At 8:58 PM -0400 5/11/99, Pamela Enion wrote:

>Dogs get badly dehydrated by car travel (in my case truck travel)
>so I always bring lots of water and make frequent stops.

        Now here's another concern with the current traveling companion. He
drinks very little water. At any time. I've read somewhere that old time
working dogs could really go without water but Quinn verges on hydrophobic.
He does drink and thanks to Toast (who adores playing in water) Quinn even
wades around in the stream now but he drinks significantly less water than
any other dog I've ever lived with. Being the worried mom sort of course I
worry. He's in great health, shiny coat, boundless energy, all that stuff
so I tell myself I shouldn't worry, he just needs less water. But I still
would like if he drank more.  I do put a lot of water on his dry dog food
so he gets a fair intake that way but is there anything I can add to water
to make him want to drink more? Or should I just accept that his system is
more efficient. Or should I ask my Vet - hadn't thought of that, actually.
... duh.

 > Also, I NEVER ever trust my dogs
>to voice command on the road. I always use a chain, slip collar
>instead of their usual buckle-type collar and have the leash
>attached before I step out of the truck near any super highway.

        I use martingale collars because they are virtually unslippable but
then I also use a kennel lead as my regular leash (it's a slip collar and
leash all in one, just slip it over the dogs head and take off, very handy
with rescue dogs or strays who don't want you reaching for their
collars....).

>If you have to stay at a motel, the Red Roof Inn, welcomes
>dogs at all their motels.  I keep a directory of all the
>Red Roof Inns in my truck and plan my stops.

        this is good to know. When Robb and I drove around the country in
'90 (she's been in something like 40 of the US states and 4 of the Canadien
Provences) we stayed in small mom and pop type places for the most part
when we didn't camp out and I only had one motel say no dogs. Most seemed
to figure that if she was well behaved enough for me to bring her along
then she was okay in their rooms. We're talking places where none of the
towels or sheets matched (but which were generally quite clean).
        But it's good to know about Red Roof Inns as I've heard more and
more places refuse dogs now.

        One thing I now do is carry my own blanket and I take the bed
spread off the bed and fold it up when I get in a new room. Robb and Quinn
both like to sleep on the bed for at least part of the night and a friend
who is allergic to dogs pointed out that she's been in hotel rooms and had
reactions to dog hair left by previous customers. They may vacuum and wash
the sheets but they don't wash the bed spreads very often (if at all) so I
try to keep the dog hair on that to a minimum now.

 Of course
>one of our favorite trips is to Vermont where we get to
>run through the fields and woods and never worry about
>noisy truck stops.

        yeah, Vermont remains our favorite place too... we're always glad
to travel back here...

        jan