So what do you need to know about campervanning with a dog? And what are the must-haves you’ll need to pack? In this blog post we’ll introduce you to our travel dogs Lucky & Merlin, and give you our top tips for travelling with your four-legged friends. We can also build you a dog-friendly campervan!
Dog friendly campervan business
Here at Love Campers we are massive dog lovers! Darren and Clara have two of their own: Lucky and Merlin, who accompany them on all of their campervan adventures. We love the freedom and joy that campervans bring for owners and dogs alike.
It’s an absolute joy for us to welcome customers and their pets to the workshop, and we always do our very best to design your campervan with your dog’s comfort in mind.
Meet the team!!
LUCKY
Ten year old Border Terrier / Poodle Cross
Loves balls and cuddles
MERLIN
Twelve week old Bedlington Whippet
Loves belly rubs
Travelling with dogs in a campervan – is it a good idea?
In short? Yes!
Any pet-parent will be familiar with the usual difficulties that come along with vacationing with a dog. Many hotels or B&Bs have a blanket rule stating that no pets are allowed, and of course, the prospect of going abroad with a dog is a huge undertaking. Not to forget that air travel in the cargo area of an airplane can be long and uncomfortable for dogs at best, and risky and life-threatening at worst.
Campervanning offers the perfect alternative for adventuring dog lovers. As we personally adore being outside in nature, a campervan holiday means that we’re never far from a beautiful dog walking trail. We’re pretty certain that our dogs enjoy their camper holidays just as much as we do and we’re all much happier that our babies are with us rather than left in a kennel or with a dog sitter.
For us at Love Campers, we’re surer than ever that campervanning meets some very basic needs – it gives us the opportunity to get outdoors into nature, spending quality time with our family, friends and doggies!
Campervanning with a dog – the essentials!
Seeing as we’ve been on so many campervan trips with our canine friends, we share our top tips and things to consider when travelling with your dog…
How do you keep your dog safe whilst driving?
The Highway Code says that dogs must be “suitably restrained” when travelling in a vehicle, meaning that it’s a law in Britain. It’s to protect everyone in the vehicle, including the dog from injury if there’s a crash or sudden stop.
You can either have a cage, crate or a dog seat belt in your campervan to secure your dog safely. If you choose to go for a cage or crate we will be able to add points on the flooring to secure it in place. Get in touch with us if you’d like us to build you a dog-friendly campervan.
Where will your dog sleep in the campervan?
In our small camper we make the front seats super comfy for the dogs, and in the large campervan we take their beds along. They do sometimes sleep in the bed with us too.
How do you keep your campervan clean with a dog?
We always have cleaning products and cloths with us wherever we go, especially when we plan to walk with the dogs. With a Love Campers van you have the opportunity to customise the interior design with your choice of finishes. When travelling with dogs we’ll often recommend darker colours over, say, white flooring for example.
How do you wash your dog in a campervan?
We can fit a cold water dog shower from the rear of van, which is perfect for washing muddy dogs before they get back in. Also great for impromptu human showers and boot cleaning too! Check out the pull-out shower in the back of this VW Transporter.
What kind of extras should you pack for your dog?
- An all-in-one waterproof onesie for your dog – if you’re walking them in really muddy or wet conditions and don’t want them to come back in the van like that!
- Collapsible bowls – both for food and washing muddy paws
- Unspillable water bowls
- All the dog toys and balls – we can create some storage space just for your dog!
- A removable mat for them to lay on which you can pull out to wash easily
- Towels to dry your dog
- Lots of treats, obviously!
Pandemic puppy pals
Over the past year, we’ve found that the deep connection we have with our dogs has grown stronger than ever before. As people faced a year of challenges stuck in isolation, a world-wide boom in pet ownership occurred. With lockdown loneliness and anxiety affecting so many of us, thousands sought out the creature comforts of man’s best friend to ease their stresses. Dogs have done so much to lift people’s mood and even created a daily structure and routine for those struggling with depression.
Over the course of the pandemic, it’s been reported that pet dogs have provided thousands of people in the UK with comfort and companionship. For others, dogs may well offer other well-documented health benefits such as lowering one’s blood pressure or decreasing cortisol levels.
For us, we’ve found that the calming cuddles we’ve shared with our four-legged friends have gotten us through some of the most enduring times of a difficult year.
As the pandemic restrictions ease in the UK there’s been a feeling of the dust settling, and new lifestyles emerging. For many, it’s created a new attitude towards work/life balance. A substantial change has occurred where more people than ever before are now working from home or remotely with a BBC survey finding that nine in 10 workers who worked from home during the lockdowns are planning to continue, in some form or another.
This of course, is great news for pets who get to have their human friends around full-time for cuddles and company! It’s also great news for anyone who wants to make the most of an adventure holiday in a campervan, perhaps even trading a home office suite for a mobile-campervan office?!
If you’re interested in taking the plunge and getting yourself (and your dog) a campervan, then please get in touch with us. We’d love to welcome you to our workshop to have a look at our campers in person.
Don’t forget we cater for lovely customers across the whole of the UK and we can easily arrange a video tour of our campervans with you for an initial chat.
Give us a call on 01273101407 and we’ll help you to build the most paw-some dog friendly campervan you can imagine!
Thanks for reading the post!
Read more on the blog:
- Custom Campervan Conversions: The Perfect Mobile Home Office?
- What is Hutting? The new lifestyle trend
- Three things we’ve learnt during the pandemic
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