Try having 7 golden retrievers and no one to babysit. It's too expensive to board them all and you can't leave them home alone. So what do you do? You buy a cargo van and convert it to a "canine traveler" complete with raised roof, roof vent, rear a/c, generator, crate bench, and 7 dog crates plus supplies. This thing is a monstrosity and costs about $60,000 when it's all said and done. RIDICULOUS. I'll never understand why someone spends that much money on a vehicle just for their dogs. O yea we do. It was useful for the days when we showed dogs but now it just seems excessive. So this past weekend the family had to go to Louisville for a wedding. We had to take all the dogs with us because our normal babysitter is the person that invited us to her daughter's wedding. Yea we were screwed. Needless to say they managed the trip fairly well. Even with staying in at a pet hostile hotel, they lived in the van for the weekend and went outside to do business and that was about it. This is the reason we need the "mobile dog hotel." DO NOT LEAVE YOUR DOGS IN YOUR CAR WITHOUT PROPER VENTILATION AND A/C. OK just had to say that. The dogs lived just fine in the car because we have a generator that runs the a/c so they don't overheat. In the winter you can run the heat so they don't freeze to death. It's pretty nice but excessive for the casual pet owner. Naturally with all the dogs you can't fit a family of four in the car so we had to bring a second along with the 1000 truffles we made for the wedding favors. Dogs plus chocolate is just asking for trouble but both survived. The fun comes on the way home when I need to stop at my college campus to pick up something from my apartment and we blow a tire. SO I got to sit in a Starbucks parking lot and try and put my auto shop knowledge to use to try to jack the car. Managed to jack the car but fail to be able to break the nuts on the tire. Not to mention it was corroded to the wheelbase so it wouldn't come off. Good thing the dogmobile was close and dad came to the rescue.
Now why does all that matter? This is just a short story of the random stuff I do with my pets. Here are some tips for the traveling pet owner. If you can't find someone to babysit and you don't want to board you animals, step number one is to check if your accommodations are pet friendly. If they are then great but if not you will need a set up like the vehicle described above unless you are traveling somewhere that the temperature is moderate and you can just crack the windows. Also, please use a crate. Don't let your dog have free reign of your car, who knows what kind of trouble it will get its self into. Make sure to walk your dog in a nice open grassy area and CLEAN UP YOUR DOGS MESS. Nothing frustrates me more then irresponsible dog walkers. My apartment is a prime hot spot for lazy college girls that are too high maintenance to pick up dog poop. Really? If it grosses you out that much don't have pets. You clearly shouldn't have one if you can't clean up after it. Other than that, traveling is pretty straightforward. Be responsible and don't forget about your animals.
Try having 7 golden retrievers and no one to babysit. It's too expensive to board them all and you can't leave them home alone. So what do you do? You buy a cargo van and convert it to a "canine traveler" complete with raised roof, roof vent, rear a/c, generator, crate bench, and 7 dog crates plus supplies. This thing is a monstrosity and costs about $60,000 when it's all said and done. RIDICULOUS. I'll never understand why someone spends that much money on a vehicle just for their dogs. O yea we do. It was useful for the days when we showed dogs but now it just seems excessive. So this past weekend the family had to go to Louisville for a wedding. We had to take all the dogs with us because our normal babysitter is the person that invited us to her daughter's wedding. Yea we were screwed. Needless to say they managed the trip fairly well. Even with staying in at a pet hostile hotel, they lived in the van for the weekend and went outside to do business and that was about it. This is the reason we need the "mobile dog hotel." DO NOT LEAVE YOUR DOGS IN YOUR CAR WITHOUT PROPER VENTILATION AND A/C. OK just had to say that. The dogs lived just fine in the car because we have a generator that runs the a/c so they don't overheat. In the winter you can run the heat so they don't freeze to death. It's pretty nice but excessive for the casual pet owner. Naturally with all the dogs you can't fit a family of four in the car so we had to bring a second along with the 1000 truffles we made for the wedding favors. Dogs plus chocolate is just asking for trouble but both survived. The fun comes on the way home when I need to stop at my college campus to pick up something from my apartment and we blow a tire. SO I got to sit in a Starbucks parking lot and try and put my auto shop knowledge to use to try to jack the car. Managed to jack the car but fail to be able to break the nuts on the tire. Not to mention it was corroded to the wheelbase so it wouldn't come off. Good thing the dogmobile was close and dad came to the rescue.
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