All the Gear You Need to Travel with Three Big Dogs

Laying out all of the gear I needed to road trip 6,000 miles from Montana to Baja Sur with my wife and three dogs, a thought struck me. Am I chronically over-prepared? Probably. But I figure the the least I can do for the friends (non-human and otherwise) I ask to tag along through remote, often dangerous adventures is to ensure they’ll be comfortable and safe.

While this may be a longer trip than most people tend to take, necessitating some additional depth of inventory, this stuff is representative of what I bring along on camping trips, cabin visits, and even the odd last minute cross-country road trip or two. Heck, the first aid kit lives in my truck at all times, and helps ensure I’m prepared to render emergency medical care anywhere I might be.

Let’s break stuff down into categories and explain what it’s for, and where relevant, why I’ve chosen it.

First Aid

This is a minor evolution of the kit I developed with my friend, sporting dog veterinarian Joe Spoo. You can find a complete list of all the items in it here. To that, I’ve added a cone, and some of the medications and supplies I find myself using most frequently.

The cone may seem like overkill, but on a trip like this one, where I’ve been camping a day’s drive or more from the nearest pavement through the most remote sections of this sparsely-populated, thousand-mile long peninsula, the nearest vet may be two or more days of driving away. Should one of my dogs injure themselves, develop an allergic reaction, or otherwise have something occur where biting or chewing might exacerbate the problem, the cone allows us to take our eyes off the dog long enough to focus on packing or driving. I also brought along an ample supply of a prescription canine sedative for the same reasons.

Teddy, our Kangal, occasionally develops an irritated throat, which causes coughing. Our vet back home suggested administering Robutusin DM when that happens, so I brought along two full bottles. More than enough to get us through several incidents. I similarly packed a 250-count bottle of Benadryl, which can be used to deal with anything from a bee sting, to allergies, to anxiety. I haven’t needed any meds so far, and obviously hope I won’t, but this volume of drugs means I won’t have to worry about finding a pharmacy in an emergency—especially in an unfamiliar place. Consult your vet before giving your dog any medications.

I store the kit inside my Decked drawer system, in one of the brand’s new Sixer boxes.

Diet

While it’s generally understood that feeding humans ultra-processed foods sourced from low-quality supply chains rife with chemical additives leads to poor health outcomes, it’s still inexplicably common for dog enthusiasts to feed their best friends actual poison. To avoid doing that, I only feed my dogs using fresh, human-quality ingredients. Of course, traveling with vast quantities of raw meat takes a little forethought.

Versus coolers, 12-volt fridge-freezers allow you to keep contents at whatever temperature you program. I like to set one compartment on my 95-liter Dometic CFX3 to 20 degrees, and the other to 34. I then keep people food in the above-freezing section, and move one night’s worth of frozen chicken drumsticks over there at a time, to defrost. My dogs eat a total of four pounds of those drumsticks every day, and using such a large fridge-freezer allowed me to bring along 14 nights of food for them.

Powering the fridge involves building a solar generator system, which I detailed here.

But as I write this, we’re 22 nights into this trip. There’s no way I can bring that much raw chicken along, and in the past the dogs haven’t done well on raw meat sourced here in Mexico. So, I’m feeding them boiled chicken breasts or thighs (never feed cooked bones) and white rice prepared in chicken broth. Those ingredients are easy and affordable to source pretty much anywhere, and boiling them removes most risk of pathogens.

But neither chicken drumsticks, nor rice and chicken represent a complete diet. Fortunately the same vitamins and additives I use to complete my dogs’ raw diet at home work just as well on the road. Raw eggs add vitamins and other nutrients. Turmeric, fed every day, is a powerful anti-inflammatory supplement for critters who spend most of every day running, jumping, and rolling around. Sardines add even more vitamins. And organ meats provide minerals.

Eggs and sardines are common in most food markets, no matter which country you’re in. Organs are actually easier to find outside of America. The daily multivitamins and turmeric supplements are compact and light enough to bring along, even on this three-month trip.

