How we handle traveling to see family with our dog

First published in November 2021 and last updated in December 2022.

When I first adopted Scout in early 2019, we lived in an apartment in downtown Madison, Wisconsin (where I had just graduated from college). It was about a two-hour drive from my parents’ house—so while we weren’t visiting all the time, it was pretty straightforward to get there if we wanted to.

Then we moved with Sean to Florida in early 2020, and going home suddenly got a lot more complicated What used to be a four-hour round trip became nearly a full 24-hour day in the car each way!

Now that we’ve made some successful cross-country adventures together, here’s an overview of how we handle traveling to see family.

At a high level, we:

• Accept that travel can be inherently stressful

• Prioritize Scout’s biological fulfillment and clarity about expectations

• Liberally use management when needed

• Give her time to decompress on her own

• And embrace each trip as a learning experience!

First thing’s first: We accept that travel is stressf…