Thanks for Joining the RV Shenanigans!
Learn more: www.millersinmotion.com/links
Ever wondered how three large dogs can turn a simple RV trip into a grand adventure? Buckle up, as we, Ryan and Lauren, share some heartwarming and enlightening tales about our RV journey with our lovable furry friends - Klondike, Bailey, and Mishka. This episode is a tribute to our bond with these companions and their impact on our lives, even as we mourn the loss of our beloved Klondike.
Gear up for practical insights as we talk about the essential dog products that have made our life on wheels smoother. From the Gorilla muddy mat that keeps our RV clean to the PetSafe dog water bowl that ensures our dogs stay hydrated, we've got you covered. We also shed light on the significance of being responsible pet-owners on the road, with tips on finding pet-friendly stops, using a reliable GPS collar for pets, and more.
We end the episode with a discussion about the various collars we've used for our dogs and their proper usage. We share our experiences with breed misconceptions and the importance of pressure release in training. We also talk about key considerations for traveling with dogs, like finding a nationally available brand of dog food and being aware of emergency vet options. And, of course, we cannot wait to hear from you, so don't forget to leave your reviews and reach out to us with any questions through our website's contact form. Enjoy the journey with us, and let's celebrate the wonderful bond between humans and their pets in the RV lifestyle!
Thanks for Joining the RV Shenanigans!
Learn more: www.millersinmotion.com/links
Ever wondered how three large dogs can turn a simple RV trip into a grand adventure? Buckle up, as we, Ryan and Lauren, share some heartwarming and enlightening tales about our RV journey with our lovable furry friends - Klondike, Bailey, and Mishka. This episode is a tribute to our bond with these companions and their impact on our lives, even as we mourn the loss of our beloved Klondike.
Gear up for practical insights as we talk about the essential dog products that have made our life on wheels smoother. From the Gorilla muddy mat that keeps our RV clean to the PetSafe dog water bowl that ensures our dogs stay hydrated, we've got you covered. We also shed light on the significance of being responsible pet-owners on the road, with tips on finding pet-friendly stops, using a reliable GPS collar for pets, and more.
We end the episode with a discussion about the various collars we've used for our dogs and their proper usage. We share our experiences with breed misconceptions and the importance of pressure release in training. We also talk about key considerations for traveling with dogs, like finding a nationally available brand of dog food and being aware of emergency vet options. And, of course, we cannot wait to hear from you, so don't forget to leave your reviews and reach out to us with any questions through our website's contact form. Enjoy the journey with us, and let's celebrate the wonderful bond between humans and their pets in the RV lifestyle!
Welcome back to the RV shenanigans show. I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2:I'm Lauren, and together we are Miller's in motion. We sold a ranch in Texas and are enjoying many new adventures on the road in our Alliance Valor toy holler.
Speaker 1:And we have a very near and dear to our heart topic. This week we're going to talk about RVing with dogs.
Speaker 2:Also, one of your most common questions is how do we do this?
Speaker 1:And on our YouTube video that we shot over a year and a half ago now. We still get a couple of comments a week on that one. Just asking because we started off with a crazy amount of fluff and now we're to a reasonably manageable amount of fluff.
Speaker 2:Disagree. It is not manageable. We don't have any control over this. But, in short, we actually started with three large dogs and now we're down, sadly, to two large dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in fact, let's just get right into it. So the biggest question that we got, especially after the three large dogs in RV video we did was why.
Speaker 2:Because it's fun.
Speaker 1:You say do you want to take an actual crack at that?
Speaker 2:No, but legitimately it is. It's so much fun. It's fun for us to have the companionship on the road and, you know, when we're here in the rig, it's fun for us to watch them explore new places and it gets us out exploring ourselves.
Speaker 1:And I will tell you we're going to touch base on a lot of different topics in this video about RVing with dogs. We're going to give you our kind of history with it and what we our dogs and kind of a little bit of a back history there, how many we have, how many we had because we've been through a few iterations We've also had two different RVs. Now with dogs we're also going to talk about kind of some of the products we use to help make it work, as well as some of our kind of medical care things that we do with them. Just like you would go see a doctor for yourself, they obviously every once in a while need to go see a vet. So we're going to kind of encompass all of that. But we started off in our solitude with three dogs. You want to tell them who they were.
Speaker 2:We had Klondike he was over 100 pounds a red Siberian husky. He was beautiful and had a personality as large as his weight. We also have Bailey, a chocolate lab, who unfortunately approaches also 100 pounds and the vet says we need to work on that. She's less now. Oh yeah, we're down to like 90, I'm sure. And then we have Mishka she's a rescue Samoid, who's about 60 pounds and she is by far the fluffiest.
Speaker 1:So about a year ago now, right about a year ago a little more we unfortunately lost Klondike, so he had a form of Canine Cancer. Just us on speaking of dogs. I saw a dog here just float from up here to down here.
Speaker 2:That happens all the time.
Speaker 1:And it's a topic we're going to talk about. But yeah, unfortunately he had a form of Canine Cancer that just was on a pretty steady growth base and unfortunately, the surgery for him would have been too much at his age, and so we did, unfortunately lose him. But we still have Mishka and Bailey who are staring at us through our toy hauler window Well, staring at me, you can't really see them.
Speaker 2:They had to be locked away because they are not known to behave while we're trying to work.
Speaker 1:And by not known to behave is pretty much a guarantee. They're going to run into the camera which is over there or make a ton of noise, because they'll sleep all day. The second we pick anything up, they wrestle. Absolutely. So let's go right into the three big dogs. What were we thinking?
Speaker 2:I don't know. We've always had big dogs and we had big dogs in tiny apartments in Austin. We had big dogs when we had a ranch with acreage and so, moving into this next season of life, it was just natural for us to bring our big dogs.
Speaker 1:It was, and we were at our ranch and we, at the time we started this process, we actually had two. We started off with Bailey Well, so Klondike, he wasn't one of our OGs but he was with the OGs. He was a late add to the original two that we got when we got married, and then Mishka kind of found her way to us.
Speaker 2:Weaseled her way in, like I say, she was a rescue and so, long story short, she found us and never left.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we found her. Lauren found her. Really. She came. Lauren came home from work one day and she was running around the neighborhood. Long story short, she grabbed Bailey because dogs run. The dogs came up to her, got her back to the owners and I'm using air quotes if you're not watching this because they were fostering her from a bad situation.
