise for the facility.

Thank you for being such considerate pet owners! Wish all were like you. Some feel like 'it's too bad' if you don't like the incessant barking, as that's 'what dogs do'!! One thing though, in our 'one' experience, Disney did take it serious and took care of the situation.

 

[FtW Mike]

We had our 130# yellow lab with us in 2010. He is very excitable and very lovable. He is cranky (barking) when we first leave but settles down very quickly. We had "Scheduled" the Best Friends Pet Care for our trip there. But we actually didn't use them every day. While the Kennel was AWESOME (as others had said) we didn't want to leave our "Pup" if we didn't have to. Our criteria was more like our normal day. If we were going to be away longer than a normal day at home (with work and school) then he would go to the kennel, otherwise we'd just leave him in the TT with the AC/Heat set appropriately. (It was late November).

So you know what your pets are like. As has been mentioned you should also make sure the heater/AC are working well. I think that mishaps with power are few and far between so as long as your equipment is working well, I think you should be fine.

Have to agree with Chris. If our expected away time exceeds the norm at home we adjust the plan for the day. Fortunately DW doesn't care for extended time in a park so we keep touring time to reasonable amount. The girls are older (will both be 13 this trip ) so high energy days are long gone and they spend most of the day sleeping. As for outside as long as they are on a leash and we are with them they are fine. That is unless another dog comes running at them or us. Had that happen twice last trip. Someone else's Yorkie Charged at me and the Wookie, and she was ready to do some damage. Owners kept telling me their dog wasn't dangerous it wasn't mine I worried about. When ours see other dogs they didn't care unless one of them charges. Ours see yours and say so what till they precieve a threat to my wife or I and then The Heathen Hound in them comes out. Only time they barked at Disney was when the man collecting the garbage comes around and was stealing our garbage while they were in the coach They met him while we were out exploring one mourning and get enough attention from him. But let them see him taking our trash safely inside the coach with Mommy and Daddy there whole different story

 

[fireupchips]

Last time we were at the Fort,five years ago, we left our dog in our motörhome. He was older and slept most of the time anyway. We have since adopted a couple of tripod Puggles and plan on taking them with us. This will not be their first camping trip and they love being in the motörhome.

 

[Maligator]

One of the things I've done as a safety net for our dog when camping is to install an automatic roof vent fan. I have the Maxxair deluxe but I believe Fantastic Fan has a model similar as well. Basically, the fan can be set to a thermostat. If it reaches that temp, it will turn on automatically open/close. I set it at a temp several degrees above what the coach A/C thermostat is set to. So, if the shore power or A/C unit fails, the fan will automatically start and circulate fresh air keeping it livable until we return instead of an oven. I also upgraded our coach batteries because we dry camp and need the extra capacity. With that, the fans could run for over a day and not run out. These fans are only about $200 each and easy to install. Well worth the security IMO.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

We just will not take the chance of a power or AC failure, fire or bothering other campers with possible barking for a whole day. Especially in Florida.

We will leave them for a shorter time, especially if we are nearby in the campground.

AKK

 

[KristinU]

If you happen to have a smart phone with temperature sensors (Samsung Galaxy S4 has them, but they stopped including them around S5 or S6), there is an app called Temperature Surveillance. You leave the phone in the place you want to monitor, set the parameters for temperatures, and enter another cell phone number for it to notify if it goes above or below your parameter zone. It will also alert you of a power outage if you have it plugged into a charging cord.

I know there are other systems out there on the market that will do this, but this is an inexpensive setup if you happen to have the right phone kicking around. We purposely kept a spare line on one of our old S4's when we recently upgraded so we can still monitor with it. (worked out great for us since T-mobile was offering a buy 3 get the 4th line free...and we are a 3 person family!)

 

[peg110]

(worked out great for us since T-mobile was offering a buy 3 get the 4th line free...and we are a 3 person family!)

Can also be used as a "Great" Home Phone (while Mobile)

 

[Maligator]

Thinking outside the box here, if really worried I guess we could buy a cheap wifi camera for around $50 and look in on the dog from our phones from the park. A well placed thermometer could be viewed as well. I might do this just because it will be cool to see what he's doing (probably sleeping!) in addition to the security.

 

[peg110]

Thinking outside the box here, if really worried I guess we could buy a cheap wifi camera for around $50 and look in on the dog from our phones from the park. A well placed thermometer could be viewed as well. I might do this just because it will be cool to see what he's doing (probably sleeping!) in addition to the security.

It's funny, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[KristinU]

What is the status of WiFi at the Fort? Would you need your own hotspot to use a WiFi camera?