This question came into our RV Lifestyle Facebook Group from Dorene, who asks: “Newbie here! What do you do about leaving a dog alone in an RV for a few hours?”
ANSWER: With Bo, our Norwegian Elkhound, we use a technology tool to give us peace of mind that when Bo is in the RV and we are working out or out to dinner or taking a hike where pets are not allowed, that we can know that the temperature is safe for him. It’s called the Nimble Pet Safety Temperature Monitor (now called Waggle). It's made for RVers who worry about leaving a dog alone in an RV.
It uses a cell signal on the Verizon network to send me text alerts if the temperature exceeds the limits I set (85 degrees F). That way I can return to the RV and address the issue by turning on or adjusting the AC. The device also works through an app and I can call it up to display the RV interior temperature on demand.
Dorene’s question about leaving a dog alone in an RV also brought some great tips from members of our RV Lifestyle Facebook Group:
Jerry ‘n Jean suggest tuning into something called DogTV, a 24/7 channel with programs scientifically developed to provide the right company for dogs when left alone. Through years of research by some of the world’s top pet experts, special content was created to meet specific attributes of a dog’s sense of vision and hearing and supports their natural behavior patterns. The claimed result? “A confident, happy dog, who’s less likely to develop stress, separation anxiety or other related problems.”
You join and download an app to your favorite streaming device. They offer a free trial. After that its basically $7 a month of you pay a year in advance. We haven’t yet tried it but it looks pretty cool. But says Jerry ‘n Jean:
“We usually leave the TV on and we always come back to sleeping dogs. If we are going for more than half a day we do doggie daycare.”
Malinda doesn’t necessarily watch DogTV but she does turn on the TV in our her, saying “We always left the TV on …..masks sounds they might hear outside and yeah ….they usually sleep the whole time!”
Matt says “We loaded a bunch of relaxation music on a drive that plays through the radio. Blocks out the noise outside as much as we can.”
And Pegi offers “Campgrounds usually have a dog walker for hire or know of one. We did that for years! It was perfect.”
All this info comes from our RV Lifestyle Facebook Group. If you’re not a member, just go to RVLifestyle.com/facebook and join, you’ll be one of 37,000 group users there to help each other with all aspects of the RV Lifestyle.
So there you go a couple of tips and great advice about leaving a dog alone in an RV.
Do you have a question you’d like us to answer or a comment on the things we’re discussing? If so, we invite you to leave us that question or comment on the special voicemail number we have for the podcast – it’s 586-372-6990. If you are driving and can’t write it down right now, just go to the RV Lifestyle travel blog at rvlifestyle.com and scroll down the page. You’ll see that number prominently posted on the blog.
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OH and yep, that's a picture of our dog Bo – who is getting noticed over there on Instagram! Check it out!
One Response to “2 awesome tips so you don’t worry when leaving a dog alone in an RV”
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July 13, 2020at5:55 pm, Dusty said:
Another tip to keep your dog (pet) cool is to use a self-cooling pet pad. It uses (non-electric) pressure-sensitive gel technology, and lasts a few hours at a time. Available from small to x-large from Amazon, Chewy, and other pet product vendors.