Top Tips For Family Holidays Including Your Dog

Are you always struggling to entertain your children, keeping everyone in the family happy and let your dog enjoy some quality time out and about and not shut up at home or in the car. Read our comprehensive list to help you keep everyone including your four legged friend happy during the holiday period.

1. Look online for dog friendly holidays, you will find a number of directories showing a variety of self catering houses, caravan parks and hotels that welcome dogs with open arms. These places are usually well set up to cater for your whole family including your dog.

2. Don't forget to plan the journey with your dog in mind. Try to have your stops close to when you dog would normally have a walk. Do not withhold food and drink; they will often need more water to help offset the stress the journey causes them. Give them plenty of time to stretch their legs; they will be much more relaxed in the car if they have had a good run around before and during the trip. A decent break in the journey can be part of the holiday, pack some sandwiches and locate a country walk for the whole family.

3. Investigate fun activities that you can base your holidays around. For example Geo caching is a treasure hunt game where you hide and seek containers using GPS with other participants. It is a very family friendly activity which includes your dogs and will help you get the children out on country walks with a really fun twist to the day.

4. Call in advance to see if your dog will be welcome at any pubs or restaurants. Always keep a blanket and a dog drink bowl ready to hand in the car. There are a variety of portable ones available which are easy to carry around if you are on a long day out.

5. Don't forget to scoop the poop. There is nothing worse than stepping in dog poop so please don't let your dog add to the messes we see too often. Invest in one of the innovative pet poop scoops that are available on the market and you will find it is not such a horrid job to clean up after them.

6. Before you leave consider investing in a dog harness for the car, this will protect your dog in case of a collision but it will also make sure your dog stays in the right place so it does not distract the car driver.

7. Imagine cross country skiing with your family and your dogs. More and more areas are setting aside ski runs for exactly this. Many people will need to travel overseas for this, start your planning with a visit to the vet to check up on the requirements for taking your dog abroad. You may need to get your dog micro chipped and give them a rabies injection. Rules change from country to country so do your research in plenty of time so you do not have a last minute panic.

8. If you are planning a day at the beach check if you are allowed to take your dog with you. Many beaches are shut during the summer time to our canine friends. Local authorities will often be able to supply you with a list of beaches which welcome dogs all year round.

9. Look up your local dog association or kennel club, they hold a variety of fun events during the year where you will be able to meet other doggie friendly families and enjoy the events organized by them.