Where to put our furbabies?

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JoanneL

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Oct 20, 2013
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We just bought a class A and haven't come up with a good solution with what to do with them. If I had it my way they would just be between us on the rug or on my lap but I got yelled at on another forum that they have to be restrained. I do understand because they could jump down and go all over the place in the big space but just not sure how to restrain them. A crate between us? Two harnesses on the couch?? Thanks
 
I guess I would get yelled at, too.  I would assume you do not restrain them at your stick home, so what's the big deal with restraining in your motor home?  The only concern I have is making sure they do not jump out the door when stopped and the door is opened.
 
My dog rides on the dash.  Folks can yell if they need to, but it ain't gonna change.
 
My Dog rides where he wants.... Period
I am not restraining an animal except to keep him from jumping out of a window.
 
Yep, there are folks who insist that animals be restrained in any vehicle, just in case of a horrible accident. Ask those people if their kids had seatbelts on the school bus? Do City busses have seatbelts? Does the shuttle bus to the airport, casino, etc. have seat belts? With rare exceptions the answer is NO. If you went to all 12 grades in school and rode the bus, how many of your chums got killed in school bus accidents? And, if you're one of the rare people who know someone in that category, would a seat belt have saved them?

The dog rides where she wants. It works fine for me.

Ken
 
A lot depends on the furbabies (how big they are for example)

I travel with a pair of cats  Amber and Alex.  They have a place they like to "hide" when I am on the road.. The location is small enough, and secure enough, that I am not worried abou them there should something happen.

Before that I built a soft walled cage out of plastic lattace fence, this fit over the dinnette with the RV wall and floor forming 2 of the six sides (the rest were fence) I also had a 5th side so I could use it as an outdoor cage but we never did.  Alas. I lost the 5 sides but could rebuild if I wished.

This gave them more room to move about.. But they like hiding under the bed better.

Now. The PROPER way is to crate ;'em (Pet carriers) but the kind of hours I travel with the MH.. I don;'t really like that option.. I do use a pet carrier when I travel by car with them but those are short drives... Like to that place we won't name in front of them where one of 'em is going next Wed.. You know, the 3-letter word starts with V ends with T.
 
One rides on the seat between us, the other in DW's arms when she is not driving. We tried a seat belt harness but gave up after listening to three solid hours of whining. No, it's not safe. Yes, they would be slammed into the dash or windshield in the event of a sudden stop or collision but that is the way it is.
 
I assume you're talking about when the MH is in motion. Our chocolate lab was only comfortable on the dash. He would curl up against the windshield in front of me and fall asleep. When he wasn't there, he was pacing, pacing, pacing. And, yes, I was yelled at more than once for letting him ride up there. I figured if you slammed on the brakes, he wasn't going anywhere because he was already up against the windshield. Our current yellow lab likes the floor under my feet. It's a nice little cubbyhole, just enough room for him and my feet if he's not too sprawled out. He's comfortable, I can keep an eye on him (he has epilepsy) and I figure it's sort of safe there.


That said, the only real safe place for a hairy kid in an RV is in a crate so they aren't hit by flying debris and don't go flying in an accident.


Wendy
 
If we ever get into an accident bad enough to kill our dog we are probably going to be dead ourselves or not able to take care of them anyway.
I ran with scissors as a kid, jumped cars with my bike with no helmet and I still rip tags off of mattresses and I have survived.

Every day you live and age is a week for your dog... Do you think he want's to be restrained in a doggy seat and miss the world?
 
Here's another "take" on whether or whether not to restrain the fur kids.  Last week I read somewhere (sorry I didn't really pay attention because we don't have any of them) that a new study has found people who drive with pets loose in their vehicles are something like 20 percent more likely to have an accident.  Judging by the number of people I see driving with pets on their laps or otherwise being distracted by them, I guess it's not too surprising.  So with some of the fur kids it might not be so much preventing them from getting hurt but the driver having an accident because of the pet.  Something to think about.

ArdraF
 
Non-hairy kids are also a huge distraction, more so than texting or eating while driving. Just imagine a teenager texting and eating with a dog and a kid in the car.
 
We have 38' DP.  The little dog rides mostly in DW lap.  The larger one rides either on the floor or sprawled out one of the 2 couches.  Another dog 10 years deceased only rode in the class-c that we had at the time.  She rode in between the two front seats.  This was a requirement because when traveling, she always had to be in a position that she was touching me.  Depending on anxiety level she would have either 1 paw, 2 paws, or 2 paws and her muzzle on my leg.  No other method of travel was acceptable.  If we put her anywhere else in the coach she would eventually be up between the 2 seats.   
 
When we took our first trip to Florida after buying our Class A, we confined our 2 cats to the bedroom area.  They weren't happy but Judy was worried about them getting under my feet while I was driving.  The second year we did the same thing but they started to catch on each time we started to pack up and would hide under the sofa. One day we were moving from one RV park to another about an hour's drive away and we couldn't get the older cat out from under the sofa so I said we've got to go and made the trip without incident. 

We learned our lesson and now we leave them roam the coach while we're driving. The older one mostly sleeps under the sofa and the younger one mostly sleeps on the bed.  Every once in a while the older one comes out to walk around and jump up in Judy's lap before heading back to her safe spot under the sofa.  Once they educated us our lives became much easier!!  ;D
 
When we were camping with a cocker she owned the doghouse, regardless of how much the kids wanted to move her. 8)
 
It's interesting how many of us, me included, let our hairy kids ride wherever they want when traveling in the RV but would never allow our human children or grandchildren to ride without being seated and belted in.
 
We took out the head section of the J lounge and put in a metal cage. Our dogs are SPCA dogs and they are used to sleeping and staying in a cage.
The cage is very secure and they are too.

Mike
 
I am another person who doesn't believe in their animals running loose in a vehicle. One of my friends had a dog actually leap out of a car window in the middle of a freeway so my reasoning is sound. Ever since we started RVing my dogs are in a large folding crate. They are both under 10 lbs so they don't mind being together. But, that may change when we get our Class A. They rode in the crate in the back seat of our F150. One of my dogs, a male, is a whiner. He has that whine that only my ears can hear.....at least my husband says he can't hear it but he may be lying. The little girl dog is perfect in the crate, lays down and chews on a bone or goes to sleep. We may end up putting them in separate crates and putting the male dog a little farther into the coach so I don't have to listen to him. I know that probably sounds cruel but it's better than yelling at him every 5 minutes to stop whining. So, we will see what happens on our first trip out.
 
I am so glad I came back here.  8) We picked up the Motorhome yesterday and it seemed that our dogs could sit on my lap (I could use my seatbelt) or floor. We did buy a folding crate and may still use it at least for awhile but we like some of you are not going to want our Havanese (Bichon like - 13/15 lbs) confined. I want them on my lap :-* and although yes our kids were in seat belts I never was!! Thanks for the help.
 

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