Larks (14 weeks) and I are taking a weekend trip this coming weekend and I'm looking for suggestions for taking a puppy in the car! It is about a 5 hour drive. Obviously we will stop for potty breaks/walk breaks but is there anything else I should do/have to keep her occupied? We will be leaving in the afternoon right around when she takes her 2-3 hour nap so I'm hoping that will help. She usually stays in her crate while we are in the car, but should I let her have the whole back to roam around in? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Both my dogs did Cornwall to London before they were 12 weeks old and have continued to do so. It's between 4.5 and 6 hours (on a bad day, depending on the traffic). Neither of them need to stop for a break. They get in their crates and go to sleep and then wake up when we arrive. I'd leave the dog alone in the crate - then she will just learn that nothing will happen, so may as well go to sleep. When they were tiny, I did try to stop for them to have a wee but it was too exciting/scary to have a wee - so all stopping did was make the journey longer. I just make sure they have had a poo, a wee, a drink (and food or they get food in kongs in the car) and off we go. At whatever time suits me.
Great! She is used to riding in the car as she commutes 30-50 minutes to work with me every day, and she usually just sleeps the whole time. I just didn't know if it was okay for me to expect her to sleep most of the way.
My two are exceptional in the car. We've driven back to the UK a few times now; that's 10-12 hours of solid driving from Andorra to Calais and then a couple more on the other side. We tend to do it overnight, because that's what we prefer, and the dogs just sleep. We let them out when we stop for fuel, and to give them their dinner, but they're never really that fussed about having a walk. They go fruitloop crazy when we get there, though - we take them straight to a park and they run round and round like mad things. The downside of driving overnight is that we get no sleep for two days but have two refreshed dogs that need looking after! I wouldn't stop unless she needs to go, personally. At 8 weeks, we brought Willow home with a four hour trip, and she was fine without a stop. She'll let you know if she needs to stop.
I'm planning on taking mine (when I get him or her) on long car trips as my family lives 4/5hrs drive away. I'm going to use a crate rather than roam of the car I think, as I wouldn't want any distractions when on the motorway. I'm also hoping to train up puppy to travel on trains including London Underground so will have to start that from a young age so not afraid but it will be the car at first until I know they won't go to the toilet on the train! I'll start with short trips and build up same with the car. Hopefully Larks will sleep, I'll stop maybe once and see if toilet break is needed and small drink of water. Good luck
We took Bailey from Northampton to Taunton when he was about 12 weeks old, which is about a 4 to 5 hour journey (or longer depending on traffic), we usually stop anyway to give ourselves a break just south of Swindon, but we planned two other breaks in. As it turned out total waste of time with the extra stops as Bailey didn't even have a wee. We gave him the option of water at each stop and only once did he actually drink anything. He slept almost the entire journey and destroyed one cardboard drinks holder and one take away food paper bag! Went loopy when we got to our destination and we had a lovely walk with him going mad running around but that was it. On the way back we just had our normal one stop and that was it - he was good as gold.
