Moving With Dogs

Has anyone had to make a long move with your dogs? We are getting ready to move the end of July. We’ll be going all the way from the Florida Keys to Colorado—well over 2000 miles.  Of course, we’ll have to make frequent stops so the dogs will be able to get out and do their thing. I’m fairly certain Lila will be completely freaked out the whole time. If we take her places and try to get her out of the car, she just sits or lays down and refuses to move.

My plan is to have them under the topper of the pick up truck.  I’d have blankets in the back for them to lay on and probably puppy pads at the other end for accidents (I’m sure Lila will only go that way. She’ll freak when we let her out of the truck). There will be screens for ventilation so they won’t be too hot.

I had considered seeing about tranquilizers for the trip (for both the dogs and our cat) but I don’t know if it’s safe to use them for a three-day trip. I don’t really know how else to pull this off.

Any tips or ideas to make this go as smooth as possible would be very welcome.

Hi Kathleen,

I’d talk to the vet about tranquilizers for the dog, who is likely to freak out. The last thing you want is for her to slip away from you somehow while you’re on the road. Cats are usually more easily contained than dogs, because they use litter. Dogs have to be taken in and out more.

I have only made a short move about two hours away, so I didn’t have to deal with some of these issues you’re facing on this very long trip. My advice would be to take it one stop at a time. It’s likely going to be rough on all of you, but just keep reminding yourself that it is only three days.

Also, there are a few moving companies that specialize in moving pets for you. I think most are based in California, but you might be able to find one in your local yellow pages. It might be worth the investment, if you are particularly worried.

Hi Lori,

I’m not too worried about her getting away. She’s old and slow and is more likely to just lay down and refuse to move. I’m more worried about her just being over stressed. So the tranquilizer might be a good idea for that. I’ll have to discuss it with the vet I guess.

I wish I could afford to have someone move them for me. It’s just not in the budget. I just want to make it is comfortable for them as possible. I’m not sure the best way to accomplish that.

Hi Kathleen, I totally understand what you are going through. I moved with my two dogs from NYC to Chicago in 2006.  The little one is fine with cars, but the older one (perhaps similar to yours) gets stressed (she pants, drools, and sometimes cries).

I wasn’t too keen about tranquilizers, but I did get a natural medicine for them. It’s called Quiet Moments.  Dosage is by weight.  Anyway, it must have worked because the older one (after initially panting and drooling) settled down in her seat. We were lucky because the drive was only about 12 hours, but these pills might be able to work for you (and you can give them as much as two a day). The main ingredient is l-tryptophan (along with chamomile flower and such). Don’t worry, they will get through and you will too.

As an aside, I know you said that a moving service wasn’t feasible for you, but have you investigated a pod service?  I used it when I moved again (while in Chicago-it’s a long story and it was pretty good.  What it is is you select the size pod you need, take as long (or as short of a time packing it) and then they come and drive it for you.  It’s pretty cool and they’ll give you a quote (1-800 Pack Rat). When I used it, it only cost about $200 (granted I didn’t move far, but still).  Once you get the quote, you’ll know what the price is and if doable for your budget, it may help.  That way, you can just worry about the pets, and leave the actual moving part to someone else.

I’ll have to see if I can find some natural alternatives here. Our pet store is fairly limited-the joys of island living, shopping is lousy. I’ve has friends suggest giving them Benadryl or Dramamine to help them calm down as well.

I don’t really want them drugged the whole trip. I just don’t want them to be too stressed. We’ll have a cat too who may be worse than the dogs. She will have a cage in teh back near the dogs with her crate and litter box. I may put a sheet over one side so she feels safer.

It will be worth it once we get there. They’ll have lots of room which they have none of here. It will be cooler and the ticks won’t be so bad. Honestly, the ticks are just unreal here. Nothing gets rid of them. :( So every evening I have to go over them and pull off ticks. Yuck! Tango hates it and growls the whole time.

We did look into those pod-type moving services. They won’t come down to the Keys. They have them in Miami but they won’t come down here. :( Otherwise it would have worked very well.

My husband has a truck reserved. He’ll drive that and I’ll drive our pick up truck. I will likely need sedation too, especially when we get into Miami. (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Miami?) My oldest daughter will help with driving and we have a friend coming along to also help with driving.

