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Dogs Travelling In Caravan?


kelpiecuddles
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Has anyone travelled with their dog actually travelling in the caravan? We are looking at buying a caravan later in the year and going on family holidays but we don't always have space for kids and dogs in the car so i was thinking about modifying the van so that there was a secure crate area under one of the bench seats/beds for the dogs to travel in and also installing extra ventilation, etc. as well as a video monitor to keep an eye on them.

Has anyone done something like this or have any other suggestions?

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After seeing my fair share of caravans jackknife on the freeway over the years I wouldn't be keen to travel with dogs in there.

JMO of course.

This is what I thought too. However, I guess the same thing could happen to dogs in dog trailers :( I wouldn't do it myself.

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I considered the same thing but also thought it was probably not much different to a dog trailer in reality. We are experienced at towing and it will only be a smaller van for travelling as opposed to a home on wheels type van. Unfortunately it's that or they have to be kenneled for weeks on end and they would find kenneling rather distressing I think.

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You might need to see how hot it gets inside the caravan when you are traveling, it's a fairly confined space and I'm thinking there might not be any airflow from outside, think how warm a car gets with a full load with all windows up and no air con. My horse float gets very warm and we don't have an enclosed rear.

Edited by Flippy Dog
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Yes Flippy that was a concern hence thinking we would have to modify it for extra ventilation and the intention was to have a baby monitor and temperature gauge so that we could monitor them from inside the car.

DA as I mentioned there is nowhere for the dogs to fit in the car, it's a five seater sedan type car and we have three children.

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We caravan a lot always with our dogs but the dogs travel in the Land Cruiser.

Our van has stability control so it can't sway or jack knife. It has aircon & a diesel heater but I still don't think I would be comfortable with them travelling in there. Thats just me though.

Our guys love the van. Love sleeping in there as well. I wouldn't leave them outside in the annex. Very easily stolen out of there IMHO :)

Edited by BC Crazy
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I wouldn't have dogs in the caravan, too risky in my opinion :)

If you wouldn't put your children in the caravan then don't put your dogs in there.. No different really.

Yes I agree Marg.

BCC that's interesting about the stability control. I was behind a caravan a few weeks ago when I was driving home from Sydney and as you know the high wind areas on the F3 are pretty full on even for a car but this caravan was all over the shop coming down the massive hill to Mooney Mooney bridge. I could see all the brake lights and wondered what was going on, didn't help the dude was in the middle lane! I couldn't wait to get past it.

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Just a thought, do you possibly have a family member or very good friend with a station wagon who might swap cars with you for your trip? Then problem solved without needing to consider risks of your beautiful dogs in the caravan or the cost of actually buying a more suitable car? I just can't see your Basset laying across the kids laps for hours on end hehehe.

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Just a thought, do you possibly have a family member or very good friend with a station wagon who might swap cars with you for your trip? Then problem solved without needing to consider risks of your beautiful dogs in the caravan or the cost of actually buying a more suitable car? I just can't see your Basset laying across the kids laps for hours on end hehehe.

Yep, that's a clever idea if you have a friend with a larger car. Otherwise perhaps buy a different car to suit your lifestyle. I definitely wouldn't have the dog alone in the caravan, it's too risky.

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OK I feel I need to explain a bit more because it's a bit complicated. We do own a car that fits the dogs in the boot(Outlander)which is what we would usually use to tow the van, however that car is in Jervis Bay on the east coast, the van and my husbands car are in Perth and need to be brought back. So for one trip only we need to transport five people, two dogs, a sedan and the caravan. It's a one way trip so we can't swap cars with anyone as the car won't be going back to the point of origin.

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