Traveling with furry and feathered friends adds to the enjoyment of life on wheels.
By Mike Wendland, F426141
July 2016
July 2016
I’ve long heard from RV dealers and industry experts that a major reason many people buy an RV is so they can take their pets with them. I’ve heard estimates that anywhere from 20 to 90 percent of RVers travel with pets, but I’ve never had a figure to cite with any authority.
Until now.
Now, I can tell you that — thanks to our own unofficial survey on our very active Roadtreking Facebook group — just over 67 percent of these RVers travel with pets.
About 58 percent travel with dogs and 9 percent with cats. We had four respondents who said they travel with birds, such as a parrot.
In all, 760 people replied within a 36-hour time period.
Here are the results regarding the type and number of pets our Facebook followers travel with:
• One dog — 257 respondents
• Two dogs — 139 respondents
• Three or more dogs — 41 respondents
• One cat — 38 respondents
• Two or more cats — 31 respondents
• Birds — 4 respondents
• No pets — 250 respondents
Anecdotally, it seems small dog breeds are most popular, with Yorkshire terriers, miniature schnauzers, Maltese, and other toy breeds being most common. But respondents mentioned plenty of golden retrievers, labs, huskies, and other big dogs, too. I was amazed at how many people travel with multiple pets. And in the comments, many indeed verified my premise that a key reason so many do indeed choose the RV lifestyle is so they can take their four-footed friends with them.
Here are some examples of comments we received:
“I have always traveled with two 90-pound dogs in my SS-Agile (a Type B RV). Sometimes it’s a little crowded.” — Barbara
“Wherever I go with my rig, my 16-year-old domestic long hair [cat] is along for the ride. And when we’re parked, I pop her into her personal pet buggy and we stroll.” — Eldonna
“First interest in RVing was because we couldn’t find hotels that allowed our little 6-pound papillon mix. She gets so excited when we say we’re going in the van!” — Julie
“We travel with our cat, Ocho. He loves the RV, but he is a bed hog and takes up half of the king-size bed. We take him out at campgrounds on his leash so he can enjoy the scenery.” — Donna
“I love camping, and we did a lot in the pop-up when we were younger. Then condos and hotels in our 50s. Now at 60 we retired and got a Roadtrek to travel with the dog easier. I am glad we have him. We had gotten lazy I think, and I forgot how much I loved [camping]. Owe it to the Gucci dog.” — Wendy
“Mittens, our cat, has traveled with us every mile since we got our first Roadtrek. Alaska twice and many other states.” — Larry
“We travel with our dogs and any foster dogs we have. I foster for the city of Sacramento all the time.” — Judy
“My dogs are not my whole life, but they make my life whole. For me, they are worth every bit of effort and inconvenience.” — Barb
You get the idea. Many of those who responded to my poll included photos of their pets.
One family who always travels with their four-footed friends is Amy and Rod Burkert, of GoPetFriendly.com, a website that maintains a database of pet-friendly towns, campgrounds, and tourist attractions. The Burkerts travel full-time in their big blue Type A motorhome with their two dogs, Buster and Ty.
I talked with Amy during an extended interview on my podcast not long ago (Roadtreking.com/85), and she shared many of the things she’s learned from 80,000 miles of travel while seeking pet-friendly places.
“There’s no doubt that a huge reason so many people have motorhomes and RVs is because they can take their pets,” she said. “Just go to any RV show or rally and you’ll see that seemingly everyone has a dog with them.”
I shared with Amy how I remember well the first big RV event I attended, the Florida RV SuperShow in Tampa back in 2013. There were so many people pushing baby strollers with dogs in them that I ended up doing a whole photo and video story on it, and I even devoted a column in Family Motor Coaching to describing how popular those pooches were with their RV owners.
“Yes, RVers are certainly passionate pet owners,” she said. “And they choose the places they travel to based on how pet friendly they are. They want off-leash parks, dog runs, dog beaches, pet-friendly hotels and restaurants. Fortunately, those places are increasing. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of places that are not pet friendly.”
That’s mostly because of irresponsible pet owners who don’t clean up after their pets, who let them bark too much, or who don’t follow the rules of the campgrounds and places they visit.
The vast majority of RVers, of course, are responsible. And they’ve found, as have Jennifer and I, that touring North America with a pet immeasurably enriches an already wonderful experience.