Do you take your dogs?

[lovin'Mickey]

Do you take your dogs to FW in travel trailers? I have 2 dogs that love to go camping with us. We do camp all summer long on the weekends and they love it! However I want to know how other peoples dog react to being in the camper most the day? Do you make trips back during the day, Is it too much of a hassle to take them? They really miss us when we are not there so I would like to take them.

 

[elastigirlfan]

Yes, we take our dog Suzie with us. She loves it and we love having her with us. We leave the A/C on for her and come back to check on her late afternoon or so. She's used to being at home all day by herself so this is really not any different. It takes us two days to get to FW and she does great on the ride down.

Alyssa

 

[ftwildernessguy]

We take our beagle with us. He goes to Disney Doggie Daycare while we are gone for the day. He can be kind of loud when alone (if you've ever owned a beagle, you know what I mean) and he enjoys the extra attention he gets from the staff at the kennels.

 

[Cousin Ed C]

Our German Shepard, Todd, thinks he's the Mayor of the 300 Loop. He loves it and he shakes hands and kissess kids all day long.

We we had a beagle he was loud and always very bad. maybe a criminal genius.

Nobody in the dog loops mind a looked after, cleaned after dog; bring your dog and you will all have a better time!

 

[FWCamper]

Our 2 chows have been camping at FW for 8 years. They love it. The RV is their second home. We don't dare try to leave without them! Them and the cats wait by the door as soon as they hear the deisel engine start up! I think they are more excited than the kids LOL

 

[wildernessfamily]

Yeah we have a house rabbit too. But he has never enjoyed any outdoors at FW. We do return but most of the time it is just that someone in our family needs a break. But in the summer it is so hot, we do usually return for lunch and a swim. So the dogs get walked and played with. We also leave the AC on. But knowing summer thunderstorms one of us will leave to check and make sure the camper did not suffer a power surge or something so the dogs are not in the camper without AC. We have never lost power because of this but my aunt did once.

 

[tim5055]

This is a very common question, not only at FW but almost any campground.

There is no simple answer to this question, every dog is different and you have to make your choice based on the temperament of your dog. As yous regularly camp with you I would expectthem to camp well at FW. Remember, you dog is a member of the family and should be treated as such. Do not place them in a dangerous situation.

A dog that is comfortable being left alone should be OK. On a couple of camping trips "test" the dog. Put them in the camper and go out and get in the car, slam the doors for the correct number of people and drive away. One person stays behind and keeps quite listening to see what the dog does. Some dogs will go to sleep, some will whine/bark for a coupe of minutes then quiet down while others continue to bark.

If you do plan to leave them alone, please keep in mind they can't care for themselves. Make sure the temperature will be in a safe and reasonable range. While you may have A/C or a heater, what will happen in a power failure? Remember food and water!

This is also not something you should spring on your dog out of the blue. If your dog has only experienced being with it's "pack", being abandoned in the camper may be difficult for them to deal with. Over several trips you may want to slowly build up the time you leave them alone.

Some things that may help:

A bed the dog is comfortable sleeping in; even better is a crate if your dog is comfortable in one.

Close all curtains to keep it dark

Run your A/C to keep it cool (plus it adds background noise)

Leave a radio on softly to block outside noise.

Again, the choice will ultimately be yours. You must feel comfortable with leaving your dog alone.

I highly recomend checking back during the day to see that they are OK. I usually make this a a little rest stop for me as well.

 

[Weegie]

We've always taken our three cockers, this June it will only be two because we lost one to cancer in December. They love FW. We return to the mh in the afternoon when it starts to get really hot. One of the main reasons for this is not only for our comfort, but to make sure that there hasn't been a poweer outage leaving our girls with no ac. This has never happened, but I just feel better knowing that the power is not out at 2:00 on a hot June afternoon. We relax and play with the dogs and eat lunch. We head back to the park late afternoon when it starts to cool off. We've never had a problem. As previously suggested we close all curtains, play soft relaxing music and make sure to leave the ac running.

 

[bicyclemark]

We take our dogs (2 Irish Wolfhounds) on all of our family camping trips EXCEPT when we go to Fort Wilderness. We get a house/dog sitter for the time we will be away. The dogs are much happier this way.

Our dogs are use to having someone arond all day, nearly every day. At home, we can leave them alone for up to 9 hours. But they do not like it. Luckly this happens rarely. When we go camping, we take them and do not leave them alone. If they were smaller, I would leave them in the camper. However, there just isn't much room for them. At night, we pull out the sofa bed for them to sleep on. First thing in the morning, it's out the door. I know ours is a slightly different situation, but thought another view might be helpful.

 

[trlrboy]

We have a brittany and a beagle that go camping with us all the time but on this trip in October they're staying with friends. We don't want to be tied down to getting back to the camper and have them cooped up all day. The beagle "Lily" goes to visit her mother and brother not far from our house and the brittany "Ginger" gets to visit her good friend "Maggie" the wonder-Lab. They'll have as good a time as we will and won't have to deal with the 1200 mile trip from Dallas.