Hi,

Tomorrow, i have to take my nearly six month old on a 6 hour car journey. Does anybody know what i can do to make this easier. This is made even more troublesome with the heat. I was going to take him on a long walk before so he'd hopefully sleep most the way. However, in this weather i cant really do that either can i? Has anyone any suggestions. I am really worried about the heat affecting him. Our car is like an oven.

Thanks

Karla

Take some frozen water pop bottles (2 litre). If wrapped in a towel
too so not too cold for a pup. Place one in the car cage/crate and it
will keep pup cooler. The spare ones put in a cooler box so as each one defrosts
after being in the crate you have another to put in the cage. You also have some cool
water to use as drinking water.
Another one is to dampen towels down with cool water, put them in the fridge
or freezer (in a carrier bag), before your journey place one of the towels in the
crate/cage and keep the others in the cools box again what normally happens is the
pup will probably lie on the towel and cool his underside down. (Mine love the cool towels
to lie on)
If at all possible do the journey really early in the morning or late on when the weather is cooler.
Much more pleasant for you and the dog, especially if you don't have air-conditioning in the car.
Make sure you have plenty of water with you for pup to drink and when you stop for breaks try
to find a shady spot. If you don't have reflective space blanket sheets, try light i.e. white coloured
sheet to place over the car to try and keep the sun off the car whilst stopped.
If possible get these battery operated fans that you can have in the car to move the air around.
Oh and always try and get air flow through the car by leaving as many windows as possible open
and the sunroof too. But be careful if your puppy is not crated or in a car cage do not leave
them open enough for a puppy to squeeze out of. And if you have to stop for toilet breaks
make sure someone stays with pup, just incase as you've pointed out your car is like an oven
and heats up very quickly. Ideally keep pup in the shade outside of car with the 'puppy-sitter'
when stopped.

Good suggestions there - another that is useful in case of hold ups - get a couple of plant spray bottles filled with cold water. If you get stuck in traffic so you don't have air flowing through spray this into the air - it cools things down a bit. Obviously only a short term solution - if it looks like you are in a bad jam I would either find another route or stop somewhere where you can get the pup out. As suggested travelling early or late is cooler and less likely to have hold ups.

Good luck
Janet