We've still not purchased our MH, giving it plenty of thought, but are borrowing a freinds for a weekend - any advice on the best way to travel with a dog? She's well behaved but not sure I'd be able to get her to stay on her bed.
Do others let them wander around? Is this legal ? Kids will be sat in the back with her so she might stay put but I'm not sure.
Any "legalities" aside, at the very least I'd be using a decent padded harness, securely tethered, rear of the cab..eg around a rear seat belt anchor point or table/furniture fixing?
Some dog owners do indeed just let them wander and/or settle where they want to...but on once having to hit the brakes at a modest 40mph-ish, resulting in a rucksack skidding down the van and slamming into the back of my cab seat..I'd hate to think what it would've done to a dog!
More importantly, the kids WILL be in seat belts and not just sitting on habitation/lounge seats?...
As Pepe says, legality notwithstanding, if you have to hit the brakes and your dog goes flying through the van someone will get hurt at best, killed at worst.
An unrestrained 30kg child flying from the back of a car into the driver will (most likely) cause the driver's neck to break. Same thing if it's your beloved pet that takes flying lessons
When we had a small campervan I used a soft crate. Our dog was zipped inside it and could see out. Fortunately she's the sort of dog who loves being in a secure enclosed space, but I made sure she got used to the crate in the house before I put it in a vehicle.
I then fixed kitchen drawer handles to appropriate bits of the campervan (base of the seat unit, side of the wardrobe). Got some seatbelt-like webbing from a camping shop, sewed straps directly onto the crate and used plastic rucksack buckles to secure the webbing straps through the drawer handles that I'd installed. That way the crate was (sort of) bolted to the van for travelling but could be moved when we stopped. If I had to brake hard everything stayed put.
The soft crates are lovely because you can collapse them out of the way when not needed although we found our dog loved to lay in it just outside the van too.
PS: Just had a quick look on Amazon and this one appears to already have Isofix anchor points built in.
We always travel our 2 dogs I a soft sided fabric crate. They like going in it and we never have problems getting them in. Much safer when travelling in a MH or even in the car. We even stand ours in the back of our Sorento behind a dog guard and they travel around in that. Much safer for the dogs in an accident.
We have the seat belt anchors for our dogs but to be honest don't use them.
They immediately settle down between the driver and passenger seat (in our Transit cab) or occasionally wander of and lay under the table of the dinette.
They are both medium labradoodles so we don't have enough room for crates.
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Came use a dog crate. Makes them feel safe and secure. We have both the metal one and the soft one. Both fold up easily. We have traveled all round Europe like this. She is not happy if she is not in her crate.
Our little dog always travels in his wire cage. If I do have to brake hard, or have an accident, he can't go far so he is unlikely to get seriously hurt. We got him used to the cage by leaving it indoors with the door open. He soon decided to explore it, and started going in it to sleep. Now when we go out it is in the back of the car and he just goes straight in and settles down, knowing he's off on another "adventure".
The cage folds up quite small when not in use, but when it comes out of the cupboard, Benji gets excited as he knows he's going somewhere.
Our dog loves travelling in our MH he has a soft bed. We don't secure him to anything and if he wants to lie elsewhere he can.
I would have thought that, unless a cage is anchored to the floor, it would be far more dangerous to pet and human if it were to become airborne in an accident!
I quite agree it would be very dangerous if the cage were not anchored. Ours always is. Our dog has a lovely soft mattress in his cage, and he chooses to go in there. Before we got the cage he was a nuisance in the car. He was all over the place, and wouldn't settle. I was also concerned that if he were loose in the car and I was involved in an accident, or even had to brake hard, he would go flying and probably be badly hurt.
In his cage he can only go as far as the side of the cage. I'm sure he feels safer in there too, as he settles down straight away.
Another vote for the soft crate (ours from Fiamma). Our dog is used to a steel crate at home but it doesn't fit into the MH. But also think about when you arrive - we have a long lead that's attached to the handle by the back door, dog is clipped on before the habitation door is opened or she'd dash out and run off. If we're sitting outside, she's clipped onto another long lead that's tied onto the back bumper. Others use a gadget that screws into the ground but the key thing is the dog mustn't run free on the site. As for sleeping - ah, well: that's for you all to sort out!
We also use a soft crate with both dog harness and crate secured to seat belt connection or something solid. Car or motorhome makes no difference, dog is to precious to be allowed to move freely about unsecured whether in the front or back of any vehicle.
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Hi, when we changed the passenger seat in our conversion we had a seat belt fastener welded onto to underside of the seat. We clip poppy in with a normal seat belt dog restraint and she is then in between two seats, in her soft bed, she can turn round but in the event of braking she cant go anywhere. Ive had a friend involved in a very minor bump, her dog was loose in the footwell and he hit the front of that area resulting in a head injury and epilepsy for life...?