Amanda and her wife travel the US full time, and in 2023 they lived in four different states! Their two large breed dogs, a shepherd mix and pitbull, accompany them on each move as well as special weekend adventures.
In this post, Amanda is sharing her top ten products that she uses to help make all of these moves and fun adventures more sustainable and enjoyable for her and her dogs! Whether it’s for your day to day or a long road trip, her 10 best items for traveling with dogs will make trips with your favorite furry friend a breeze!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. That means at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission from your purchase which will go toward bringing you more travel tips, tricks, and tidbits.
The Best Dog Trainers
This blog post is all about our must have products for traveling with dogs – but our biggest must have is Mirror Image K9. This phenomenal team of dog trainers has shown us what having a relationship with your dog can look like, instead of just owning dogs. Traveling full time like we do has its challenges, and doing it with two large dogs only adds another layer of challenges. We firmly believe our lifestyle now wouldn’t be possible without the guidance, training, and resources that the Mirror Image K9 team have provided in building a foundation over the last two years. Not to mention the continued support that they provide us!
Crates
Both of my dogs are crate trained – they sleep in their crates at night and are crated periodically during the day. When you’re traveling with crate trained dogs, you need a crate that is reliable when in use but quick and easy to collapse. Whether it’s full time travel like we do or shorter trips, it is so nice to have a crate that collapses into a compact form that can easily be tucked away. No one wants to struggle with big clunky crates on their vacation!
For my shepherd mix, we use the MidWest Homes Wire Crate. This crate is HUGE and does take up space when setup, but my dog is a big girl. The crate size allows her to comfortably lay down and relax. It is SO EASY to break down and setup – it just folds on itself and has a handle that makes carrying it from the car to the house, and back again, a one person job. The removable plastic pan on the bottom has come in handy more than once when our dog has been sick – making cleanup quick and easy.
My pitbull is a rescue and struggles with severe separation anxiety. Before I adopted him he chewed his way out of a wire crate, and he broke an airline crate when I first brought him home. We were introduced to Impact Crates and quickly purchased the Impact Crates – High Anxiety Crate. This crate was a GAME CHANGER. The design of the crate is escape-proof (which is a huge plus), but beyond that, it is safe and secure. Due to the fantastic design of the crate, I was able to partner with Mirror Image K9 to focus on building a positive relationship between my dog and his crate.
When we decided to travel full time, having a crate that was collapsible was a MUST. We switched our pitbull’s crate to the Impact Crates – Collapsible Dog Crate and have truly loved it over the last year. The setup and breakdown of this crate is surprisingly easier than my shepherd’s crate, which is not what you’d assume when looking at the two different crates side by side. This crate also comes with THREE handles, so moving it from location to location is a one person job as well!
Don’t let the price tag on these crates scare you – it is an investment for sure. However, the peace of mind and change in relationship that my pitbull has with his crate (and the relationship that they have together) is SO. MUCH. BETTER. If you have a dog with separation anxiety, you should seriously consider the investment with Impact Crates.
Car Barrier
Traveling full time equals very long drives in the car on moving days. Long days in the car aren’t just tiring on humans – they are also taxing on the pups too (nobody likes being cooped up in a car all day!). We found that creating separate and designated spaces for each dog has brought the energy in the car way down as well as the stress.
Enter the Car Barrier.
Our setup in the car (a Rav4 for reference) is that the pitbull is in the trunk space (which is very spacious – thank you Toyota!). The car barrier is set up across the back seat / trunk, and our shepherd mix is in the backseat. Having this divider helps maintain each dog’s own space, which makes them more relaxed.
It also helps contain the anxiety riddled pitbull. Prior to having the divider, he would jump from the trunk to the backseat constantly during car rides, like a little ball in a pinball machine. This made us anxious, our other dog anxious and he, himself, was anxious. Now, getting in and out of the car is stress-free because they both know where to go and will very quickly settle in and lay down almost as soon as the car ride begins. They both will take long naps in the car because they are so relaxed! My only regret is that I didn’t buy the car barrier sooner!
Car Tether
Another car travel life changer is the Car Seat Belt Tether that we purchased for our pitbull. Since his permanent spot in the car is the trunk, it was taking both my wife and me to get him in and out of the car. When the trunk would open, we both had to be standing there and prepped to grab him if he tried to make a break for it. While he only actually attempted an escape one or two times (and we caught him mid-air before his paws even touched the ground!), it caused a lot of anxiety on our part and slowed down the process of letting the dogs out on long road trips.
