Tomorrow we leave for that trip to Reno I mentioned before. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for what a task it will most likely be. I made my list of things I need to make sure to do/bring tomorrow, and checked it twice. Pack:
toys
treats
food
crate
.
.
.
To Do:
move car seat cover to Prius
make Theo's breakfast and lunch
.
.
.
It's all there. I couldn't believe how long the list ended up being! I hope it all fits into our Prius (they have tiny trunks, ya know)! Puppies really are like babies in the sense that there's just a lot of "stuff" you have to bring everywhere.
Theo's record of enjoying car rides is not great. It usually involves squirming (pictured), crying, panicking, and a whole lot of barking. Deafening barking. I've learned over the last few weeks that it's not being in the car that bothers him per se. At first I thought his problem was with being banished to the back seat, away from his humans and away from their attention. But now I think his main problem is with the restraint. If we don't buckle him into the harness, he's fine in the back seat. Hehe. But safety is first, so he'll just have to get over it. The plan is to shove his crate into the back seat, so he can chill in his crate unrestrained, but he'll still be safe. Of course, since his crate is huge (I'm still bitter they don't make crates for long-backed, short-legged dogs), that will depend entirely on whether it'll fit in the car. Cross your fingers!
This is going to be an all day car ride, so obviously the trip will go better for all parties the shorter it is. In that spirit, I'm going to try and get us all packed and ready to leave by 4am tomorrow morning so we can get past the areas that tend to be more congested during the later morning hours. Also, my mom made mention of possibly making some macaroni salad for dinner tomorrow night (one of my all time favorite *mom* foods, it's delish), so I want to make sure we're there in time for dinner. You know you're leaving too early when Starbucks won't even be open yet. Oiy.
I'm pretty nervous about the trip, just because the longest car ride we've had with Theo so far has been about 30 minutes. I'm *hoping* he'll end up sleeping most of the way, but if he's unhappy and in the mood to bark, it's going to get very hellish, very fast.
Cross your fingers for me, feel free to leave me any tips you might have for the journey, and I hope everyone has a happy passover! I may not blog much (if at all) while I'm gone, but hopefully when I get back my camera will be full of cute pictures of Theo!
3 comments:
Good luck! My advice is lots of treats while the car is moving. And lots of pee/drink breaks to break up the drive. Lots of rest areas around here have really nice dog walk areas. This makes me want to take another road trip vacation! We had so much fun (except for all the ticks) on our last one.
Hehe. Yes, treats and toys will abound. :)
Theo usually lets us know he needs to go out by sitting by the door and whimpering while looking panicked. I call it his "I can't hold it much longer!!!" face. Since he won't be able to do that, we'll definitely have to stop ever hour or two for a quick break. I'm hoping there's some nice places to walk him along the drive, since there's no way I'm walking him before we leave! Hehe.
Oooh, road trip vacation with the dog sounds like fun!
Have fun!! In fact, we're leaving on our road trip with Bryson on Saturday (to Austin, 1800 miles!!)
Once Theo gets over his discomfort in the car (stuffed animals helped Bryson feel "nested"), you guys will have such a blast! Our last long trip was to LA (about 6-hr drive), you might have read about it here. He was such a celebrity there! And so will Theo be on the road :)
Just make sure you have a lot of "comfort" items (treats, chew toys, his blanket, etc).
Enjoy!!
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