Speaker 2:And that apparently lost control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they had smaller dogs and so we found out through the pipeline that they were going to surrender her and unfortunately, because of previous situations and if you meet us in real life we'll be happy to talk about it we're just not going to do it here. She was a little what's the best? Farrell.
Speaker 2:I think Farrell is very appropriate for that dog, yes, and so she had a lot of training and a lot of manners to go through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we started that process. We made sure that she wasn't going to, you know, kill us all on our sleep, including the other two dogs.
Speaker 2:And he says that jokingly because she's the smartest dog we've ever had. It is wicked.
Speaker 1:And we had a Husky first goosey. That was incredibly smart and she Mishka outraces her pretty good in the IQ department. So and that's how we acquired our third dog. So we never actually were planning on going into full-time RV life with three dogs. It's just kind of how it all shook out at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:But hey, such is life, right, you roll with it.
Speaker 1:Right. So let's talk a little bit about especially our time with the three dogs, because the biggest question we get on that video is how do we find RV parks that take us? We've we've both booked RV stays. We kind of split that role for us and when we had three dogs I never encountered an actual problem.
Speaker 2:I didn't either. So some of the RV parks will have breed restrictions and, believe it or not, klondike, the big sweet potato that he was being a Husky, was on a lot of those lists Right, and so sometimes if you call and just say, hey, he's 10 years old and can't even make it up the stairs, like he's not a flight risk, he's not aggressive, this, and that They'll definitely work with you. The other thing was that some RV parks had a weight limit on their dogs and I think ultimately that was because they didn't want to place breed restrictions and so it's easier just to say no big dogs even though most small dogs are just as aggressive as big dogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, and again I called them and I said hey, we have a chunky little lab and we have a fluffy marshmallow of a dog. And they said oh yeah, that'll be fine, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:Right. And so I think that if you call sometimes it may be negotiable a little bit, Don't expect that, but I was going to say a lot of times you know like there's the running joke in business school of like you get the degree just so you can get the interview at the end of the day in a especially a business degree I get with what you do. It's super important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, different, different story.
Speaker 1:But in a business degree you really are just looking for the interview so you can get the job.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, it's kind of the same thing, like they put those rules on breed restriction stuff up there. If you're ever in doubt, call them. But when we would filter, like RV parks, when we're searching whether it was the RV, life, campendium, any of those you know apps or anything, we always just put exactly what we had. We had three large sized dogs and it would filter it out. And so if we found one that said, oh, you only have a two dog max. You know we'd look around if there's nothing else and we liked that park, we'd call them and just say, hey, we're only staying for a couple of nights, we're staying for a week. Whatever our duration was going to be, typically they're willing to work with you.
Speaker 2:Technically, the camping ground we're at now, which we've been at for an extended time, had a two dog limit.
Speaker 1:Right, but again, it's one of those that, as long as you give them a call and talk to them and we've used this as our kind of on again, off again site for a year and a half now, not this site specifically we bounce around in the park every time we leave and come back. But yeah, just communicate. I think that's the biggest thing is don't just read everything as it is on the website or rule sheet or wherever you're reading it, and say this is the way it has to be.
Speaker 2:And I would say the flip side also goes, that if there is zero information on their website or your booking, and if you're talking to somebody on the phone, it might be worth saying hey, we've got two big dogs just making sure, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of set expectations just like you want. You want them to set expectations. If you're coming in with something a little different, you want to set your expectations. Well, you don't want to get there and go. Oh, I didn't realize dogs weren't allowed, my bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You roll up. There's a sign when you pull in, going Uh-oh.
Speaker 2:Well, and I will also say we preface everything with our dogs have traveled for over a year now. They are well behaved, they are up to date on all their vet and everything. So they don't know that they have, you know, mma wrestling inside the RV every day. But they are, they're well behaved to the neighbors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you ever hear them wrestling, like it, you can hear it. And so, cause I've walked up before and they're either playing or something like after we've come back and I went outside to take trash out or something random, come back and you can hear them wrestling, cause you just hear, imagine walking around really heavy on your heels and then do it a lot more. That's pretty much what's happening, so okay. So, continuing the three dog theme, how did we actually travel with those three dogs?
Speaker 2:Yes, we put them inside the truck like they are children. We accept nothing less, please don't.
Speaker 1:I know some people do this because it's come up. Please don't put animals or people in the trailer while you're driving. It's actually legal in most states, I believe maybe all of them I'm not 100% sure but it's super unsafe. Don't do that Just bring them in the truck with you.
Speaker 2:Now they don't get seat belts we're not, we're not that far but they do have this dog like hammock thing and it's basically a seat protector. We fold the seats up in the back of the truck and we have a protector to keep the seats from getting damaged and snotted on and drooled on and things Anyways, and then they have the whole backseat to themselves. So, they do great on the road.
Speaker 1:There's two types of those hammocks. There's one that just goes to the seat and then up, so it kind of creates a little bit extra room. So if you need to be able to put stuff in the back seat, you can do that. Because our dogs are so big we were worried they'd snap it or like break our seats or something.
Speaker 1:So we did one, because we have a 2019 Ford F350. The backseat goes all the way up and there's no framing, so we could go all the way to the ground, which is what we typically do. So there's the two sides of hammocks the one that goes all the way down, the one goes up. We use the one that goes all the way down and we actually both have one. So Lauren has a F 150. I have an F 350.
Speaker 1:When we're on the road all the time, you don't necessarily take your truck right, but we we kind of got two different sizes or two different types. Yours doesn't have sides, so, like where the doors are, I can. Mine does. So I can actually zip up the sides, which I like, because then I can open the door without worrying about them kind of rushing out. And I can like, if we're a long haul, we'll take their collars and leashes off so they can be a little more comfortable and not get tangled on themselves. We'll take those off. Well, if we have that up, they don't can't just bum, rush the door. We can kind of get them on, then we can let them out via the zipper on that thing.
Speaker 2:And on the road, we found that most of the stops we make are pretty pet friendly as well. So, we stop at a lot of love so we can use our open roads card and go through the open roads and, like the truck lanes and a lot of those now, will have a little doggy park or at least a nice grassy area where we can let them out, yeah, Just like a lot of the RV parks do too.
Speaker 1:So um there anything else that encompasses all three dogs that we need to talk about? No, I think that about covers the all three and we RVed for about six months five months, something like that with all three until we had did, unfortunately, lose Klondike. So, um, we have some experience with that.
Speaker 2:I can tell you right now when we did travel in the truck it get a little tight, it was well, and they were cranky, like children too.