Having our pitbull tethered in the trunk has been a huge relief, because there is now confidence that he can’t just jump out and do whatever he pleases. Taking him in and out of the car is once again a one person job instead of two, which is ideal! Also, it has made it possible to teach him that getting in and out of the trunk is a threshold boundary and he needs to look to us for guidance and not just make that decision on his own (thanks Mirror Image K9 for the help with that!)
Seat Cover
Another great item for the car is the Car Seat Cover. Our shepherd mix is a BIG shedder. We constantly joke that she sheds enough fur to create her own puppy clone. While we wish the cover kept all hair off the actual seat or floor boards, it is extremely helpful in mitigating most of it and significantly reduces the time it takes to vacuum the car out between trips! The cover protects our cloth seats from being scratched by her nails, prevents her from jumping in the front seat, or the floor board AND has a pocket to neatly store leashes, poop bags and whatever else we may want handy during trips.
Portable Hitching System
Moving on from our favorite car specific gear – another favorite item what we use with our shepherd mix is the Ruffwear Portable Hitching System. We first discovered this by accident when we were preparing to take her on her first camping trip two years ago. We’ve used other tie out and ground staking systems in the past, but this hitching system is a hands down favorite. Our shepherd mix loves the outdoors and has had consistent training and practice of recall, threshold boundaries, and calmness around kids and other dogs. So, she is usually pretty well behaved outdoors. Even with all of that considered, she is not permitted to be off leash unless one of us is actively supervising her.
The Ruffwear Portable Hitching System is the best system that we have found that gives her maximum freedom while being on a leash. While we typically use this when camping, there are so many situations where this would come in handy. When we arrive at the campsite, the first thing we pull out and set up is this system so that our shepherd mix can begin exploring in a safe way while we get the rest of the campsite setup.
Did you know Disney World has dog-friendly hotels? Port Orleans Riverside Resort is one of our favorites Disney hotels, and it allows up to two dogs of any size per room!
Snoop Feeding Toy
On long travel days (or busy day to day life) finding time to get the dogs’ energy out can be really difficult. When this happens, we use food enrichment at feeding time to help work their brains. One of our go-tos is the Snoop. With this handy feeding toy, we put some of their food inside and they have to work to get the food out by sniffing, pawing at it, and our dog’s favorite tactic – picking it up and throwing it to get the food out! It takes a couple of rounds for them to get their full meal, as it doesn’t all fit inside the Snoop at once, but that’s actually a good thing – it provides ample time to get all the energy out! Both of our dogs are highly food motivated, so they absolutely love this activity! A good alternative to the Snoop Toy is the Snuffle Mat which can be another source of brain work, provides stress relief and encourages slow eating.
Kong Ultra Durable Harness
We love, love, love spending time outdoors, and we love doing it with our shepherd mix! One of our must haves when we take her hiking, on camping trips, or anywhere else outdoors is the Kong Ultra Durable Harness. We love this harness for the handle on top that makes it easy to hold onto her when others are passing us on the trail, or just another touch point for her. We also really love that it has a pouch to hold poop bags. Having a second place to store extra bags has saved us on more than one hike when we have either forgotten to grab some or suddenly ran out!
Wyze Camera
Something that brings us peace of mind is the Wyze Camera. Call us helicopter dog parents if you want – but we LOVE being able to check on our dogs or the place we are renting, while out and about. This interior security camera is easily set up by plugging it in and connecting to wifi. You download an app on your phone and from there you can check the camera, setup customized alerts (like motion detection), and use the mic to talk. We may be a bit obsessed with checking on our dogs while we are away from home, but it’s a relief to truly know that they are okay, and it is so nice to have the option to talk to them through the mic feature if they start getting too hyper or are barking a lot at a noise they’ve heard outside.
Sweaters
While some breeds have a built in furry coat (like my shepherd), other breeds have much shorter hair and can get cold easily. Pitbulls are one of those short hair breeds that love all things warm and cozy. The slightest bit of wind or the temperature dipping a tiny bit and my pittie starts to shiver uncontrollably. During the cooler months we will dress him in different sweaters and jackets to keep him warm when going outside as well as a bit of extra coziness indoors too! It’s so cute to see how excited he gets when I pull the sweaters out and it can become quite challenging to let me take them off after a couple of winter days because he loves them so much!
Let us know in the comments below what you think about our 10 Best Items For Traveling With Dogs! We would love to hear if you have any additional recommendations!
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Past Posts
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