We plan to push it but still will have to stop often for the animals. Last time we went to Colorado, my husband drove straight through without sleeping. Scared the heck outta me. lol But if we can pretty much go non-stop other than potty breaks and food, we should make good time and get to the house pretty quickly.

I can’t wait for it all to be over.

I’m so happy that your daughter is going to help a bit, that’ll hopefully ease some of the stress off of you and your husband a bit (I hope so!). I didn’t realize that the pod didn’t go there, that would have been helpful, but at least the two of you have the trucks ready (we didn’t have a driver’s license, so talk about stress!).

The dogs (and the cat) will be fine.  It will be a bit stressful for all of you, but like you said, once they get there, they’ll have a lot of room and just think about how happy the dogs, cat and (you!) will be. When we were driving, we kept that in the front of our minds, and kept telling the “girls” that. It helped all of us to get through it!

My husband also reminded me to remind you to take their favorite toys with them (it may help to keep the cat and dogs a bit more calm).  I will definitely be wishing you guys the best of luck, but I know it’s going to be worth it- just hang in there! You guys will get through it all just fine!

Toys may help Tango. Lila still has no clue what to do with toys, even after watching Tango play.

One thing we do plan to do is cut the egg-crate cushion that is currently on our bed. It will become their bed in the truck and it will smell like us. Hopefully that will help some.

At the moment, my biggest stress is me. :( I’ve been sick again, which is terrible timing. And I tend to have panic attacks when I drive. So I’m starting to feel afraid and really dreading the trip. I will have help driving, but that may not help. I only feel safe with my husband driving. I may have to ride in the moving truck with him and let the kids drive the pick up. Then again, that could make it worse.

When we moved from Arkansas to Florida, my daughter tried to help and nearly killed us. She was fairly new to driving so it wasn’t fair to expect her to know what to do, but it really scared me to death. By the time we got to Miami, I had driven almost the whole way because I was afraid to let her drive again. Miami was in the middle of rush hour. I was a total basket case, in tears and flashing my headlights at my husband to get him to stop. He didn’t see me. Cell phones didn’t work.

When we finally got to the house I said everyone better love the Keys because I will never do that again. And here we go again. I must be totally crazy. Maybe I need some tranquilizers, not the animals.

Tomorrow is loading day. Friday we hit the road. Hope I’m over whatever I have this time by then. Wish I could ride in back with my dogs.

II had a friend once who was also a very nervous driver; she was the same way (panic attacks when driving, trouble merging). I sat with her a lot though (while she was driving and got her to calm down quite a bit). I guess it helped that I wasn’t all that nervous, and she made it.

When you start to get nervous, just think about all the times you’ve driven before. After all, you said you drove when you moved to the Keys, so if you did it once, you can most certainly do it again.

I don’t think you’re crazy because plenty of people have panic attacks (especially people who are very sensitive to stimuli, and since stimuli is occurring all the time- what with magnetic waves and all- it makes sense). I think the key is to say to yourself, okay, I’m having a panic attack- fine; I’ll just keep going like I’ve done a thousand times before. Don’t try to deny what’s happening. Instead, just keep your eyes peeled and your senses sharp. You will be just fine.

I know what you mean about moving (I moved 4x’s in three years- once, twice in the same year-from 2006 to April of 2009), and you know what, so what? Things happen. People in my extended family thought it was crazy, but I didn’t care.  Now, I’m finally super happy with where I live- my neighbors are great (that was the biggest problem before), and the energy of the place I live in now is fantastic. Maybe that will happen for you now, since you may be coming full circle.  One of the reasons you are moving is to be happier, right? So it may happen this time and it may be great. And if not, so what? You’ll just deal with it like you’ve been doing.

I know that telling you not to worry is probably useless, so spend your time thinking about what you can do when you feel stress coming on. And I know that it’s going to be a successful trip and the dogs and the cat are going to be fine. Keep me posted :-)

It does help to just focus on the here-and-now. I keep telling myself that I made it here; I can make it out, like you said. I think my only major issues will be when we get into big cities: Miami, Atlanta, etc. It’s so hard to figure out where you are and what you’re doing. But I will be following my husband who has the GPS so that alone will make it better than before. Last time we had no cell phones and no GPS. So I couldn’t communicate and he didn’t have me with him to navigate (usually I’m the navigator) so he was a wreck too. This time it will be better.

