Learning what it is like to travel with a toddler

Embarking on a 21 hour journey with a high strung, car hating dog is not something to be taken lightly.  Banjo is a rescue.  He came from Alabama and sometime in those formative months he had a bad experience with a vehicle.  He has always been a bad car rider, panting and shaking and crying and whining.  Every time Banjo gets into a car he is going some place FUN!  He is visiting his people that feed him table scraps (you know who you are!) or his dog friends in Boonton.  We WALK to the Vet for Pete's sake!  So I blame it on his formative months and definitely, probably not the 2-3 times that he may have slammed into the dashboard or back of my seat when I had to come to a short stop.  Anyway.  I had 21.2 hours according to google maps. We were closer to 26 when all was said and done.  That is when I decided that traveling with a dog is like traveling with a toddler.

I remember stories from my sister-in-law of 5 hour drives to Oklahoma with Kadie in the back seat screaming the entire ride (note:  do not bring this up to 7 year old Kadie, it makes her 'uncomfortable".  When did 2nd graders get so in touch with their emotions?)

Portable DVD players do not work with 4 legged fur children, so I decided to go a different route.  Googling "how much lorazepam to give a dog" provides encouraging words on how it is so much better for the dogs liver than other anxiety meds.  I was feeling hopeful.  I figured out the correct dosage for my little precious, got the soft treats I could hide the pills in and prepared to medicate.  I took away two learning from my trial run:  administer the dosage 1.5-2 hours before the trip and 1 pill takes Banjo from a 10 to a 7, my hope was 2 pills (still in his dosage range) could take him from a 10 to a 4 and he would spend the 15 hours of day one slumbering in the sun in the back seat.

Day 1 I set my alarm at 4:30 to administer the proper dosage and allows time for it to kick in.  I finished packing for my trip, tried to get Banjo to eat breakfast, walked him around the block a couple of times to secure the pee / poop that needed to happen before getting in a car (success was 50/50).  I went to get the car already loaded down with almost 80 lbs of dog food, 10 bags of treats and added my passenger and his new seat belt.

The graphics of the seat belt show the dog calmly sitting up gazing out the window while safely strapped into the car.

In practice, the seatbelt pulls the strap down to where the belt latches and leaves the dog in an awkward half sitting/ half laying pose.  This lasted for about 10 minutes.  I hadn't even left NYC and my dog is bouncing all over the car.  I had reclined the front seat so it would be easier for him to go back and forth.  He won't stay in one place and the drugs do make him mildly woozy so if he is afraid to jump into the back seat he just cries and whines more.  Oh and there is the panting.  Anxiety in dogs manifests itself in panting.  He panted and panted and whined and cried until our first stop near Harrisburg, PA for gas.  This started the vicious "panting, drinking, peeeing " cycle.  Banjo would drink a 20 oz bottle of water during a stop because of the anxious panting, which meant a stop at the next rest stop 2-3 hours down the road where I would wrangle him out of the car, walk up and down the sidewalk at the rest stop, because animals are not allowed back in the picnic areas where there is actual grass, and I would beg him to pee and poop.  Depending on how long since his last dose of drugs, a new "treat" may be administered, but not the 2 of the initial does.  Only one.  I didn't want to kill his ass, just make him sleep. Oh, yeah, then more water.

 (He didn't even notice the beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains!)

Arriving at the La Quinta Inn in Nashville, TN (shout out to LaQuinta and their AWESOME Pet Policy) I was finally able to convince Banjo to have something to eat. He drank another 20 oz of water, which required another walk but we both collapsed on the bed and I did not wake up until my 6am alarm to administer the little white pills.  Banjo was in the exact same place he started.  He did not want a cuddle or a snuggle - he wanted to sleep.  I would want to sleep too if I had paced and jumped from front to back seat for 17 hours!

Over 25-26 hours in the car, we made about 10 stops.  On my own,  I would have driven Nashville to El Do with one stop for gas/pee/food, but we ended up making stops out side of Nashville, before Memphis and in Sheridan.  By Sheridan, all of the drugs had worn off so I just turned the radio up louder

He was very glad to arrive at Daddy's house and find a bean bag chair just like they have at Dog Days of New York - a comfort of home.

Between the multiple bathroom breaks, begging him to eat, begging him to please take a nap, strapping him in and out of his gear, dragging him around the truck stop while he tries to pull me out onto I-40 and turning up the radio so I don't have to listen to him cry and whine, I figure I got a pretty good dose of what it would be like to travel with a 3 year old.  Once again I have a newfound respect for all parents, especially those of the 2-legged variety!