Travel Tips from Muttville: How to Keep Your Pet at Ease During Holiday Trips

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The holidays are upon us and you may be looking forward to traveling after nearly two years in lockdown. But don’t forget your furry friend may not share the same excitement about your holiday jaunts. While travel can be stressful for pets, here are five tips to keep your pet at ease so you can both enjoy this special time together.

1. Bring enough pet food for the entire trip or plan ahead on how you’ll restock. 

While you may love trying new foods when you travel, your pet most likely eats a consistent diet that you’ll want to maintain. Make sure to bring enough food for your pet for the whole trip to avoid the possibility you won’t find that particular food in stock at your destination. If that’s not an option, plan ahead by checking to ensure that your chosen pet food is available near where you’ll be staying. Remember to bring their travel food and water bowls, and make sure you have their meals ready to go during the travel portion of your trip. 

2. Keep your pet healthy with any medications they might need.

Another important essential to bring on your trip is any medication your pet is taking. Once again, it’s ideal if you can bring enough for the entirety of your trip. If that’s not an option, make sure you’ll be able to get the meds you need at your destination (remember, vets and pet pharmacies like to take time off for the holidays, too). Also, if you’re traveling across more than one time zone and your pet’s medicine must be administered at a specific time of day, adjust this schedule slowly. Try to shift it a small amount each day (30 minutes to an hour), rather than a single sudden time adjustment. 

3. Bring along some of your pet’s favorite things and try to maintain your home routines as much as possible.

Your little pal’s forever home has so many comforts that they love. By bringing a little bit of home along with you on your trip, you can ease your pet into a new travel destination. Pack a few of your pets most beloved items, such as their favorite toy, blanket, and bed. Remember, too, that pets love routine, so try to maintain your home routines as much as possible to ease their travel anxiety and reassure them that they’re still safe. 

4. If you’re traveling by car, make sure your pet is safe on the drive.

As much as we’d love to have our pets in our laps or let them roam freely in the car, this isn’t very safe for them (after all, that’s why we humans wear seat belts). The Humane Society notes that “the safest way for your dog to travel in the car is in a crate that has been anchored to the vehicle using a seat belt or other secure means.” It’s also important to keep your pet in the back seat of your car, as an airbag deploying in the front seat might seriously injure them. If putting your pet in a crate isn’t an option, at least make sure to keep them fully inside your car. Yes, they may love sticking their heads out the window, but this can be dangerous for a number of reasons and is best to avoid. 

5. If you’re traveling by plane, make sure you know the latest travel restrictions.

If you’re traveling a longer distance this holiday season, you may have decided to fly. If that’s the case, make sure that you’re up to speed on the recent changes around pet travel policies to avoid surprises along the way. These changes include limits on the types of animals that are allowed on planes, the type of ticket you need to have, and restrictions on pets from certain locations. The CDC has a helpful resource on traveling with pets as well as the latest pet travel guidelines. Lastly, keep in mind that traveling with your pet by plane will require a carrier - whether that’s under your seat or in the cargo hold - so it’s crucial to get your pet used to its carrier before the flight. You definitely don’t want to surprise your pet with a new carrier during an already stressful change of scenery. You can also put some of their favorite things (see tip #3 above) in their carrier to make the trip more comfortable. 

We hope these tips from your friends at Muttville help you travel well with your beloved pet. We wish you and yours a very happy paw-liday season!