Speaker 1:Right, we had about a two or three hour max before they started to push buttons and Mishka was learning her place in our little pack and Klondike was very much so, our alpha, and so I remember we were going to new Bronfels from Dallas, fort Worth, which is about a three and a half hour drive.
Speaker 1:Shouldn't be this far no um, I can tell you we hit Austin and they were about done. I know we had to stop once or twice just to let them out, because they were starting to get each other's throats a little bit. So just be aware of it, just like kids, you don't want to keep them in there too long, especially if they're in a confined space for larger dogs. So, like for us with the three, it was a little bit too much. Now, if we were doing a horse show, we'd split them up.
Speaker 1:Right, that made it a lot easier when we do horse shows, Lauren would take her truck and then tow the horse trailer, so I would either send Bailey and Mishka with her, or Klondike one of the two and then I would take the other one or two depending on how we did that. So okay, so let's get into all the stuff. What makes all of this go around semi sane?
Speaker 2:So I think attitude has a lot to do with it right. That if you expect it to be fun and successful, that it will be, and if you expect them to be in the way and a pain and everything, then it will be. So we really enjoy this and I think that that's our attitude towards it and we just find things that make that successful.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's exciting when you see a new thing or go to a new place to have I mean I can sit with them some of our best friends which not to downgrade our actual best friends, like human best friends, but like I love going places with Bailey. She likes seeing things and so they are very much so kind of like our furry kids and it's fun to take them, be able to take them places, and RVing has just made that bigger and better.
Speaker 2:Bailey and Ryan are also very sociable, and together they are unstoppable Wow.
Speaker 1:Really, it's true. You said unstoppable. I'm just managing your T-Rex T-shirt with the little things coming out.
Speaker 2:So I'm doing that and Bailey's jumping, jumping, yes, very, very happy.
Speaker 1:So we talked a little bit about the hammock in the truck. There's not a lot else that we really use in there. The only thing I'll tell you is, for long hauls, just have a couple of things on hand a poo poo bags.
Speaker 2:Be a decent human. Pick up after your pet yeah.
Speaker 1:And if you don't go and turn it off, you're not going to like me in a second. In all seriousness, just pick up. I've stepped in so much dog crap and dog parks and just in random places. It's not that hard. You own a pet. That's part of it. If you didn't want to do that, don't own a pet.
Speaker 2:Also travel with some water, because they don't really like to go all day without having a little bit of a drink here and there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we typically will bring a bottle of water or two from the coach down with us and then we'll grab something to give them a drink with. If we are stopping somewhere and we go in to get food from there instead of from our RV, typically we'll also grab a bottle of water, whatever is the cheapest that could purified water for them, so that they can get a quick drink as well. So and just remember to stop, I mean when you're out planning, think about that. They're just like people. They can't go all day without going to the bathroom and getting the things they need. So if you get out of the truck at a rest, stop, take the dog with you.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe not inside. Well, not inside, but they need.
Speaker 1:Let them go to the bathroom too. In fact, we were coming back from Tennessee and I don't remember what state we were in, but we stopped and they had the greatest dog rest stop of all time.
Speaker 2:Ever. There were obstacles and all kinds of fun things and it was huge. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:It was a huge it almost was, I would guess about a half acre of actual fence dog area and they had an agility course and it was awesome Dog stations everywhere. And I say dog station like pickup stations.
Speaker 2:I couldn't believe there wasn't anybody else there. No, how are we? The only ones with dogs using that.
Speaker 1:We're knocking on wood because it typically is the other way around and it could be a little overwhelming sometime having that many dogs in one spot, especially if you're like 10 minutes and we're out and then you never catch them for 45. But as far as the truck goes, that's really about it. So something that we use especially on travel days. We typically use it all the time, but we definitely use it on travel days, especially on Mishka, because she's our escape artist, is a GPS caller. We've actually compared a couple of these.
Speaker 2:We had a different one, a whistle for a while, and we just had a couple of issues with that app. It wasn't that the unit itself didn't work, it was that the app didn't work Specifically on my phone.
Speaker 2:So there was one time that she escaped and she's a flight risk. We knew that we try our best, but things happen and when he went to pull up the app, it needed updates and it kept giving him alerts and notifications and things and it was like we're just trying to get to the fact that we need to find the dog.
Speaker 1:And I knew where she was. I just wanted to make sure because she had bolted out of the door. This is before we ever had moved into the RV. We owned it already, but we were still at the ranch and she did what she does sometimes and the door opened and she flew out and I watched where she run. I kept an eye on her, but every time I went to get the app, like Lauren said, it would freeze, it just wouldn't update, Right? If those types of apps are going to update, they need to do a hard update where it's like it still works.
Speaker 1:But you need to update it and for 10 minutes I kind of walked and kept my eye on her and I lost her a couple of times. Luckily I picked her back up, cause she's normally just chasing birds or something and it just wouldn't open. So we ended up switching after that subscription ran out. I would just did a better job of making sure my app was updated all the time to Tractive. Yes, we've actually really liked so far, and we've had it for coming up on a year, I think.
Speaker 2:We also haven't had any incidents where she bolts necessarily. There were a couple of scares when some squirrels came into play, but other than that we haven't really had to use it in an emergency. But we have tested it where we pull the app up to make sure.
Speaker 1:Right, well, and it's handy because Lauren and I both will have a login for the app and so if Mish go where to leave, so like around our RV, we would put a virtual fence up. Now, if this doesn't, it's not an actual fence, it's not a shock collar, by any means. It's not going to keep them inside, it's just notifications only. So if she leaves that perimeter that we've set, we get a push notification on our cell phone and sometimes a text message, depending on the scenario. But if she's with you and your phone knows you go, it'll actually go. Mishka has left with Lauren, so I know that, like if I'm out of town or somewhere else, that they want to walk, essentially because they're together.
Speaker 2:So talk about it needs some internet connection in order to function.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, well, your phone's going to have it automatically. So there's two different ways that the that the caller actually works. So it is a subscription based thing. So it does utilize a cellular network. I couldn't tell you which one of my life depended on it. It might be Verizon.
Speaker 1:That's what I was thinking. I'm guessing a little bit there, and they may switch, who knows. But it does need a cellular connection. That's how it pings back. It will if that, if the cell connection doesn't work, it will ping a GPS as well. It just can't ping as often, so without the cells. So you get a ping every minute, essentially, instead of like a constant live update, and so you can still see where she is. But you're going to have to get close enough. Now, if you get close enough to it, it does also connect your phone via Bluetooth. So if you get within whatever Bluetooth range is, it will pick it back up and then it'll go back to live. So there's a bunch of different little fail safes built into it, which is another reason why I liked it so much.
