Dog Travel Essentials: 5 best road trip accessories for motorhomes, campervans, RV & cars

Hey guys, it's Kat from the Motorhome Travel website Wandering Bird. A couple of weeks ago I put out an email to our newsletter subscribers about tips to keep your dog cool whilst you're traveling and what to do with it when it gets really hot. One of the questions that I got back most from that is the kind of stuff that we carry on the motorhome or even just in the car with the dog to make life a bit easier on our road trips and today I'm going to share with you our five top essential things that we take when we're traveling with our dog. If you haven't met Mac before he is now a two-year-old Cocker Spaniel. We got him actually his very first trip with us was in the motorhome so he's grown up to motorhome life and he loves it but there are definitely some things that we carry that help especially when it gets as hot as it has been here in France over the last few weeks. Before I get started if you're not already subscribed to our channel and you're interested in road trips and motorhome travel then by all means hit that subscribe button and the little bell which will tell you when our next video comes out. If you'd like to join our mailing list and get helpful emails like the one I sent out about ways to keep your dog cool and other road trip tips and motorhome travel advice then there is a link below this video by all means come and join us sign up free to our mailing list and we can share some tips with you. And lastly if you want to get a dog travel checklist which is really useful we find if you haven't got all your stuff already in your motorhome there's a big long list there because I tell you how many times I've forgotten stupid things like his water bowl or dog food and that checklist will help you just remember everything you need for your dog before you set off. Right let's dive in to our favourite gear. So firstly our favourite absolutely essential thing in the summer months particularly is a cool jacket and this is a particular one that we got from Amazon I'll leave the link below and it's brilliant it wraps over so I don't need to worry about putting his legs or his feet through it so it just wraps around his body and his neck. You wet it we put it in a plastic bag wet and then put it just inside the fridge don't put it in the freezer or anything and it stays really really cool even for a few days. We actually have two of them because he goes through them that quickly so we have one that's in the fridge cooling down for the next time and then he generally just runs around with them. After a few hours you will find that it dries out so it goes from being soft and cool to being quite hard and that's generally when we take it off him for a while let him dry out underneath it don't keep him in it all the time because he might be like being in water all the time I kind of like that feel very nice for him so we let him dry out for a little bit and then we'll put another one on when it gets really really hot and those have worked fantastically we've used the same two now for over a year when it gets really warm and they've worked great. Next thing is a dog travel water bottle now this is a recent addition to our life and oh my goodness it's fantastic. I had a horrible experience a while ago where I was out walking Mac it was quite early in the morning because it was going to be a hot day so I tend to walk him earlier in the day and he got so hot running around because it's a spaniel and has absolutely no common sense whatsoever he got so hot he just lay down in a ditch and wouldn't move panting his head off and literally would not move so I had to climb in nettles and brambles and everything pick him up and he weighs 15 kilos so you know he's not light and then carry him all the way back and he was just a dead weight in my arms and I wish that I had taken a water bottle now he'll drink quite happily out of a normal water bottle but this is brilliant because it creates a little bowl at the end so you can pump some water into it they can drink out of that like a normal bowl and then it doesn't put any more water out until you press the little button it's fantastic we take that with us everywhere now even if we're taking him like out to town for the day just so if there's having to worry in case the shop or cafe or wherever we happen to be in doesn't have a water bottle the dog we've got one with us it's I mean like I don't want to drink but please drink please I don't want to drink right now mummy I want to show people how you drink I don't want to drink no we're not we're not playing this we're not we're not performing monkey next is a doggy bag now if you've not heard of a doggy bag they are possibly one of the best bits of kit that we have on the motorhome hands down although if you have a dog you need one of these there are other makes the actual doggy bag make is quite expensive and there are cheaper alternatives on amazon but it's basically a big bag that you put your dog in when they're wet and they're sandy and they've been on the beach or they've been in the mud you put them all in you zip it up and you rub them down you leave them in there for a couple of minutes which is hilarious because if they're anything like mine they'll try to walk and they can't walk in his bag and they'll fall over now this is one we've had for a couple of years and he has actually chewed the zip because he's helpful like that we do need to get a new zip put on it so at the moment we can't actually zip it up but even just like it is we can tie it around his neck we can put him in it we can rub him down all of the sand comes off all the water comes off and he comes out like a big fluff ball and really do work and especially something like a motorhome when you haven't got a lot of space and you really really don't want a wet muddy dog running around it is fantastic highly recommend it next is another fairly recent addition to our motorhome life and it's a non-spill water bowl and this is brilliant as you can see there's like an inner floating layer so you put the water in and the water kind of floats underneath and then that gray bit is what he can push down and get the water out so he can't get a lot of water out and it doesn't go around all over the motorhome the only problem with it is you can't always see how much water is left in the bowl and there's been a couple of times where I thought there was more water in there than there was and he's looking at me very plaintively asking for more water so that's just something to be aware of but it's really really good at letting or sorry keeping the water inside the bowl rather than all over the floor which is important lastly another thing that we love but frustratingly I haven't got with me right now is a cool mat and this is a bit like the cool jacket except you don't have to keep it in the fridge but you don't have to put water on it you don't have to do anything it's just a mat that you lie on and it gets cold now mac doesn't like the feel of it he doesn't like sitting on it I don't know why but if you put a towel on it it works and it still gets cold I'll sit on it quite happily when I'm warm it cools me down great but he will sort of only curl up next to me on it when there's a towel it's obviously something about the the fabric that he doesn't like on his paws but again it's a really really good way if you can get your dog to lie on it on a hot day it's a really really good way of getting them to cool down a bit when they're panting as a quick bonus thing I've mentioned it a couple of times one thing we have invested in is a couple of extra 12 volt fans and they're fantastic they just charge with the usb leads you can charge them as you're driving and then the battery in them is pretty good and we've now set one up it's got a massive clip on the end so we can clip it up and we can actually point it at him when he's getting really hot and it just helps him regulate his temperature when it's getting too warm for him and he's run around too much so there we go those are our five and a bonus essential accessories that we have for keeping a dog cool and the summer and also just for generally motorhome life or when you're in a small space yeah most of them could be used at home as well so I hope you found that helpful again as a quick recap if you want to join our mailing list and get some helpful tips from us by all means do so link is below if you want to grab that dog travel checklist there's a link below for that as well and lastly if you found this video useful we'd absolutely love to hear some feedback and a thumbs up if you've got any questions ask them below and I will see you on the Have a good day! What are you doing pup? Get her! Get mummy! Get mummy! Get mummy! Get her! Go get her!