Are you skeptical about taking your four-legged friend on your next roadtrip?

It’s not as difficult as you might think – it will surely be an adventure for you and your furry companion.

I am a dog lover, but live in a small flat so having a dog with me is a little unfeasible.

However, my brother has not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4 but FIVE dogs! And I recently had the pleasure of going on a roadtrip with all the 5 dogs. We were a total of 3 humans and 5 dogs and were going to a friend’s house who had 2 more dogs!

So it was going to be a mad trip and I knew that before I signed up for it!

 

The Plan

My brother and bhabhi had to travel from Gurgaon to Landsdowne for some work. Since all 5 dogs could not fit in one car, they decided to leave two of them in a dog creche and travel with 3 of the dogs.

It was my bhabhi’s birthday during those days and she expressed her wish to have all her 5 furry babies with her on her birthday.

Me to the rescue.

I offered to take my car so that the remaining 2 dogs could fit in my car. It was decided that My bhabhi and I would travel in my car with three dogs and my brother would be in his car with 2 dogs.

Meet the Dogs

Google

 

He is a cute golden retriever and was their first baby born in 2016. He is the most energetic of all the 5 dogs. Very people friendly and a favourite with our extended family.

Loves a ball so much that he could probably jump off a cliff to retrieve it!

Of all the five dogs, he is the happiest to be in a car – if he had it his way, he would have his head out of the window entire time! And if he spots a ball, he might even jump out of the window!

Nano

She is a white labrador and is about 9 years old. My bhabhi found her abandoned a few years ago and brought her home.

She is a very quiet dog and I have only seen her active around food. A very pretty dog though.

Gabby

He is an indie and my babhi found him and adopted him during lockdown. He was amongst 5 pups that she used to feed during the lockdown and since he had some kind of injury, she had brought him home to treat it.

And he has stayed home ever since. Not a very friendly dog though!

 

Maya

My brother moved to a villa last year and used to feed the stray dogs in his area.

Maya had an injury due to which my bhabhi got him treated at the vet clinic and once Maya healed, her gang refused to accept her!

So Maya had a new home!

Jerry

Jerry’s story is similar to that of Maya’s. They are like siblings from different mothers.

Jerry and Maya are of similar age (~6 months) and the way the fight (which I am told is actually ‘play’) is quite scary!

Jerry is my personal favourite – extremely cuddly and light weighted dog.

And as a bonus, no hair shedding with him!

 

As my brother says, he is now ‘The Dogfather 5.0′

The Preparation

To my surprise, the preparation process before the roadtrip was not very elaborate.

Preparing the car

My brother had one dog seat cover but since that was already fixed in his car, we decided to not remove it.

We covered my car back seat with a sheet which went on till the floor and covered the floor mats with newspapers. Out of the 3 dog passengers assigned to my car, only Nano (labrador) had an issue with shedding. The other two were indies, so shedding was not an issue with them.

We kept a few kitchen rolls in the car incase the dogs vomited or peed,

Apart from that, I bought a new air freshener for the car – I had been looking a for a good freshener for quite some time and after having tried a few, my conclusion is that this  AER car freshener is the best

Preparing the dogs

Four out of the five dogs were used to longish roadtrips. Maya (the youngest indie) had never been on any long roadtrip. And the short ones that she had been on were not exactly happy memories for her as they usually involved vet visits.

The dinner on the previous night was extremely light for all the dogs. They were given some curd with very little rice with extremely reduced quantity compared to what they were used to.

They also skipped breakfast as we had to leave early morning.

Individual dog preparation

As Jerry and Maya had an issue with motion sickness, they were both given some amount of CBD oil mixed with a very light meal in the morning. CBD oil was given to calm their nerves and help them fall asleep.

As per by bhabhi, it is a must for all pet parents!

As Nano was older and had a known bladder issue, she was made to wear a dog diaper. Also, a bunch of other diapers were packed for the trip.

Google and Gabby had an issue with licking their wounds and since the drivers could not be distracted by that, they were both made to wear dog protective cone

Things packed

Again, contrary to what I had assumed, not much stuff was packed for the dogs. Maybe I got confused with the amount of stuff that needs to be packed for babies!

