Unleash Your Travel Potential with These Pet Travel Tips

Four-legged friends are a cuddly bonus to a family getaway.

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Whether it’s cruising down the road or finding freedom through the skies, the best travel adventures are enhanced by a little companionship. While it may take some extra effort, family vacations that include four-legged friends can add a cuddly bonus to a regular vacation. Use these tips to tackle common pet travel challenges like motion sickness, anxiety, energy levels and adequate hydration.

Exercise before travel days

The best travel days are calm travel days. In order to facilitate a low-key transit experience for your four-legged friend, be sure to give them extra exercise the day before. A longer-than-usual walk will go a long way towards making sure wiggles, yips and fidgets are minimized in your points of transit and upon arrival.

Find a vet at your destination

Before you depart, find the nearest veterinary services available to your destination. Checking the prices, scheduling procedures and services offered at nearby offices will ensure that you are able to provide the best care possible for your pet in the event of an emergency.

Pack dryer sheets for storms

One of the unpredictable elements that come along with travel is unfamiliar weather conditions. If you are headed to a particularly rainy destination, pack dryer sheets. These help remove static electricity from an animal’s fur in the event of a storm and can help keep your pet calm when there’s thunder away from home.

Use ice to give controlled amounts of water

Often travel-related nausea and motion sickness can be worse for a pet whose stomach is full of water. Still, maintaining adequate hydration levels is important, especially if there will be a flight or hot and arid conditions. Offering your pet ice cubes can ensure they are adequately hydrated, while preventing them from drinking to their own levels of fulfillment, which may lead to an over-full stomach.

Bottled water for a healthy tummy

Just like human’s facing Montezuma’s Revenge, tap water in a new city can contain microbes or a mineral composition unfamiliar to your four-legged friend, resulting in gastrointestinal distress. Eliminate this risk by pouring your dog bottled water on the road. You can slowly mix it with the local tap water over the course of a week for longer stays.

This story was created by Detour, a journalism brand focused on the best stories in Black travel, in partnership with McClatchy’s The Charlotte Observer and Miami Herald. Detour’s approach to travel and storytelling seeks to tell previously under-reported or ignored narratives by shifting away from the customary routes framed in Eurocentrism. The detour team is made up of an A-list of award-winning journalists, writers, historians, photographers, illustrators and filmmakers.

This story was originally published September 1, 2022 9:00 AM.