First in our Travel Hack series!
As part of a new series, every Friday, we will be introducing a new travel hack for outdoor and urban adventures. We will scour the web for the best and most practical hacks, as well as dig into our reserves and share our own awesome moments of ingenuity!
Even dog lovers need travel hacks. I know sometimes we feel as though we are targets of a coordinated campaign by cat folks everywhere (you know who you are)! And as such, this “covert campaign” has made traveling with our dogs exceptionally difficult, forcing you to plan contingencies in response. Of course, you could always leave your dog with a friend, but in my own case, I’ll probably come back to a grossly overweight, and spoiled pup who has forgotten the simplest command of “sit”.
With just their eyes, dogs (yes, and cats too) have the uncanny knack of melting the hearts of even the most unflappable! It’s almost impossible not to spoil them!
Considering the potential complications of pet travel, and the lengthy list of regulations inherent to it, I usually only take my dog on road trips. Even if flying regulations, quarantine regulations, and any other pet regulations didn’t exist, I’d probably still avoid taking them on any extensive overseas trip. There’s just too much that can, and has, gone wrong; Dogs get out of their crates and end up lost or dead; Bags get rerouted to Winnipeg when they’re supposed to go to San Francisco; or they get locked up in dog jail for just looking cute. I can’t imagine stuffing my dog into a tiny crate for hours with nowhere to go to the bathroom alongside tiny crates of other pets screaming and whining for someone to let them free. Sounds like Guantanomo Bay Airlines to me.
But I digress. My philosophy with dog travel is, whenever possible, try to bring some small measure of familiarity with your pup, even if it means smuggling in their favorite foods!
This particular travel hack I discovered while on a road trip between the Canadian-US border:
The problem
Turns out I am not allowed to bring dog food across the border. I inform the border guard that the dog food I buy my dog is 100% organic, preservative-free, made from wild fish that has been harvested using sustainable practices, and packed with the necessary nutrients that would protect my dog from doggy tooth decay, doggy arthritis, and perhaps even doggy herpes (don’t quote me on the last part). My attempt to change the border guard’s mind didn’t work and I was forced to dump out all my dog food.
The solution
While in the US, I buy a bag of dog food that (a) has a stamp that says it’s made in the USA and (b) comes in a resealable bag. I save the bag when the dog food is finished and, on my next trip with my dog to the US, pour the “organic, preservative-free, made from wild fish…yadda,yadda, yadda” dog food into the bag. When I’m questioned by US border guards as to whether I’m bringing dog food across the border, I say “Hell yeah*, and it’s also made in the US,” as I flash the border guard the “Made in the USA” label (*Note: I may not have arrogantly said “Hell yeah” to the border guard. It was more like a respectful “Yes sir”). In the end my dog maintained her diet, and staved off tooth decay for another few weeks 
I hope this travel hack works for you, or more accurately your pet. Please keep in mind this is all in good fun and at the end of the day, it is just dog food and not worth the hassle if push comes to shove.
Fido will be happy just to be with traveling with you and not quarantined in some dark, sterile cargo jail somewhere!
About the Author
Hi, I’m Kent. I love the road trip and am a proud advocate of the staycation. Travel is about being introduced to new experiences, and we don’t need to hop on a plane to find them. There’s always more to discover about a city I’ve visited, which is why I like to revisit places like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco time and again. Money can buy nice clothes and food to eat, but money can never buy good taste – which is why I’m anti-foodies, anti-hip-hop, and pro-DIY.
Carey
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