Retiring from law enforcement opened the door for me to roam the country with my dogs. These are our adventures—complete with practical tips, trail wisdom, and the little discoveries that make the journey unforgettable.
In, April, 2026, I retired with the plan to travel around with the dogs. Gas prices and increased expenses have slowed this down but we have already had some fun adventures. I get people asking me for tips of traveling with dogs and just wanting to hear where we have went. I decided this would be the best way to share.
I wanted to start with the basics of travel. Our dogs always travel in crates and, currently, we use Impact Dog crates. When we have more than just two, we also use our Ruffland and for single puppies, I have an older Bob McKee crate. Dogs being secured in a crate is essential for safety plus it allows them their own space to sleep and rest without their travel companions bothering them. My dogs also were a Tractive GPS. This is not because I worry about them running away but accidents happen, dogs can get scared or even stolen. A GPS tracker just aids in their recovery. We currently use the Tractive XL as the battery lasts about a month although it is a bigger tracker than I would like.
For the outside of our camper, we purchased FXW fencing. This allows the dogs to move about and have a play yard. FXW makes a fantastic panel that goes under the step to prevent escaping through there and it fits perfectly in with their panels. The FXW brand is more expensive but the stakes can be pounded into the ground, the coating doesn’t flake off the panels, they are sturdy thus take a lot of abuse and you can pair different sizes together with no difficulty.
In our camper, the dogs are allowed to sleep free and hang out without crating except for the puppies. In the evening, they always go in a crate. We switched our thermostat out with a Easytouch RV thermostat by Micro-Air. This allows us to monitor the temperature and adjust it remotely if we leave our dogs in the camper. It also allows us to set high and low temperatures so that it automatically adjusts if it goes past those parameters .
Hotels! When traveling and using hotels, always take a crate if your dog can not be trusted in the room and NEVER leave your dog unsupervised in the room. Tova does not require a crate in the room but is never left unsupervised in there. It is good to get puppies used to riding elevators, hearing hallway noises and learning polite manners of staying in a hotel. Elevators can be rather frightening the first time a dog rides one. They get on in one location, the door closes, the floor feels weird and when the door opens they are in a new world. While rather magical, it can also be rather scary. Personally, we try to use our camper whenever possible.
In May, 2026, we traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Standard Schnauzer Club of America’s national. Once returning, we traveled to McRae, Arkansas, for a barn hunt trial. At the end of May, 2026, we traveled to Amana, Iowa, for a Barn Hunt Regional event. All of these trips involved the camper. In June, we traveled to Denver, Colorado, for a barn hunt trial and stayed in a Spark by Hilton. It was very pet friendly and a nice middle range hotel. They did charge a pet fee but in reality, most places do anymore.
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Enjoy a picture of Tova yelling at prairie dogs in the Cherry Creek Recreation area in Denver, Colorado. Iggy is running to help. Tova was amazed with the prairie dogs and really thought she could go in after them. You can see her Tractive XL on her harness.