Dogs are a member of the family, for many dog owners. They don’t necessarily get the same status as kids, grandparents, or even cousins — but they don’t usually get treated like furniture, either. Our family was no exception to this rule. How to move from Ohio to Texas? This is a situation one family found themselves in. Having to move long distance with three large dogs.
When our car only holds seven, and there are seven people, how then were we also going to fit three, 50 to 60 pound dogs in our car? Along with our five children for the long, long drive to Texas. We knew they wouldn’t really fit in the car. We did not want moving services to move them. We were going to move the dogs on our own. We turned the situation into a game. We got the kids involved in the process of preparation, and we treated it a bit like camping. We knew it was going to be very crowded in the car. We decided to try to make the experience fun.
We could not drive both cars since we had made car transport arrangements. We were second guessing using auto shipping. We did that before we even thought about the dogs. Since the dongs already thought they were lapdogs, we decided that was where they would ride. Even though they were too big to be considered lapdogs.
The kids enjoyed themselves. They put pillows in the back, blankets on the floor and a couple dishes, which they duct taped up, in the H2. There was chew toys and leashes, and we decided to stop every hour to hour-and-a-half to let the dogs relieve themselves. The result? We got to see more of the country then we would have seen.
The family’s veterinarian suggested giving each dog half of an adult dosage of over the counter antihistamine. This kept the dogs calm during the trip|. Because of allergies, we had given them to the dogs before. Dogs, as I understand it, are quite prone to a variety of allergies. Our dogs had allergies of the skin. We followed the vet’s suggestion and it really helped. We actually found that it was completely unnecessary to stop as often as we were stopping. Not only were they calm, but they did not need to go as often as we planned. For as young as they are, the dogs spent most of the trip asleep and so did the kids.
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