My dog is often sick after boarding. How much of a pain is it to take your dog along for a trip on the road?
By "road" do you actually mean a driving trip? No big deal at all. It's easy to find pet-friendly hotels these days thanks to sites like hotels.com ... I recommend always calling the hotel to double check.
If you actually mean air travel, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a very small dog that can be carried as a cabin pet. Riding in a crate in the cargo compartment is usually very traumatic for a dog and I don't think it's worth it.
Either way, I'd recommend looking for a dog sitter so your pet isn't exposed to quite so many other dogs.
Yes, driving, probably I-95, and she is 50 pounds so air travel is out. I thought it might be fun to bring her, unless there are problems I haven't thought about.
You know your dog best. How does she handle being in the car? If she's an energetic dog you may need to scout ahead and find parks to stop at every few hours. I have an Australian Cattle Dog (very high energy) so when we go on trips it's crucial I get her nice and tired before we set out. If it's more than five hours of driving I'll find a place along the way to stop and play.
Sometimes if we leave our dog alone in a hotel room she'll bark, which is something she doesn't do at home. As I said earlier, my biggest piece of advice is to be ultra-sure that the hotel takes pets. Don't rely on website info. Call the front desk and write down the name of the person you asked about pet policies.
On a cross country trip, it was fun sneaking him into a hotel room
To everyone that read this, please don't ever think of sneaking your pet into a hotel that doesn't allow them. Many people have serious pet allergies and can become very sick from spending a night in a hotel room that was supposedly pet free (from experience).
First off, I do not want to stay at a place that allows dogs, the last thing I want to hear is dogs barking through the night because they're in a completely different place. I've camped before and had to deal with dogs barking because of the sounds of nature. I'd rather not experience that in a hotel.
Plus, I like to do things with my family that are no dog friendly, i.e., go to DisneyWorld. I'd rather not have a dog stuck in a hotel room for 8 hours - she'd probably destroy the place and/or make a mess.
Actually that was a contrary statement. It was not fun, but stressful, and only done as a last resort. Now that there are several hotel chains that are pet friendly, the issue is resolved, if we ever traveled with a pet again, which as a rule we don't.
Anyone checked the cost of a kennel these days? The price seems to have skyrocketed over what I remember 20 years ago.