Video Transcript

Hi! This is Elise McMahon for Expert Village and in this video series we¡¯re talking about how to travel with your dog. If you would like to find out more about my services you can visit my website at canineheadstart.com. So in this short clip we¡¯re going to be talking about travel friendly dogs. What is a travel friendly dog? I see it as a dog that you can take places that is comfortable with moving around, traveling and also that interacts with its environment with other people in an appropriate manner. One of the first things is you want to make sure that your dog is comfortable getting in and out of and staying a crate. You should have begun this work at home before you go. If you¡¯re going on a trip, if you¡¯re going on a trip in a car and you¡¯re going to bring the crate or if you¡¯re going to flying you don¡¯t want to start training your dog to a crate a week before. They should be something that your dog is used to at home comfortable with and is secure with. A secure way of traveling with your dog in the car is to have your dog crated or seat belted. There are some states where it¡¯s the law to have your dog in some form of confinement if it¡¯s in your car. Make sure if you come from a state that doesn¡¯t have that law and you¡¯re traveling through the states that might, you find out which states have that law and which don¡¯t. So again Ursa as you see gets into the car, she goes in her crate, she lies down, she settles, she¡¯s comfortable and she can drive in this situation in the crate for quite a long time. If I¡¯m in a hotel or friend¡¯s house and I need to separate her I can bring the crate into the house she¡¯s comfortable with that. The other thing you want to have is the dog who can quiet down and sit by your side¡­ so let¡¯s say I¡¯m going to somebody¡¯s house for Thanksgiving and I¡¯ve got my dog with me, the dog is well mannered so she doesn¡¯t have to be crated during dinner but at the same time I don¡¯t want her checking out all the other guests dinner around the table. I would like a dog who can sit down and just rest by my side. You can teach your dog rest command that they lie down, stay by your side until you are ready to get up, it¡¯s quite important. Another thing you want to do is make sure that your dog doesn¡¯t counter surf. Counter surfing is going around and jumping on tables and counter tops and stealing food. Any behaviour that might be obnoxious to the people around you, you want to have your dog trained out of that. Of course these are all things that you¡¯ll want to have your dog doing every day in your own life but you just want to make sure that if you¡¯re going to travel with your pet you travel with the pet with good manners.