Some people don’t find traveling with a dog in a car troublesome at all while others can’t even imagine how it would work out. The thing is, you’ll have to travel with your dog in a car sooner or later for some reason or another. Below are some great dog car travel tips on how to make that excursion safe, and maybe even fun!

1. Clean and groom your pet before going on a ride. As trivial as this may sound, your experience will be a lot less difficult when you don’t have to deal with shedding or stinky smells. You and your dog could be an enclosed space for a long while (depending on how far you’re traveling of course), so there’s no harm in making the trip comfortable.
2. Pack your dog’s food, snacks, and bowls. You don’t want to feed your dog a traveler’s cuisine since the food might upset its stomach. (The dog might not eat what you offer it either because it’s strange to her.) Having access to familiar items, including food, will help the dog remain calm during what could be an excitable and/or threatening event.
3. Pack familiar smells. If you’re going to travel throughout the night, bring along the dog’s bedding and place it in the back seat of your vehicle. Your dog will appreciate the familiar smell. If the bedding is too big or oddly shaped to fit inside the vehicle, pack some blankets or sheets to use as bedding. If the dog can’t smell its own bed, it can at least enjoy the smells from home. You can of course skip this step if your dog is small enough to travel ‘a la crate.’
4. Don’t leave the dog in a car unattended. Although the newer cars might have preventative measures in place, a dog looking for some action could accidently put a parked car into gear and cause a serious accident.
5. Don’t roll down the car’s windows lower than the size of your dog’s head. One reason why dogs end up on “LOST DOG” posters is because they jump out of open car windows! Don’t let this happen to you. Keep your windows rolled down for proper ventilation, but don’t create opportunities for escape. If your dog can stick more than its head out of a window, that’s a window rolled down too far.

See our dog travel checklist for even more dog car travel tips.