Speaker 2:Right, but if we're in a place with zero cell signal, like when we're in the Spokies and there was nothing, we may encounter a little bit of an issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does ping the GPS, and so it's as good as you're going to get without spending a ridiculous amount for an actual like person live GPS tracker from Garmin or something like that. Exactly which you're talking. You know?
Speaker 2:a lot of money, a lot more than we spent.
Speaker 1:Right, and so it's as close as we got to have a piece of mind, knowing that if she were to get out, we can find her One of the things I really liked about it, too, that the other one didn't have, or at least, if it did have it, it wasn't as good. It has a strobe light on it, so if it happens to be dark outside night, those types of things, you can actually turn that on and you can try and pick that up. Now Mishka's so dang fluffy. I'm not sure that would help a whole lot, but she's also white and maybe they reflect like like a light bulb or something off of her.
Speaker 1:But yeah, there's that too, so you are able that it can also play a noise. I've never tested that because it seems a little mean, but if it does ping you can hear it, and so it's all emergency based stuff. You're not, it's not designed to do all that all the time, because you're just gonna tick the dog off and probably other people. But yeah, it's the most encompassing thing we found in a reasonable price range.
Speaker 1:Yes, agreed, and there are other products out there. We were actually approached by one and I'm not really talking about what it was because I kind of fundamentally disagree with it, but essentially they were creating a virtual fence for your dog. So think about like a buried fence line. They were a caller so you don't have to have an actual fence kind of a deal, that. But it's virtual. To me, my worry with something like that is in an RV park you're gonna have people that just start letting their dogs outside because they're staying in their fence. It's like, well, the second that you lose, cell service didn't charge the caller all these other things, and I'll be honest and we're gonna get into leash rules and all that other stuff in a little bit, but that, to me, promotes that way too bad.
Speaker 1:Agreed yeah, okay. So, outside of the tractive, what's your next big ticket thing couldn't live without for the dogs.
Speaker 2:I know this may sound a little practical and I know I'm painfully practical, sorry guys is the entry mat when we come into the house or come into the rig. I was gonna pick the water bowl, so so we have this like gorilla mat thing that we found on Amazon. It took a couple tries, but we love this thing.
Speaker 1:So this started with if you ever like this thumb and through Facebook or something, and thanks to good old Siri or whoever listens to all your conversations and you go. We need an entry mat so we can try and collect some of the dog stuff. There's a thing called a muddy mat. Well, the muddy mats are incredibly expensive. Like the size we have would be well over $100 for this thing and all it is is it's an absorption mat, is all it really is. So we got on Amazon, like everybody else went cool, where's the cheap knockoff? I mean, we found this one by Gorilla and, yes, it's the same people that make glue.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have more stuff than you realize, because the back of it's a non-slip and that's part of their adhesive lines. That's not actually an adhesive, it's just like a rubber and that thing hardly moves.
Speaker 2:I agree with that.
Speaker 1:You have to get underneath it for it to move.
Speaker 2:And it does. It tracks the, it grabs the water off of our feet. It grabs all the sand off of their feet, most A lot of it. I mean a lot more.
Speaker 1:Mishka's got pretty furry paws, so it doesn't necessarily always get hers, but it gets Bailey's really well Bailey's typical lab. There's not a lot of fur going on down there.
Speaker 2:There's been some times where we'll say that a mat has been sacrificed by Mishka to the gods, I guess, and so we've been without one while Amazon is delivering it.
Speaker 1:That's code, for she ate it or chewed on it or played with it or any of the above, and it was no longer in a manner where it should be in a home.
Speaker 2:And so, and we noticed a tremendous difference when we don't have that there.
Speaker 1:So just to add on to that for starters they have a bunch of different colors. We went with the most fun we could find gray. It just matches well. We honestly didn't want to bring a bunch of attention to the spot where everybody steps. We also added the same company makes an outdoor version of the mat. That's kind of rough and if you wipe your feet on it it helps get a lot of that initial stuff off. So we added that outside as well. And between those two things, as long as you reasonably shake them out every once in a while, they do a phenomenal job. When we've lost the mat for like a few days at a time, we come back like why is it so dirty in here?
Speaker 2:It gets so dirty so fast without that.
Speaker 1:Right, so that's one. I said it earlier the water bowl. Our dogs go through so much water.
Speaker 2:Imagine that a lab likes the water. Yeah right, Well, she actually hates the water. She really does, and Mishka's the one who plays in it.
Speaker 1:Right, but just for drinking. So we have a it's from the company called PetSafe. It's essentially a dog water bowl, but it's got a reservoir on top. I believe it holds about two gallons.
Speaker 2:I was going to say two.
Speaker 1:Mishka, there's different sizes. We have the two gallon one. We had it at our house and loved it, and so we brought it with us Now. In our previous coach it sat outside, and so every time they needed a water we would go outside or we would just grab one of their food bowls to a little water and put it down. The downside of that was we had to go outside every time they wanted to drink a water, and if you've ever had owned a dog, you know that's not once or twice a day.
Speaker 2:But that's also leaving the water outside, and so maybe that means raccoons come up to it in the middle of the night and set off your security cameras and when it gets hot you can get like mold and things in there if you're not really really on top of making sure it's cleaned out every time.
Speaker 1:Since we've switched to the Alliance Valor Toy Hauler, we bought a kind of rubber food mat, really just to kind of keep the water contained because they slurp everywhere, and now it's in the toy hauler space, so it's actually out there there. It's where they are right now to kind of try and keep it quiet for the podcast recording, but that's where it lives now out there, and I don't know about you, but it's worked phenomenally well for us.
Speaker 2:It's great, it's perfect.
Speaker 1:You're always especially with bigger dogs that don't have any control. Bailey, you're always going to deal with a little bit of water everywhere. Just wipe it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's easy. They're dogs, Right? What do you expect?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're dogs. You're going to be cleaning up after them your entire life. That's just how it is.
