Should Your Dog Come on This Trip? An Honest Way to Decide

We run an organisation devoted to making travel with dogs easier, so you might expect us to say the dog should always come. It should not. Some trips are wonderful with a dog and some are miserable for it, and the kindest owners are the ones who can tell the difference. The charity Dogs Trust puts it gently in its advice on holidays, where it says that it may not always be best for a dog to tag along. This guide offers a plain way to decide. There are two tests, one about the trip and one about the dog. If both pass, take the dog and enjoy it. If either fails, the dog will have a better week at home, and the last part of this guide is about making sure that it does.

The Trip Test

Start with how the dog will get there, because the journey rules out more holidays than anything else. A car journey of a few hours suits almost any dog, and a train works well in Britain and much of Europe, as our guide to dogs on trains explains. A flight is another matter. A small dog can travel in the cabin under your seat, but a larger dog goes in the hold, and on some routes, including every flight into Britain, it must travel as cargo. That is a lot to put a dog through for a week away. As a rule of thumb, if the dog has to fly in the hold, the trip should be a long one or a move, not a short holiday.

Next, ask whether the dog will be allowed in. Crossing most borders takes a microchip, a rabies vaccination and a certificate, which is manageable with a few weeks' notice, and our guide to taking your dog abroad sets out the steps. But some destinations need months of preparation and a blood test, and Australia and New Zealand put every arriving dog into quarantine. Some countries ban certain breeds outright. If the paperwork would take longer than the holiday, leave the dog behind.

Then picture what you will actually be doing, which is the question people skip. A walking holiday, a cottage by the sea or a tour of country pubs is a dog's idea of heaven. A city break built around museums, galleries, restaurants and shows is a holiday the dog will spend in a hotel room. A beach resort in August may ban dogs from the sand for most of the day and be too hot for them the rest of the time. If the plan is mostly places a dog cannot go, the dog is not really coming on holiday. It is coming to wait for you.

Last, ask where the dog will be when it cannot be with you. About half of the hotels we assess do not allow a dog to be left alone in the room, and only about a quarter welcome dogs in a restaurant. So in many hotels there is nowhere for the dog to be while you eat, and somebody has to stay with it. Check before you book, because this single rule decides what kind of trip you will have. Our guide to what hotel policies really say gives the figures.

The Dog Test

Now ask about the dog, and be honest, because the dog you have is not always the dog you wish you had. The first question is whether it is healthy enough. A very old dog, a dog with heart or breathing trouble, arthritis or diabetes, and a very young puppy all find travel harder than a fit adult does. Dogs Trust points out that puppies and young dogs that are still growing, up to 18 months in large breeds, should not be over exercised, which rules out the long walks that are the whole point of many holidays. If you have any doubt, ask your vet before you book and not after.

Breed matters too. Bulldogs, pugs, French bulldogs and other flat faced dogs struggle in heat and under stress. Most airlines will not carry them in the hold at all, and a hot country in summer is a real danger to them. If your dog is one of these, choose a cool destination that you can reach by car, and read our guide to heat and your dog on holiday before you decide.

Temperament is the next thing to weigh. Some dogs trot into a strange hotel room, sniff every corner and fall asleep. Others pant, pace and cannot settle anywhere that is not home. Dogs Trust suggests asking whether your dog is relaxed and confident in new, busy environments, and whether it is comfortable around unfamiliar dogs. A nervous dog can learn to travel, but it learns on short, easy trips and not on a fortnight abroad. If yours barks or panics when left alone at home, it will do the same in a hotel, only with neighbours through the wall. That does not rule out a holiday, but it rules out any holiday where you will need to leave it.

Finally, think about how your dog behaves on the move and in company. A dog that is sick or frightened in the car needs that put right first, which can usually be done with patience and sometimes with help from your vet, but it takes weeks. A dog that lies quietly under a table opens every door, while a dog that lunges at other dogs or cannot settle in a café will have you eating in shifts. Our guide to training your dog to travel explains how to work on each of these before you go.

When the Answer Is Yes

If the journey is by car or train, the place is somewhere a dog is welcome, the days are outdoors, and your dog is healthy and happy in new places, take it. Dogs that travel well give a holiday a shape that suits most people very nicely: up early, out all day, home tired. You will see more of the countryside and talk to more strangers than you ever would without one, and you will come home with a dog that is fitter and more confident than when it left.

The trips that work best are often the simplest. A cottage or a small hotel within a few hours' drive, in spring or autumn, with good walking from the door, asks almost nothing of a dog and gives it a great deal. Once you and your dog have done a few of those, the more ambitious journeys, a ferry to France or a train across Italy, will seem far less daunting to both of you.

When the Answer Is No

Leave the dog at home when the trip is short and involves a flight in the hold, when the destination has quarantine or a ban on your breed, when the heat will be dangerous, when the days are mostly indoors, or when the dog is frail or frightened. None of that is a failure. A week with someone it knows, in a routine it understands, is a better week for that dog than the one you had planned for it.

It helps to remember how a dog experiences a holiday. It does not know that it is in a famous city or by a beautiful lake. It knows whether it is with its people, whether it is comfortable, and whether its day has walks and meals in the usual places. A dog shut in a hot room in a wonderful resort is having a worse time than a dog on its own sofa with a kind sitter, however much you would like it to be otherwise.

Leaving a Dog Well

Guilt is the reason many people take a dog on a holiday it will not enjoy, and the cure is to arrange care you trust. There are four main options. A friend or relative the dog already knows, staying in your home or theirs, is the best arrangement for most dogs. A house sitter who lives in your home keeps the dog in its own surroundings and routine, which suits old and anxious dogs particularly well. Home boarding means the dog stays in a carer's own house, as one of the family. And boarding kennels suit confident, sociable dogs that enjoy company and activity.

In England, boarding dogs as a business is a licensed activity. Under the government's rules, anyone boarding other people's dogs in their home needs a licence from the local council. Dogs from different households may be boarded together only with the written consent of every owner, and there must be a trial session beforehand so that the dogs can meet. Kennels are licensed in the same way. Whichever you choose, ask to see the licence, and visit before you book. Ask to see where the dog will sleep, where it will be exercised, and how many times a day.

Do a trial day or night well before the holiday, so that the first separation is a short one. Leave written instructions covering feeding, medicines and your vet's number, and a signed note giving permission for treatment. Take your dog's own bed and something that smells of you. One option is not on the list, which is leaving a dog at home alone with someone dropping in. The RSPCA advises that dogs should be left for no longer than four hours, so that they have the chance to exercise, relieve themselves and spend time with people. A dog needs someone there overnight.

The Middle Way

Often the answer is neither yes nor no but a different holiday. If you want your dog with you, choose the trip to suit it. Drive, go in spring or autumn, pick a cottage or a hotel that truly welcomes dogs, and plan the days around walks. Save the city break and the long haul flight for a time when the dog is staying with someone it loves. Many families end up taking two kinds of holiday each year, one built for the dog and one without it, and everybody is happier for it.

If you are not sure how your dog will cope, find out cheaply. One night in a hotel an hour from home will tell you more than any amount of worrying. You will learn whether your dog settles in a strange room, whether it barks when you step out, and whether it eats and sleeps as normal. Our guide to your dog's first hotel stay explains what to expect, and if the night goes well, you have your answer.

A Closing Thought

The question is not whether you love your dog enough to take it. It is which choice gives the dog the better week. Sometimes that is a beach at dawn and a pub fire in the evening, and sometimes it is its own sofa and a friend who sneaks it treats. Decide honestly, and whichever you choose, the dog will be fine and so will you.