Do people leave their dogs in a motor home while traveling?

[lostintimetoystore]

My wife and I are looking to buy a motor home maybe a 20 ft one you can drive and we are looking to travel with our dogs and will want to stop and see sights and we wanted to know if anybody leaves there pets while they are goner in the home and can you keep air or heat on for them depending on the seasons? Also with they be secure inside by just locking the doors. We are very new at this as you can tell and would love some advice for traveling with pets.

Thanks

 

[Ghostman]

Most people do leave the pets inside. Yes you can leave your AC and heat on. I believe there are some companies that make sensors for inside that can alert you if you loose AC and temp risies to far. You would have to have cell or internet service of course.

 

[SargeW]

A couple of issues in case you haven't thought of them yet. Yes, leaving pets in the rig is acceptable, as long as they are not "barkers".  Some dogs are comfortable being alone and just relax and sleep, others panic at every noise outside  the rig and back constantly.  This is really upsetting to the neighbors, and usually triggers complaints to the management.

If in really hot areas, RV parks can lose power just due to the parks electrical system being over loaded. If that occurs your AC will not work in the rig unless it is equipped with a generator with a "automatic start" function.  You wouldn't want to return to your rig to find it baking inside and the pets in distress (or worse).

 

[HappyWanderer1]

We were next to people last weekend that left their two dogs unattended in the camper. They barked non-stop from the moment the owners pulled away. Fortunately, we were packing up to leave and only had to listen to the noise for an hour or so.

Our dog is never left alone. He either comes with us or we find doggy day care.

 

[Ghostman]

I agree with Sarge that is how I know most people leave them in there RV. They are barking.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

I agree with Sarge that is how I know most people leave them in there RV. They are barking.

Amen!!! 

 

[Rene T]

We leave ours in  the RV all the time. He is a Chihuahua (spelling??) and believe it or not, he's not a barker. I also do not lock the door. We  have a sticker on the window next to the door that states for the Fire Dept. "to please rescue our dog in case of fire".  Also, we do not lock the door when he's in there hoping someone can rescue him before the Fire Dept. gets there.  When we leave, usually it's no more than 5 to 6 hours. Same at our house.

 

[garyb1st]

Your situation could be different than Sarges and Ghostmans.  They have tow vehicles and most likely leave the motorhome at a park with power connected.  If they leave the motorhome while traveling, they can turn on the generator and AC.  This is what we do and even when the AC is running, we leave windows open.  Power outages occur. 

Not familiar with smaller motorhomes, but I doubt they all come with generators and AC.  Example, a friends Sportsmobile, a high end 22ft self-contained motorhome with off roading capabilities and otherwise pretty well  equipped don't have an onboard generator which would rule out AC other than from the dash.  Even if you find one that does have a generator and AC, make sure you have plenty of fuel if you intend to leave it running with the pets inside.  Larger motorhome generators feed from the same fuel tank as the engine but with a separate fuel lines to the generator.  They generally can not draw fuel after the tank is less than a 1/4 full. 

 

[Great Horned Owl]

To answer your last question, RVs can be broken into rather easily. Despite that, it happens only very rarely.

Joel

 

[John From Detroit]

I travel with a Cat, not dogs. and he stays inside all the time. He won't even go outside willingly.

YES. Heat or A/C is on as needed. And today it appears the A/C is back up to 100% (I worked on it a bit yesterday. Cleaning)

 

[NY_Dutch]

For years we left our dog in our RV for 4-6 hours at times in all sorts of weather without a problem. Early on we left a webcam set up to monitor her for any problems including barking, but after a year or so of getting bored watching her sleep most of the time with just an occasional walk over to get a drink, we quit doing it. We did have a web based temperature sensor that would alert us by text if the temperature went outside of the alerts we had set, either high or low. The one time we had a barking problem, a neighbor took care of it by calling the park manager and having him come speak to the little boy's mother to stop him from running over and banging on our coach to disturb the dog while the mother sat there talking on her cell. We had given the neighbor my cell number in case of any problems, but she didn't think we needed to be bothered by an issue that she could easily handle.