Speaker 2:So then, the next product I would say that makes life more manageable and everybody's going to have this to some degree in their rig is a good vacuum.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we have a shark. It's a cordless thing, I don't even know the details on it. We had a Dyson and it was really good, but it mounted to the wall and we didn't really want that in the new rig. So this one is standalone. And so, yeah it's. They're all cordless, like stick vacuum types, and yeah, what would we do without those?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this one supports itself. They're all the pet versions. I know in the Dyson what we had in the previous coach was the V10 pet. Oh yeah, which was the purple handled one? I don't know what makes it a pet versus not, except for the marketing team. Yeah, pretty much, I guess. I don't know. I will say I prefer the Dyson.
Speaker 2:I thought the Dyson worked better, but I'm glad we don't have to stick this one on the wall.
Speaker 1:I do, but I also think we could put with our pantry in here too, because there's an outlet in there. We could hide it in there if we really wanted to.
Speaker 2:There you go, more mods and projects coming your way.
Speaker 1:Two holes. But yeah, invest in a good vacuum, the one that comes with your coach. If you do have that one, if you have that rig that has that central vac system, I'd say it sucks, but in reality it doesn't suck good enough.
Speaker 2:No, we did try it and it just didn't work for having the dogs and everything, so we opted to get an add-on.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think about any other things, just I think the big thing too is just be aware of temperatures.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So the next thing I'm gonna throw in there is just a good dog bed that fits your needs. So because we have two dogs, we typically always have two dog beds. I know that sounds crazy, because we have two big dogs and that's a lot of floor space. That's why we actually wanted the Valor 44 V14. So bad was because that L-shaped sofa we have zero use for. But where that L-shaped sofa did had an idea.
Speaker 2:Dog bed, and the caveat to this is that our dogs are also not allowed in orbit. So, yes, we have two very nice dog bed. Allegedly One of them got up there while we were gone, but that ended when we shut the door, as long as she doesn't learn how to open it, but anyways, that's a terrifying thought, but okay. That's why we had to change out the handle on the other one.
Speaker 1:She opened it.
Speaker 2:We did, we had like the lever kind versus the knob and she can open those as long as the day is so we had to switch the knob, yes. So yes, they do have nice dog beds, one for each of them to make sure they're comfortable, so that they're not on orbit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hypothetically, but they do have somewhere else to sleep too. So when? The temperatures get a little cooler or something they definitely have a spot.
Speaker 2:Particularly your sad lab. It gets cold, just like I do, and then we have temperature monitoring within the rig. You've heard us talk about it several times our little GoV temperature and humidity sensors that will also ping to our phones and so we can keep a close eye on things even when we're not here.
Speaker 1:Right. So something else I would tell you that you probably want to invest in if you're gonna go. Rving is a really good leash, and I say that in terms of every dog, and every person has a different need when it comes to that. I know there's a lot of people like the retractable ones, and that's perfectly fine if that's what you want. Our dogs are heathens and they can't be trusted with those because they can outwork them.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of people with heathens.
Speaker 1:That's true. We particularly have ones we like. We found them at a horse show. I wish I could tell you where to get them.
Speaker 2:They don't have a brand on them. I've never seen them in a pet store.
Speaker 1:I honestly think that attacks. So we go to horse shows with Lauren's horse and they make something called a lead rope for horses. So horses wear halters, not when they're riding but when they're being moved from point A to point B with control, not inside of a fence. A lead rope is the clip, you see, and it's about a four to yes length rope.
Speaker 2:Six to 10, most of the time.
Speaker 1:But it's a softer rope. So if they were to rear or do something it's designed to, where you can at least minimize the amount of rope burn you're about to get because, let's be honest, the horse is gonna win if they start pulling.
Speaker 1:So someone and I'm pretty sure it was just that tack manufacturer, retailer, whoever it was I think it was Quail Hollow now that we're talking about it, but I think they just made some and I don't know if they're four foot leads, but they were designed for dogs, but it's that same material and they have lasted as long as nobody chews on them. I think we lost one of that.
Speaker 2:We lost one of that.
Speaker 1:But they've lasted. We've had them for well over a year now.
Speaker 2:Maybe over two.
Speaker 1:Maybe when I bought the first one, because I don't think oh, that was Gulfport, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was Gulfport, so I think that was two years. And yes, they're very durable, they have a handle and they're a little bit shorter. We don't like a really long lead. I think you don't have quite as much control and things can go wrong at the end of that, so we try to keep them a little shorter. So this is probably four foot. But yeah, they've been fantastic and if I ever find that tax shop again, I'm buying all of them.
Speaker 1:I don't know about all of them, but we'll buy at least a backup for each dog.
Speaker 2:So they were also cheap. You go to a store nowadays and you can't get a leash for anything reasonable. I think these were under 10 bucks. Oh, were they really? Yes, never mind, buy them out, I'm buying them all.
Speaker 1:We have a new business. We're gonna find these and we're gonna retail them. They're only 39.99. Shipping is just as much. No, but seriously find a good leash, whatever that is for you. Just the only thing that I have ever asked is make sure that you can always maintain control when you're looking at collars, leashes, all those different things.
Speaker 2:And that kind of goes into a good topic, because if you're in different places, you don't know what's gonna be out there. Maybe you open your door and there's somebody else's dog. Maybe you open the door and there's a deer who knows. Maybe you open the door and there's traffic and so all a ghost.
Speaker 1:Sorry, that's gonna be coming a theme If you didn't watch the last episode or listen to the last episode. That's a friend's reference. Just when we start talking about something that only comes up.
Speaker 2:And so make sure that you always have control when those doors open and I know that we're a little sensitive to it because of Mishka and because of her actions previously, but yes, so always try to have that just in case, because you really just don't know what's on the other side of that.
Speaker 1:You don't. So other things that we make traveling so sorry, I do wanna bring up one last little topic that goes along with leashes and it is a little more of a, I'm gonna say, third rail topic.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:Collars.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So you're gonna see all kinds of collars out there. You're gonna see harnesses. You're gonna see snout collars. You're gonna see pronged metal collars. You're gonna see what they're referred to as choker collars. They don't choke, by the way. If they're fit correctly and used correctly, they don't. And you're gonna see standard nylon, typical what you see collars Don't. So in full disclosure, and you've probably seen in our videos and I don't mind talking about it a little bit but we actually use a pronged choker style collar on our dogs.
Speaker 2:Oh, he just broke out the spoon to stir that pot.
Speaker 1:Well, because I think there's a misunderstanding, to be completely honest with you, and I want to squash it as best I possibly can, because you have to understand how these things work before you complain about them. Like, I've seen plenty of dogs that have harnesses on and I get that the harness isn't gonna hurt the dog. You might dislocate your shoulder, but most dogs that I see there in a harness are not in any sort of control.