These fur babies were light travelers, so I learnt!

The only thing that was made sure was that all the dogs had their leashes. Other things packed were:

• Five dog bowls and one extra one for feeding them water
• Dog mattress for Maya – though she never slept on it!
• Few of their bedsheets
• Dog shampoo and some towels
• Couple of extra diapers for Nano
• Tissue rolls
• Some medicines (homeopathy and allopathy) and CBD oil

All things packed and we were now ready to wag our way through winding roads, highway food and mountain air!

Leg 1: Gurgaon to Meerut

We woke up at 6:00 AM with the dog walker’s bell. While the dogs went for their morning walks to relieve themselves, we got ready.

At 7:00 AM we were all ready and the dogs were loaded in the car. The three indies did not seem happy with the prospect of the journey, but the other 2 dogs seemed comfortable. Google was excited as usual!

Team Verna (My car) had me, my bhabhi, Nano (the labrador), Jerry (my favourite) and Maya.

The plan was that I would lead as my bhabhi knew the route and my brother would follow.

The route towards Landsdowne was pretty straightforward.

Gurgaon – Delhi – Meerut expressway – Khatoli – Bijnor – Najibabad – Kotdwar – Landsdowne

Since we left early in the morning, we did not get traffic in Delhi and were on the expressway by 8:30 AM.

However, my brother could not keep up with my seemingly slower speed and he took a wrong exit due to which we were now on our own (and so was he!)

Not complaining – It turned out to be a ‘women’s roadtrip’ barring Jerry !

At around 930ish, near Meerut, we took our first break. We took all the dogs out for their relieving break, fed them water and once done, we sat at the dhaba for our Parathas.

We ate quickly since we did not want to leave the dogs alone in the car for too long.

Leg 2: Meerut to Landsdowne

We started from Meerut at around 10 AM. The roads were awesome right till Khatauli. The stretch near Mirapur seemed to be the worst as it was ridden with potholes.

And very deep ones at that.

We craved for a take-away coffee but had no luck. Instead we picked up some pedas from a supposedly very famous shop near Bijnor – ‘Prabhat Peda wale’. Nice pedas

We took a second break near Kiratpur for the dogs. Got them out – walked them around – fed them water and stretched our legs.

We decided to not take another food break as we received a call from our host at Landsdowne mentioning that he had made Rajma-chawal for us.

That gave us the speed boost and after a brief halt for some bhutta and Sugarcane juice, we reached Landsdowne at around 3 PM.

Stay at Landsdowne

As expected, with 7 dogs (2 of the host) and 4 humans combined with the huge bungalow like set-up, it was a mad house.

The dogs were the happiest to run around the vast space and huge garden area. It was as if they were playing ‘chor-police’ or Hide and Seek’ or something. Constant running around.

And this was when they had not been fed 2 meals prior to the trip!

We stayed there for 4 days, celebrated my bhabhi’s birthday with all her babies (and 2 additional bonus ones!)

As expected, the 4 days just flew by.

The Return: Landsdowne to Gurgaon

While the climb to Landsdowne was uneventful, the descend towards plains affected the youngest two dogs: Jerry and Maya.

We were aware that they had an issue with motion sickness and were hence driving quite slowly. Nearly  45 mins into the journey, both the puppies vomited.

One of them (Maya) was next to my bhabhi, due to which my bhabhi realised and immediately kept tissues in front of Maya. Since the dogs had again nearly skipped two meals, the vomit was actually mostly water.

We stopped our car and got the dogs out for a walk and some fresh air. My bhabhi cleaned up the car like a pro and when I got back into the car, there was no evidence of the deed at all.

Apart from that, the drive back home was uneventful.

Learnings for me

Roadtrip with dogs was much easier than what I had thought. I somehow thought that I would be distracted while driving, but that didn’t happen.

The dogs were so quiet at the back that I hardly felt their presence!

So, buckle up your furry co-pilots and get ready to hit the road to make some pawsome memories!