Labor Day Road Trip With the Dog in Chester County

Our Labor Day road trip with the dog is the last summer run of the year: an early start, the back roads with the windows down, one stop in the shade and home before the holiday traffic. Ella rides shotgun in the Camaro, and the console treat pouch rides with her.

This is how we plan it, from the night before to the morning after. Nothing about it is fancy. Take whatever fits your own dog and your own roads, and leave the rest.

How we plan a Labor Day road trip with the dog

The rule is the same one we use all year. Park, let Ella stretch her legs, hand her a treat, get back in. On a holiday weekend we add two more. We leave early, and we are home before everyone else is trying to get there.

We pack the night before. A towel goes on the passenger seat. A water bottle and a bowl go in the trunk. The cooler goes on the back seat, and it is for the people. Sandwiches and cold drinks live in the cooler. Dog treats live in the console pouch. We keep the two apart on purpose, so nobody has to dig through one to find the other.

Then we pick the hour we leave and the hour we turn around, and we do not argue with either one. If you want the longer version of how we plan any summer drive, our summer road trips with a dog page covers it.

What rides in the console pouch

The pouch gets filled once and stays in the car all weekend. Most of it is freeze-dried cheddar cheese bites. They come in one 8 ounce bag, they are crunchy and not greasy, and they need no refrigeration once dried, so they travel clean in a pouch that gets tossed onto the floor of a car. Cheddar is the only ingredient, and we freeze-dry it in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

The cheddar contains dairy, which means it is not for a dog with a dairy sensitivity. Check that before you pack it, not at the stop. If your dog is on a special diet, ask your veterinarian before the holiday weekend, not during it.

The back roads, windows down

We head out past the horse farms and onto the gravel roads, the same loop we drive in every other season. We pick no destination and no town. We drive until we are ready to turn around, then come home the long way.

The windows come down for us. Ella stays in her seat, and her head stays inside the car. That is our rule, and it has no cleverness in it.

For a summer daytime run she wears the white circle-logo bandana. It has our 3-inch circle logo on the front, a classic tie-on fit, and it comes in white or black. We keep the black one for night drives. The listing says to machine wash it cold and hang it dry, which is what happens to it the day after the trip.

One stop in the shade, with water

About once an hour Ella asks for a stop, so we plan one good one instead of several rushed ones. We pull into the shade, put the bowl down and pour the water before anything else happens. Then she stretches her legs, gets one piece of cheddar and gets back in the car.

The ASPCA publishes hot weather tips, and two of its lines shape our stop. On water, it writes: "Give pets plenty of fresh, clean water when it's hot or humid outdoors as pets can get dehydrated quickly." We pour first.

On the stop itself, the ASPCA writes: "Make sure your pets have a shady place to get out of the sun, be careful not to over-exercise them and keep them indoors when it's extremely hot." We pick the shade.

We keep the stop short and the walk short. A holiday weekend gives you plenty of other places to be, and the dog does not need to see all of them.

Never the parked car

This is the one rule with no exceptions in our car. Ella does not stay in a parked car, not for a minute, not with the windows cracked.

The American Kennel Club writes: "You should never leave a dog alone in a parked car, even if the windows are cracked." We follow that.

The same page adds: "It doesn't have to be super hot outside for your car to heat up." We follow that too.

So if a stop does not work for a dog, we skip the stop. One of us waits outside with her, or we get the food somewhere she can sit with us. The cooler is the reason we rarely need either. We wrote the longer version of this in dogs in hot cars, and the American Kennel Club's own page on the subject is here.

Home before the holiday traffic

We turn around early. By the time the roads fill up with everyone else coming home, we are already unpacking. Ella has her dinner, we have ours, and the Camaro goes back in the garage.

Unpacking takes ten minutes if you do it right away and an hour if you do not. The bowl gets washed, the towel goes in the machine with the bandana, and the console pouch gets emptied, wiped out and refilled for the next drive. Ella puts her head down and stays that way for the rest of the night.

The first fall morning walk

The day after Labor Day we do not drive anywhere. We take the first fall morning walk, a loop on one of the gravel roads near home, and that is the end of the summer for us.

The treat for this one is freeze-dried beef heart. The pieces are medium sized and firm, they snap into smaller pieces that are easy to hand over one at a time, and the flavor is milder than liver. It comes in 1.5, 3 and 6 ounce bags, and it is a single ingredient, with nothing added. A few pieces on the walk, then we are home.

Questions

How early do you leave on Labor Day weekend?

Early enough to be home before the holiday traffic builds. We pick the leaving hour and the turnaround hour the night before and stick to both.

What goes in the cooler and what goes in the pouch?

The cooler holds the people's food and drinks. The console pouch holds the dog's treats, and the two never share a bag. That way nobody reaches into the wrong one at a stop.

Can the dog wait in the car while we run in somewhere?

Not in our car. Ella goes where we go, or we skip the stop. The American Kennel Club and the ASPCA are both quoted above, and our dogs in hot cars page has the rest.

Which treat rides in the pouch on a summer drive?

Cheddar bites, because they are crunchy and not greasy and need no refrigeration. They contain dairy, so they are not for a dog with a dairy sensitivity.

Which bandana does Ella wear on the road trip?

The white circle-logo one for a daytime run. We keep the black one for night drives.

Do you name the route?

No. We drive the horse farms and the gravel roads, stop once in the shade, and turn around when we are ready. It works the same on any set of back roads near you.