Speaker 2:No, and the same with like just a plain nylon collar. If your dog's pulling on that, they can choke themselves doing that.
Speaker 1:And I will say that right, because you're still putting pressure on. I guess it's the doggie-giss off, I guess.
Speaker 2:Well, and then you can hear them just breathing into it Like they're struggling.
Speaker 1:One thing about why we use the collars we do use because typically we have bigger dogs that in some scenarios Klondike were stronger than us.
Speaker 2:Well, and if I walk two of them, there's a good chance they're gonna outweigh me. And so if they see a squirrel and there's 160 pounds of dog that wanna chase the squirrel, I'm toast.
Speaker 1:And so but Klondike, when he was in his prime, could drag me around.
Speaker 2:Oh, he did frequently me on the floor Right.
Speaker 1:I'm 6'2, 2'75-ish. We're gonna leave that ish in there.
Speaker 2:Kinda like Bailey-ish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm around that ballpark, I'm close enough to it, don't worry about it. But when you do that and how we use it too, if you notice like we're never always at tension with them- no, never.
Speaker 1:The only time we would ever get the tension is they're doing something we don't ask and you bump them. You don't just rear back as hard as you possibly can and for us, if you're watching the video, you're gonna see me do it but all we do is we typically roll our wrists back and it's literally like a one-link difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not much. And you know we have a couple of sayings in the horse world. He's gonna cough up a lung right quick. So we have a couple of sayings in the horse world and one of them is use as much force as necessary, but as little as required. So if you can be soft, do that. And that's what we actually aim to do is, for the most part of the time, we want to be soft and not having any restriction on them at all.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think it's important to understand that we both have trained horses you more than me, but I train chief and we've both trained dogs and it's any good dog trainer and I'm pretty sure like the Caesar Milans of the world would agree with this it's always the release of pressure you're looking for Always. It's never the actual pressure. You want that pressure to be on as little as physically possible.
Speaker 2:So that's the other thing that I was gonna say is that a tool is only as good as the hands that are using it Correct. And so you know you can give me a scalpel and I can use it, because I have practice in medicine and a degree to do that. But if we give that to my 18-year-old little, sister, I can carve a mean pumpkin. She may not have the same technique that I do you know, and each so just kind of factor that in.
Speaker 1:We barely give her a fork.
Speaker 2:Be nice. We love her we absolutely love her.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and that's why I don't wanna shy away from those types of topics, because I do think misunderstanding them is part of that. We've got a couple of sets of friends that have aggressive breeds, and I'm using air quotes again, if you're not watching this, you're listening to this on whatever podcast platform you listen to, because Chris and Martha have Callie.
Speaker 2:A Rottweiler.
Speaker 1:A Rottweiler. And then you've got Lawrence and Natalie and Brazen Brits, and they've got Dobermans.
Speaker 2:And Lindsay and Lonnie have pit bulls and these have been fantastic family dogs. They're so sweet. We've met them.
Speaker 1:Now do those dogs have a hereditary kind of drive in them? That's a little different Show to German Shepherds. My first dog, maverick, was a mix, but mostly German Shepherd. And they do. But as long as you understand that and you train appropriately, they're perfectly fine. Callie's one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met. She's so sweet. Yeah, in fact, don't tell Chris and Martha we really just go see them for her. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:Well, and Lindsay and Lonnie have two small children with their pit bulls.
Speaker 1:And they had Dead kids.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding, they had two dogs at one point, and so, yeah, I think that any dog can be a good dog, depending on a variety of factors. So don't judge a book by its cover. If you have any questions, please come talk to us. And if you think that our dogs are terrified or don't like their collars, I shall video whenever we get them out to go for a walk. They leap in the air with joy because they're so excited.
Speaker 1:Now I will say, when they wear their attractive collars, they wear their collars all the time, so they have a nylon tractive collar that stays on, and when we go on walks or do things we add this other collar. So they're technically wearing two collars when we go out for like walks and that kind of stuff, but the leash isn't attached to both.
Speaker 1:No, it's just attached to the one. But we do that because so the tractive can stay on them, and that's I do get it. That's why I mentioned earlier, when we were talking about the dog hammocks in the truck, how we take their collars off of them. We don't take the tractive collar off, we only take the training collar off of them or the restriction collar off of them so that they can be more comfortable. We're not trying to put them in any sort of pain, we just want them to not run away and get hit by a car or drag us in front of a car. That would hurt too. So okay, I don't remember what we were talking about now that I'm off my self box.
Speaker 2:Squirrel such as life again. All right, let's move on to health then. So let's start with their dog food. That's something to kind of pay attention to. If you stay in one place, then maybe you can keep the same supplier and the same food and things like that, but when you travel like we do, we kind of need something that's nationally available and so what's and not $7,000. Oh, yeah, that too, and so, like you can get Chewy, the website will deliver food, and I think that it's actually free. So that's one consideration.
Speaker 1:The delivery, not the food.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, like a local pet smart or pet co, something that's available through them, or we actually feed a good dog food through Costco.
Speaker 1:That we found. So, at the end of the day, look at the ingredients, and I know there's a bunch of different people that do that. I've heard other people feed their dogs raw, which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that. We just don't have the physical room or the want to get another fridge essentially to store all that, because our dogs go through some serious amounts of food. So we use Kirkland Costco brand. So we're kind of subject to where there's Costco, there's Costco's a lot of places. We do have to think ahead a little bit about that. Also, if you leave a bag of dog food in the back of your truck and it rains, it can mold. Opened up a brand new bag of dog food after picking up this RV actually up in Indiana and yeah, it was moldy.
Speaker 2:So we threw that away? Yes, double check that.
Speaker 1:But when we first started RVing, we were using a brand that we found at a feed store in Texas, but that brand's not as readily available, right, and we didn't realize that until we really kind of got on the road a little bit when we can't find their food anywhere.
Speaker 2:And, as you know, whenever you change a dog's food you should do it kind of slowly and gradually, Otherwise you can really upset their stomach.
Speaker 1:You mean not when you run out like we did.
Speaker 2:And 350 pounds of upset dog stomach doesn't go well in an RV. So we've learned our lesson and we will find a nationally available brand.
Speaker 1:And that's what we've done. So I will say we've had to get different types of that brand. In fact, last time Costco's notorious for like we have it, we have it, we have it. Then they don't for like a month and then they do have it again.
