Editor’s note: DDY is out of the office today. Please enjoy this updated post from our archives.
Recently, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Christie Keith passed on to her readers the lessons she learned during a recent road trip with her 12-year-old borzoi, Kyrie. I really appreciated Keith’s recap of her drive from San Francisco to Michigan with a friend, Kyrie, and Keith’s younger dog, Rawley. Her eight travel lessons learned from the long drive are completely senior-dog specific, which I don’t see often—if ever. Read “Eight Tips for Traveling with Older Dogs” at Keith’s “Your Whole Pet” column here.
What are your tips for taking trips with older dogs? Has your dog’s on-the-road dos and don’ts changed as he’s aged? As we head into the summer season, I’d love to hear what you’ve learned in your travels!
Our pals at the Tales and Tails blog respond with their road-trippin’ tips:
“We’ve learned to take things in stride and pace ourselves a little slower. We take food and water from home and we also take some cans of Merrick’s canned dog food. That canned dog food can really motivate our dogs to eat while we’re travelling. We also take some Nature’s Miracle with us, and we request rooms on the ground floor when we make reservations. We also make sure that we have an alternative plan in case our senior dogs can’t do all the activities that we’re doing, whether it’s relaxing in our hotel room or knowing there’s a dog-friendly place where the dog can be safe. We also make sure we know about an experienced, Greyhound-savvy vet in the area.”
Caring for Daley in his elderly years inspired me to start Daley's Dog Years. Here you'll find more than 700 posts related to health, wellness, and senior dog lifestyle. 
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Gee, I sound so wise and helpful! lol
Another thing we’re learning with Miss Blueberry is to be careful about her being able to get in and out of the van easily. She’s a big girl, and I can’t lift her on my own. Even my husband has a little trouble. So, we try to be sure it’s going to be easy for her to get in and out on her own by parking away from other traffic or near a little median or something. She hasn’t had trouble, but we had another older dog who was a big boy and he did. We’d prefer prevention over treatment!
houndstooth recently posted..Lessons Learned From Dogs — Blueberry