I also supplement Wiley, who at 11 is our oldest dog, with Dasuquin, a joint health aid, in order to keep his mobility going strong as long as possible. And while I don’t think it’s necessary to give the dogs a flea, tick and heartworm preventative in Montana, those drugs are definitely necessary down here in a warm climate. I visited my vet for a supply of all that, plus updated paperwork attesting that they’re all current on vaccinations, just before we left.

I carry drinking water for both dogs and humans using Dometic’s new ecosystem of water accessories. Three of that brand’s water jugs hold about nine gallons of water, which is enough to get us through two nights of camping and travel without any thought of rationing use. When I need to refill them, they’re designed to be compatible with the MSR Home Emergency Water Filter, which connects securely to a universal hose tap and a CPC fitting on the lid of the jug.

Like most Yeti products, that brand’s dog bowls are overkill, but that does mean I can accidentally run them over with my truck without damage. And that’s just means I’ve got one less thing to worry about.

Comfort and Cleanliness

I carry a big jug of Dr. Bronners—the best dog shampoo I’ve found. But on this trip, I also brought along a bottle of dry shampoo, which you simply spray on and comb out, to deal with any smells or nastiness in camp. I also always travel with a dog-specific stain and odor remover. Even with well trained, healthy dogs, accidents can and do happen.

At hotels, that spray goes into the room via a carry bag, along with a brush, three rubber treat dispensers, and a squeeze tube full of a healthy dog treat made by West Paw. Any time we ever just need the dogs to calm down and be quiet, that stuff does the trick for 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

Teddy’s a barker, so in hotels we also fit her with a Garmin Sport Plus shock collar, set to automatic bark deterrence. It’s proven so effective a training aid that when we lost its charger last year, she made it all the way through a week-long road trip without barking once, simply by wearing it while it was switched off. I’ve explored how I’ve integrated shock into an otherwise positive reinforcement-focussed training regimen a few years ago.

While Bowie (a husky-German shepherd mix) and Teddy stay warm no matter how cold it gets, Wiley (a turbo mutt found in a San Diego storm drain) has much thinner hair, particularly on his belly. A lightweight Ruffwear fleece jacket helps him sleep comfortably on chillier nights, and is easy to clean.

Safety

I haven’t used a single item out of my first aid kit on this trip, but I use my safety gear every second of every day. Just walking the dogs during a gas stop, around traffic, probably involves more danger than any thing else we’ll experience (especially with three large, aggressive dogs). So, the dogs wear their Ruffwear Frontrange harnesses 24/7. Those shift forces from their leashes away from their necks, and onto their shoulders and torso, which prevents injury. Speaking of leashes, I use my homemade braided climbing rope items, along with locking carabiners to ensure there’s no risk of them breaking free while being walked or tied up. I rarely use it, but I also pack a steel tie out cable, should we want to create a sky run to restrain the dogs in camp.

Since we put in the effort to camp way out in the middle of nowhere, away from other people, my dogs go unleashed both on walks, and throughout the duration of a campout. I’ve found that Garmin tracking collars are the only viable option for reliably locating a dog outdoors. And while none of them are prone to wandering more than a few hundred yards, these provide peace of mind if we do lose sight of them. I bring along handheld tracking devices paired to each collar for both my wife and I, in case we want to split up, or participate in separate activities.

I also like the dogs to wear bandanas. Those help mark them out as owned and cared for, can make them more visible in low light, and can foster friendlier interactions with strangers.

I carry most of the above packed into a basic snap-lid tote (in this case a Decked item), strapped down on top of the drawer system in the bed of my pickup.

Is that a lot of stuff? Sure. But it means I’m equipped to be a responsible owner across a variety of situations ranging from fancy hotels, to campouts, to a beach house here in Mexico, and do that with little to no outside support or supplies, for months at a time. And sitting here watching three awesome dogs chase pelicans, without any concerns about their health, comfort, or risk feels priceless.