When we tell people that we lived in a travel trailer with our dog for a year and a half, we always get asked so many questions! So I decided to write this post about our experience, and I’ll also include ALL our best tips and tricks so that you can learn from our mistakes!
Our first night staying in our old class C RV on our way to Lancaster, California for my first travel nurse assignment, we decided to save money by parking in a truck stop parking lot. After looking it up, we knew it would be open all night, which helped us feel safe. We also learned that the gas station charged an overnight parking fee of $7, which included the cost of a shower.
We already knew that Luna has anxiety, so we allowed her to sleep on the bed with us that night. And thank goodness we did, because it was COLD. Keith had to keep getting up to turn on the generator (but we didn’t want to run out of propane before we even got to California, so he would turn it off once it got warm enough in the RV). Luna kept us warm, and sleeping right next to her two favorite humans kept her calm. Keith and I, however, did not sleep well at all and decided to stick to RV parks from then on so that we could have electricity (when we stay just one night we don’t hook up the water or sewer) to run our heaters/AC, a quiet environment, and not have to worry (as much) about security.
Over the next few months, we really had to be intentional with making sure we exercised her regularly and did everything we could to get her to eat her meals. The fact that we arrived in LA County about two weeks before quarantine began (and then moved into a new travel trailer a few weeks after that) didn’t help – Keith and I were anxious, which in turn made Luna more anxious – but luckily we lived in an RV park that had a fenced in backyard to the office that we were able to take Luna to so she could run around, chase her ball, and get the exercise she needed to keep her healthy – physically and mentally.
In time, she adjusted to living in a smaller space. Here are some tips to help your dog adjust too:
- Luna was already crate trained since she was a puppy, but as she got older we were able to let her roam the house while we were gone all day at work. But for the first few months in the trailer we always crated her if we had to leave her alone. Eventually we were able to leave her out – but we would block the doors to our bedroom so that she wouldn’t drool on our bed (lol).
- Staying at RV parks with a dog is VERY different from living in a house. Luna is pretty good at staying where she knows we want her to stay outside, and even if we are visiting someone who doesn’t have a fence we generally feel comfortable letting her off leash to potty. But RV parks usually have pretty strict leash rules, and especially since Luna (a mutt) looks like she may be part pitt bull we always keep her on a leash while staying at parks (we also try to keep a cute bandana on her so that she doesn’t look so scary when she lunges at people out of genuine friendship). Some parks require a short (6’) leash, which we have, but if it doesn’t state that in the rules, we also have a much longer retractable leash so that she can run a little even on the leash.
- One of the things we learned very quickly was that we had to be so careful with how we blocked the doors to our bedroom, because Luna figured out how to get in a few times and once she even peed on our bed (Keith looked it up and apparently she was so anxious that she was trying to hide her scent in our scent). After that, Keith installed hooks on the doors that latched to the wall so that she could no longer nudge whatever was blocking the doors out of the way when we left her alone in the trailer.
- Another thing we also tried to do whenever we left her alone was to turn on the television. The internet we used came with a few channels, and one of them played reruns of Bob Ross 24/7. That’s the channel we would always turn to, because Bob’s voice is dang relaxing. We found that having something playing would also help decrease noises from outside the trailer, which were always triggering to Luna.
Hopefully these tips are helpful to you in your adventure of living or traveling in an RV with your dog. I wish you all the luck in the world! If you have any other comments or questions, feel free to drop a comment below or DM me on Insta or FB. I always love connecting with people (especially when it’s about our dogs!).
I’m a wife, a dog mom, a foodie, a wanderer, a registered nurse, and a couples/intimate wedding/elopement photographer … and this blog will cover it all! If you enjoyed this post, first of all thank you, and second of all please follow me on Instagram + Facebook to get updates on future blog posts, see sneak peeks of my amazing couples, and so much more! If you have any questions about elopement photography, my journey from nursing to photography, or my time spent as a full-time RVer, drop a comment and I just might write a blog post answering your question (but I definitely will)!
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