Speaker 1:But if typically, as long as you keep the ingredients really close and it's the same manufacturing process ie the same brand, same that kind of stuff you're normally okay. We switched one bag. They were perfectly fine. I think they should go like the better, and then we went right back as soon as they had it in stock.
Speaker 2:And we store it in an airtight container back in the toy hauler space and don't have any issues with that. So other little health things every day we give them a dental treat with some toothpaste on it help keep their teeth nice and healthy, and that's also their little treat. But also they go to the vet every year, just like we need to go to the doctor every year. Did you hear that, ryan? We need to go to the doctor every year for a wellness exam.
Speaker 1:Does this thing on the back of my arm not count?
Speaker 2:No, it does not.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, just like how, if you're gonna, if you full time this kind of pertains to people that legitimately full time and travel all the time but you know how, if you're gone for over a year, at some point throughout that year you have to come back to wherever your doctors are and schedule a bunch of that stuff. For me it's like going to the eye doctor, the medical doctor, medical doctor for you, you know, dentist, all that stuff they do the same thing. They need to stay up to the end of shots. I can tell you you're not taking them anywhere and most RV parks are gonna require the immunizations.
Speaker 2:Right your basic stuff.
Speaker 1:They're taking your word for it. I'm not gonna lie. Not a lot of people have asked us for anything, but I also don't wanna subject any other dogs potentially to risk, and that's part of pet ownership. It's not always about your pet, exactly so the other thing that we always try to do is be very aware of where a emergency vet would be, in other words, a 24 hour clinic, just like if we were to get have an issue or something and we need to go to ER. It's pretty easy to find an ER, but emergency vets aren't quite as easy.
Speaker 2:Right and so, yes, I know it's a quick Google search, but just always kind of be cognizant of that and how far away that is, because if your search reveals that that's three hours away, because you're somewhere pretty remote, I mean that's a big issue.
Speaker 1:Right, be aware. I mean just to understand. So, especially if you're gonna be somewhere for an extended period of time, just really know where you're gonna be If you're only somewhere for about a week, means that that big of a deal? Probably not, because you're gonna probably move on, but it's the one time you wish you had known it's not until it is right.
Speaker 1:And so that's. We always kind of do a little bit of due diligence. Are we great about it? No, especially when we're in transit. But like we know, when we've said it out loud, we're gonna be in Florida for an extended period of time and I kind of have an idea of a few vets that are down there now, because I just Google searched it real fast.
Speaker 2:And that's also probably worth a discussion with your regular routine vet is hey, we're gonna be on the road. What are some things we could have with us that make a bad situation a little bit less bad? Maybe there's something for vomiting, something for diarrhea, something like that.
Speaker 1:Well, and on top of that, if your dog does have to take a medicine, bailey, you know, make sure you have an adequate supply. As long as you can have an adequate supply. Some things are gonna be restricted or you can only get so much of it, but your doctor may be more willing to give you a one refill kind of a thing, even if you can't have them both at the same time. At least you have it, versus not, because he knows you're not gonna be back.
Speaker 2:Right and because you have a good relationship and you're proven to be compliant with their recommendations. So one other thing on health before we move on is that our dogs also get flea tick and heartworm like prevention type stuff, and that goes back to you don't know where you're gonna be, you don't know what you're going to be exposed to, so they are on the kind of the medicine that goes on their backs for flea and tick. I think it's called frontline. Maybe I could be wrong in that. I just click repeat whenever I order it off of Amazon.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's an Amazon thing. I thought that was chewy.
Speaker 2:Well, whoever has it at the better price when I order and whoever can get it to us, so that goes on once a month, and so that repels and kills, so we're good on that. And then they have their heartworm prevention, because that's transmitted by flies that bite, and if we're in a place with a lot of flies, well there's a risk.
Speaker 1:Right, so this next section, assuming there's nothing else. Health wise.
Speaker 2:Nothing else I can think of.
Speaker 1:So this next section we're just gonna call random animal stuff.
Speaker 2:This is how his brain works. Are you ready? This is like rapid fire section.
Speaker 1:Well, it's not necessarily rapid fire, but there's a handful of things that don't really fall into a category of health or anything else. And then the first one I wanna talk about is just be aware of your surroundings. I know that kind of goes without saying and we mentioned it earlier as far as, like understand what's on the other side of the door before you open it. But this probably obtains to boondockers probably more than most people in RV parks, because in RV parks it's pretty self-explanatory. But if you're boondocking out in West Texas in the summer West notorious in West Texas in the summer that can hurt you and your dogs Rattle, snakes, bingo. So just be aware of that so that you're looking in the right things. Scorpions is another thing out there and so, like, if you have a tendency to leave, like shoes outside or anything along those lines, just be aware and don't put yourself or your dog into any situation that you don't have at least most of the control in.
Speaker 2:You weren't there this morning, but Mishka actually did go after a copperhead in the dog park at an RV park we were at.
Speaker 1:Again. No, just the once, but since you weren't there and I I was like, really it's cold. How are there copperheads out?
Speaker 2:No, no, and so this was a couple of months ago and it was dark and I overlooked it. It was reddish, brownish in color and I just thought somebody hadn't picked up after their dog and it was really early and I wasn't quite awake until the turd moved.
Speaker 1:Well and that's another good point like being aware of that, but like. So most dog parts have a main entrance that's typically double gated, and then you're gonna have a service entrance that's bigger, ie, where the mowers can get in and the park we're in. Now there's a few people that I get why they go in the service center, which is a lot easier for them, but sometimes they don't close the gate when we're leaving a dog park and we don't have there's nobody else in there and it's just us. We leave the gate open here simply because it's kind of to let other people know there's no one in there, this dog park, nobody. Like. We typically all kind of let our dogs it's not very big and so everybody lets their own dogs do their own thing and so they don't not a lot of dogs get in there together.
Speaker 2:Right, there's not a lot of group playtime.
Speaker 1:Right. And so that's kind of how we all signal to each other nobody's in there, is, we just leave the gate open. And so that's how we can know, like without even a walk all the way to it, like oh, there's nobody in there, the gate's open. And so the problem with that on the service entrance side, as you get in there and you think everything's hunky-dory and the service gate's open. We got really lucky one morning because that gate was wide open.
Speaker 2:Wide open.
Speaker 1:And we were not away. It was early and it was not like, yeah, it was before daylight savings time, kicked in or kicked out or whatever version of it. We're in now and luckily you saw it, and before the dogs even did, because we had been in there for a few minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't even say anything to you because I didn't want to draw attention to it. I just ran over there right quick to try to, and then I tried to understand what was happening.