As far as RV break-ins go, the majority of the time they occur when the RV is at a storage lot. Break-ins while on a campsite are almost unheard of.

 

[BoomerD]

We'll leave out two little rat-dogs unattended in the rv with the appropriate heat/AC set to go out for a meal or a short trip somewhere that we wouldn't want to leave them in the car/truck. (too hot, too cold) Otherwise, they go (almost) everywhere with us.

 

[Molaker]

Not any more.  The last time we did, it took the highway patrol several hours to chase her down.  They finally used a spike strip.  I had to replace all 6 tires.

 

[winona1]

We leave ours in  the RV all the time. He is a Chihuahua (spelling??) and believe it or not, he's not a barker. I also do not lock the door. We  have a sticker on the window next to the door that states for the Fire Dept. "to please rescue our dog in case of fire".  Also, we do not lock the door when he's in there hoping someone can rescue him before the Fire Dept. gets there.  When we leave, usually it's no more than 5 to 6 hours. Same at our house.

I do as Rene does.  If my lab can't come with me, he stays inside, either at the campground or in the parking lot of wherever with the generator running.  I've not heard there's a problem -- he's not a barker unless someone is within arm's reach of my Trend.

I too leave the door unlocked and have signs on both the driver and passenger windows with my cell number.  I figure if someone can get past my dog and find what they want, then good luck.  My cousin couldn't even get in for the peanut butter in the cabinet!

 

[lostintimetoystore]

Thank you everyone for responding. I appreciate all your comments. Cant wait to start looking for a motor home and start traveling.

 

[John From Detroit]

To answer your last question, RVs can be broken into rather easily. Despite that, it happens only very rarely.

Joel

True story.. Now my Intruder is a Thor Product.  I was assisitn a young lady with a TIffin. She had a water leak, determined it needed help above my pay grade (no I did not make it worse. just the leak was a part i can not fix).

I was explaining to her how I used ON board water so if I needed to turn it off it was easy. She did not know where the gravity fill was so I found the obvious hatch, and opened it.. WITH MY KEY.. Sure enough I had the right hatch.

 

[Senator]

We leave our Springer Spaniel in the fifth wheel when we leave to go somewhere, if it is only a few hours.  I put a bark collar on her, just in case.  I have heard she sometimes howls a bit when she misses us.  She never does it at home, but sometimes in the fifth wheel she might. 

The bark collar does the trick, as I can see if she is corrected, and how many times, by the collar when return.

 

[JtC-5TH]

They do, they shouldn’t, and it’s against park rules most places. If the dog barks or not doesn’t change that. But there is nothing more anoying than an unattended yappie dog. We never leave our dog unattended in the RV. It’s wrong, inconsiderate, and unsafe.

 

[Pugapooh]

In our limited experience,yes,our pug will bark,no complaints so far.  We have either been too far away from others or they didn't want complaints about their dog.  We don't leave for more than a few hours. 

What dogs do you have?

 

[NY_Dutch]

They do, they shouldn?t, and it?s against park rules most places. If the dog barks or not doesn?t change that. But there is nothing more anoying than an unattended happy dog. We never leave our dog unattended in the RV. It?s wrong, inconsiderate, and unsafe.

Most parks that have a "No unattended pets" rule only apply it to pets left outside the RV, not inside, if you ask them. The few that don't allow unattended pets inside or outside, usually spell that out in the rules. In many years of RV'ing, the only park I recall having such a rule was on Cape Cod, and we chose not to stay there. I have heard of a few others, although they're not the norm by any means.


What is "wrong, inconsiderate, and unsafe" about leaving a well behaved dog at "home" for a few hours? I assume you're not a fulltime RV'er, so do you ever leave your dog at home in your sticks and bricks for a few hours? Is that really any different than leaving it in your home on wheels?