TY Debbie - an excellent suggestion. Both my dogs pant a lot in the heat and LOVE the cold so keeping frozen water bottles sounds like a good plan.

I do have SS buckets in both their crates but I don't have a back up plan for when they melt.

bump!

Well, I bought the LB kit as it was on sale and had a lot of things that were missing from my house kit. I also like the detach and carry part of it.

I added the vet wrap to it plus I have a creams and lotions bought for my older dog.

I got the peroxide as suggested and am sending for extra packs of gel to stop bleeding.

I also bought a more detailed handbook for dog first aid than what is in the kit.

I am wondering what is the best bug repellant?

I am feeling pretty good about my kit so far - if anyone notices any glaring holes in what I have listed please let me know.

We plan on making the trip in September - Heiland will be older then and might not chew the tent poles.

I have been thinking about not using/taking his crate and letting him sleep with us in the tent. He has never been out of it at night to date of course. Good idea or bad?

We bought the Subaru Forrester (my new car smell is lamb lungs and beef trachea's) so are trying to come up with a way to make room for our stuff in it.

I know it's a little off topic of a first aid kit but if having Heiland sleep with us is not a good idea I might need more first aid supplies than I first thought hahaha

The more I think of it the worse of an idea it seems but maybe someone else has camped with their young dogs and can tell me how they managed night time.

Edited by Maggie MacDonald (07/26/2013 04:58 PM)
Edit reason: add more stuff :)

I'd go with the crate. Even tethered to me, I think is much less secure. Also, the crate is his familiar piece of home.

Yes Connie, the more we talked about it the more we came to the same conclusion. Plus he loves his sleeping crate .. sometimes when he wakes he just plays in it .. stretching and just being calm.

We will have to buy a container for the roof rack for our stuff. Given the 2 dogs and all their stuff, the only place left for our things is outside the car haha.

So looking forward to it though.

Got porcupines?

If there is any chance of an encounter, I'd bring needle-nose pliers at a minimum.

My vet supplied me with ACE and rimadyl in case we are ever days from civilization and run into a prickly pig. In my experience those are the most dangerous large animals out there to dogs, followed by venomous snakes, with ticks topping the list of dangerous critters overall.

Soft sided collapsible canvas crates are the best for travel unless you have dog that does not respect crates. It is what I have always used.much lighter and easier to transport

Thanks Kiersten - excellent advice especially about the needle nose pliers. I will ask the vet about ACE and rimadyl too. We plan on being quite a distance from civilization for some of the trip for sure. Mushrooms are hard to find in places where it's easy access. They are already picked.

I also have my bear spray. I am going to do a practice shoot with it as I want to see how far away it's accurate. At least it's not as easily blown back into the face as pepper spray.

Anne, I never thought about collapsible crates - I will have to check into them and see - get him used to it at home first. He loves his metal crate but it's so large (because he is) that transporting it will be difficult and his car crate is a bit small for sleeping in. His night crate won't fit in my car set up.

Great ideas everyone .. We are hoping to be on the road for 3 weeks.

Don't forget to make sure the dogs' tags somehow connect to your cell phone and not just your land line.

Or if they connect to the vet (as mine do), that the vet has the cell number.

Very very common oversight, as we well know from this board.

Yes Connie - that's a good one. I also need to get them both chipped. That will be done b4 the trip for sure.

There is a lot of extra planning by just adding one more dog in lol.

Ah but he's so worth it .. he is getting better every day even through his heavy teething phase. I taught him to lick me instead of mouth me - used cream cheese .. it worked .. now I just get slime all over me instead of the Heiland tattoo of teeth marks.