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Hi Foisty

Our labrador loves the caravan. The plan was for him to sleep on the floor in the van, but when we woke up in the morning he was fast asleep on the front bench seat. So we now turn the cushions and cover them with a sheet. He now sits and looks at us at bedtime telling us it's time to get off his bed.

Andy R. 

Our GSD sleeps on the floor. We have a fixed bed model and when she decides it's bedtime she goes and lies near the bed. The only trouble with this is our hot water electric switch is in the same position and she has a habit of switching it off during the night when she leans on it. I have thought of moving or replacing the switch.  

Nearly all sites require your dog to be on a lead at all times when within the site boundaries and not left in a caravan on it's own for any length of time, but we love to let our dog off for a gallop when we are on secluded beaches or in the woods. We leave her food and water out in the awning and normally have the door open so she can come and go. At night her water bowl is brought in when we go to bed.

Hi

We let ours into our house, so our Cocker Spaniel, Daisy (I didn't choose the name) sleeps in the caravan on a blanket. She has the run of the awning during the day on a long lead that goes through the hand loop on her normal lead, fastened at each end of the awning with a corkscrew (we find she gets too tangled on a long lead tethered at one end).

She used to bark occasionally, but stopped when she got used to the different noises and the number of dogs on the site.

We find that we get more exercise as well, the walks are generally longer than a quick go round the block, so everybody wins.

HTH

Paul

Hi Mrs G

We are new to caravanning (this is only our second season) but we always take our black cocker spaniel Jasper with us. He has loved it from day one, and gets all excited and silly when he sees the caravan being packed up for trips! I think what you do depends on the size of your dog. We take his soft bed from home and he sleeps inside the caravan in this. His dishes are in the awning and he also has a spiral tether thing, having worked out very quickly that he could make a bid for freedom under the caravan! He has staked out a corner of the front right hand sofa, the bit by the chest of drawers by the front window (!) so we put old clean towels on there for him, but only when he is clean and dry!

We never leave him alone in the caravan and he is always on a lead on site. Where we go, he goes. We are usually out and about during the day and it can be restricting finding places to take our 12 year old son and our dog, but we usually manage something! We have found a portable water bowl to be invaluable (folds up into my handbag!)

Dont worry about taking your dog caravanning, you will soon find a routine that suits you both, and you will find many other caravanners with dogs on site too.

Anne xxx

Quote: Originally posted by happymum on 07/6/2009

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So generally speaking you are making a big pen.

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I have 2 labs and don't dare let them loose in the awning because i'm sure they'd find a gap and get out to chase the teasing rabbits that are always around on campsites lol.  Has no-one else got this problem?  We also tie them up to the tow bar on the car because i wasn't sure one of those screw in lead things would work if they really pulled hard.  Are they really that good at staying put?  It would certainly be better to be able to put the dogs where we wanted them as opposed to having to be on the tow ball.  They love to be outside so they can watch the world go by and lick passersby to death lol but i'm just worried that if they saw a rabbit they would pull the thingy out the ground and be off...

Quote: Originally posted by ashwellgirl on 07/6/2009

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We also tie them up to the tow bar on the car because i wasn't sure one of those screw in lead things would work if they really pulled hard.  Are they really that good at staying put? 

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