Date Night Drive With the Dog for Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day date night drive with the dog is a February evening in the Camaro with Ella in the passenger seat. We take the Chester County back roads at sunset, eat takeout for two and stop for a short walk at the turnaround. It needs no reservation.

This is how we do it, from packing the car to the ride home. Take whatever fits your own dog and your own roads.

How we plan a date night drive with the dog

We make three decisions ahead of time and leave the rest alone. Where the takeout comes from, where we turn around, and what goes in the console pouch. We do not name a destination, and we do not book a table that has a clock attached to it.

The rule for the evening is the one we use all year. Park, let Ella stretch her legs, hand her a treat, get back in. A dog who is part of the plan gets a better evening than a dog who is waiting somewhere for it to end.

The back roads at sunset

We leave the house a little before sunset and head out past the horse farms. The roads are the ones we drive every other season, with a few gravel stretches near the turnaround, and we keep to them because we know them. Nothing about the route is special. That is the point.

Ella sits up in the passenger seat for the first stretch and puts her head down for the rest. We talk, or we do not. Most of the drive is slow and quiet, and neither of us checks the time. If you only have an hour, an hour is plenty.

Takeout in the car or at home

The easy way to keep the dog in the evening is to bring the dinner to the dog. We pick up takeout on the way out, or on the way back, and eat it in the parked car or at home. We do not leave Ella in the car while we sit down somewhere.

We are not the only ones who say it, and the ASPCA has a page on cold weather and pets. It says: "In addition, don't leave pets alone in a car during cold weather, as cars can act as refrigerators that hold in the cold and cause animals to freeze to death." That settles it for us.

The same page adds a rule of thumb we like. "Remember, if it's too cold for you, it's probably too cold for your pet, so keep your animals inside." We plan the evening around that.

Whatever is in the takeout bag stays on our plates. Ella has her own treats in the pouch, and that is the only thing she gets handed that evening.

The short walk at the turnaround

About halfway through the drive we pull over at the turnaround and take a short walk. It is a few minutes on a gravel road, no more. We stand around, Ella sniffs everything within reach, and then we go back to the car.

This is the best part of the drive for her, and it costs us very little time. We bring the treat pouch along for the walk.

What rides in the console pouch

The console holds the treat pouch, and the pouch holds two things. For the walk we use freeze-dried beef heart. The pieces are medium sized and firm, and they snap into smaller pieces that are easy to hand over one at a time. The flavor is milder than liver. It is a single ingredient, with nothing added, and it comes in 1.5, 3 and 6 ounce bags.

For the car we use freeze-dried cheddar cheese bites. They come in one 8 ounce bag, they are crunchy and not greasy, and they need no refrigeration, so they travel clean in a pouch that gets tossed onto the floor of a car. They contain dairy, which means they are not for a dog with a dairy sensitivity. Check that before you pack them, not at the turnaround.

If your dog is on a special diet, ask your veterinarian before anything new goes in the pouch.

What Ella wears for the drive

She wears the circle-logo bandana. It has our 3-inch circle logo on the front and a classic tie-on fit, and it comes in white or black. White is for daylight and black is for night drives, so on a drive that runs past sunset we go with the black one. It ties on in a few seconds, and it goes in the wash with everything else the next day.

The photo with the dog in the passenger seat

We take one picture, usually right after we park at the turnaround, with Ella in the passenger seat. One is enough. If you want a few more ideas for getting a decent shot of a dog who does not sit still, we put them in our guide to Valentine's Day photos with your dog.

From the shop

If you want a few treats ready for the drive, we keep a Valentine's dog treats collection in the shop. The heart and the cheddar above are the two we pack ourselves. And if you want to know what else goes in a pouch for a February evening, our older February drive treats guide covers it.

Questions

How long is the drive?

About an hour is where Ella starts asking for a stop, so that is how we plan it. We leave a little before sunset, take the back roads out, stop once at the turnaround and come home the long way.

Do you eat the takeout in the car?

Sometimes. We eat in the parked car at the turnaround, or we bring the bags home and eat at home. Either way Ella is with us, and the takeout stays on our plates.

Can the dog wait in the car while we pick up the food?

We do not do it. We order ahead and pick up with one of us staying in the car, or we skip the pickup and cook at home. The ASPCA quote above is the reason we keep it that simple.

What goes in the console pouch on Valentine's Day?

Freeze-dried beef heart for the walk and freeze-dried cheddar cheese bites for the car. Both are single ingredient treats, and the cheddar contains dairy, so it stays home if your dog has a dairy sensitivity.

Which bandana does Ella wear?

The black circle-logo one, because the drive runs past sunset. We match the bandana to the hour, white for daylight and black for the night drives.

Do we need to plan a route?

No. We pick a direction, drive until we are ready to turn around, and take the long way home. The back roads past the horse farms do the rest.