We got most everything loaded today. Good thing we know lots of teen and 20ish boys (the consequences of having pretty teen daughters) so we had plenty of help. I’m still working on finishing the laundry up (the dryer isn’t cooperating)so the washer and dryer and mattresses will get loaded tomorrow. Then we’ll be ready to hit the road.

Poor dogs and cat were locked in the bedroom most of the day. We didn’t want them under foot or out the front door. Needless to say, they were not pleased. But everyone is gone now and we are trying to relax. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to move tomorrow. MCTD and moving does not mix.

It will be worth it though. Yes, the main reason for moving is because the climate there will be better for my health. So I’m hoping for big improvements in the coming months.

So this will be my last post for a few days. I’ll let y’all know once we get there.

Hi Kathleen, I’m not sure if you’ve made it yet, or if you are still on the road, but I’d love to hear how the dogs and cat took everything. And yes, it is better to keep them away until you’re all done with the boxes because it’s easy to trip on them and such (plus, they never know where they can “sit” and just relax :-)

Anyway, hope all is well and can’t wait to hear how everything went!

Hi all!

I got in yesterday around 6:30pm. We unleaded in the rain. What a trip.

On Sunday Lila started making this horrible sound like she was gurgling as she was panting. Her ears felt hot so I assumed she was overheated. We got bags of ice and filled her bowl with ice and threw the other bag in for her to lay by to cool off. We also got a little fan that plugged in to the cigarette lighter in the truck to help the ac to get tot he back with the dogs. It didn’t seem to help and I was sure she was going to die or something.

We stopped for the night and she seemed better in the hotel room. She started again when we left but it seemed to ease up later into the day. Now she is perfectly fine so I don’t know what was wrong, but it sure scared the heck out of me. :(

Tango did fine except at one point. The tread actually fell off a tire as we were driving. It made quite a racket and scared him so bad he dove through the back window of the truck from the camper shell and right into the back seat on top of two of my daughters. He then tried to climb into the front seat. We managed to hold him as we limped to the off ramp where there just happened to be a Walmart. We got the tire replaced and hit the road again. Then Tango realized that since he could fit through the window, he’d rather sit with us.

Needless to say, we had to pull over again to put him back in the back—and then I gave him a Benadryl.

Overall it went okay. Very long and tiring, but everyone is okay and we are here safe and sound. Now we have to unpack everything. Oh joy.

Kathleen! I knew you’d make it, and see, hardly any worse for wear. I’m sorry that Lila got so stressed out, but you know, that’s pretty normal. I can’t believe that happened with the tire- crazy! But the important thing is that all of you made it and you all made it in one piece, thank goodness.

I’m glad that you were able to find a hotel that takes dogs; that’s really good. I know, packing is a chore and a half (it usually takes a month or so to get good and settled, but a pro like you knows that :-)

Anyway, I’m so happy you made it and that everything worked out fine, mishaps and all :-)

Hey Kathleen, good to hear from you. So except for a couple of incidents, I take it the rest of the trip went well. Glad to hear it. Once you get settled, you’ll have to let us know if you ever used those DAP samples. I doubt they could have kept Tango from spazzing when the tread went, but I would have freaked out too!

Wow, im really starting to like this forum a lot! Interesting trip with the Doggies! We too will be travelling but by plane and im already panicking abt knowing my dog will have to travel with the Cargo and for about 9 hrs! But i guess everthing will go fine ye? :D We wil be moving from China to Sri Lanka
Glad to hear Kathleens pets successfully made it.

I wonder what FLuffy wld be doing in the cargo sec ha ha

Wow Tanishia, I can’t believe you are moving to Sri Lanka (and to think, Kathleen was fretting just trying to get from Florida to Colorado :-)

When are you going to be moving? Are you going to give Fluffy something for the flight?  9 hours is a super long time, but I’m sure she’ll be fine. Will she have to go into any kind of quarantine? I know that some countries do that, but I’m not sure about Sri Lanka.

Kathleen, I’ve been wondering how are your dogs (and the rest of your family) adjusting to the move? Everyone getting settled in alright? How is Lila handling her new surroundings? Hopefully being in the country will help her feel a little more inclined to be outside and investigate the yard. Did you ever decide on which type of fencing to go with?