Speaker 1:So just be aware of your surroundings, whether it's trying to avoid rattlesnakes or copperheads or whatever else, or make sure all the gates are closed before you unleash your dogs.
Speaker 2:I guess the other thing is that, as a complete failsafe, our dogs are also microchipped, so if the collar doesn't work and the gates are open and all hell breaks loose, they are microchipped and they can always reach us via that.
Speaker 1:I understand you do have to register that microchip just stick it in there doesn't do anything. You do have to register it with your information. Very true.
Speaker 2:And you need to keep that up to date with your current cell phone number and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1:So all right, what else random stuff you got?
Speaker 2:I don't think I have anything else. I think that wraps up how we travel with dogs. Not sure we appropriately discussed why, but we love our dogs. And we have a lot of fun with them.
Speaker 1:So I will say there is one topic I want to talk about because I think it's the most important one and it by far is my most, even more than collars.
Speaker 2:And picking up dog poop.
Speaker 1:Oh no, it's picking up dog poop.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Because we never really talked about it.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, we're coming back to this.
Speaker 1:So please, for the love of everything that is holy, pick up after your dog. I don't know how else to say that. Besides, please pick up after your dog. Poop of any kind can carry diseases and flies get on and all these other things it's. I think it's incredibly disrespectful to not pick up after your dog, and not having a bag is not an excuse.
Speaker 2:Nope have a bag.
Speaker 1:We keep bags on the rig and then they also have bags down at the park. If we're having a pinch and we forgot our bag and they ran out, one of us stays with the dogs, the other one goes back to get a bag. I know that's a scenario that only works with two people, but sometimes you have to go back. That's part of it. So please pick up after your dogs and this actually is not the last topic. There's one more. Now that we're all amped up and on my soapbox, we're gonna stay here for a second. So please don't let your dogs just run up to any other other dogs.
Speaker 2:That's a good point.
Speaker 1:And just the number one thing we always hear and we hear it all the time oh, my dog's friendly. Sometimes it's not about your dog, Sometimes it's my dog's problem.
Speaker 2:Well, right, and like when we first had Mishka, she had a lot of sensory issues, and so a dog running up to her was very aggressive in her eyes.
Speaker 1:You know, and she would get defensive.
Speaker 2:She absolutely would and she, if you see us, she still guards me to an extent. So, even if your dog is friendly, she saw it as a threat to me because it wasn't under control.
Speaker 1:So just because your dog's friendly which half the time people say that their dogs aren't actually friendly?
Speaker 2:That's just their excuse for not having control.
Speaker 1:Right. And so they run up and say, oh, my dog's friendly, but it doesn't matter. Like my dog might be trained in a different way that you don't understand, and so always ask for permission. You're really good about when we're on walks or something like with people, like don't just walk up to my dogs.
Speaker 2:The same goes for kids. Don't let your kids run up to dogs. They don't know.
Speaker 1:Right and you always like you'll intercept them and they'll look at you like they're funny, like ask. And to be honest, if they ran up and then they ask, typically you say no. But if they come up and say, do you mind if I pet your dog, then it's sure, but let's let her sniff you first, and it's the proper way to allow that to happen, not the spas monkey coming at them, and so many times I'm. Probably the one thing that drives me up a wall faster than even dog poop is when small dog owners say, oh, my dog's friendly. Or they complain because the big dog hurt their little dog. What they left out was how their little dog yapped and ran up to the feet of this big dog and like bit his legs until he finally couldn't take it anymore. No-transcript. Everybody has to get along. So take control, take ownership over your animal and train them properly. If you don't know how, take them to someone that does.
Speaker 2:And as a failsafe ask, always ask can I pet your dog, can we do this, can we do that? So we have a good friend and neighbor who has a husky that I love and I go love on him all the time. I still ask him. He was out the other night and I said, hey, can I pet on Helik? I haven't seen him in a long time. And he said no, he has a little. He had a little wound on his head like a wart that had been removed and they were working on it anyways, and so he was like he's kind of been a little bit of pain and so we'd rather you know, maybe not this time Perfectly fine. Ricky's one of our good friends and we've loved on that dog. We know that he's very friendly. But that was situational.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's understand the situation. It comes back a lot of these topics we talk about all kind of come back on top of each other, of understand your situation. Take ownership over your pet and don't just assume things. Ask questions before you start thinking about one thing or another.
Speaker 2:So so, but to turn the mood up, yes, we have a wonderful time, the dogs go. Oh, that's a good point that we didn't talk about. Actually, not all trails are dog friendly.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we didn't talk about hiking.
Speaker 2:And so whenever you go out and about just kind of double check that and especially a lot of the national parks. We couldn't take the dogs.
Speaker 1:Well, in fact, most national parks you can't take the dogs. There's very few that actually allow dogs on trails. You can take them into camping areas, but again verify.
Speaker 2:Exactly because in the Smokies I think there were only two dog friendly trails in the whole thing.
Speaker 1:And I believe, of the two or three parks only one was pet friendly.
Speaker 2:Right, the other two were not.
Speaker 1:And so yeah, just like you would check your size, make sure you understand what you're getting into with the Puppardews.
Speaker 2:But yes, we have a lot of fun. They keep us active, they keep us on our toes, that's for sure, and it's enjoyable watching them enjoy new environments.
Speaker 1:And I was gonna say at the end of the day yes, it is extra work in the RV. They don't smell great all the time and you have to find pet washes like a tractor supply, by the way, quick tip and you have to go out of your way to want them to be there. But at the same time too, they can enhance the experience a hundred times over.
Speaker 2:And you're doing right by them. You're taking them in. Like Mishka was a rescue, our first dog was a rescue too.
Speaker 1:Yep, most of our dogs, well half of our dogs, have been rescues.
Speaker 2:All right, I can't think of anything else. What about you?
Speaker 1:That is gonna do it for us. So do me a quick favor If you are listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, if you could please ever be so gracious to take your time and rate and review us. That's how we get this pushed out. We're seeing a lot of great feedback from the video version of these on YouTube, but I wanna really wanna grow the audio side of this too. So if you are watching this on YouTube and maybe you think they're a little long for your watching pleasure, as I could understand why, grab us on Spotify, apple, really, all of them. You can always check out MillersInMotioncom and there's a podcast link, and it'll have links to every single distribution platform that we are on, which is a lot of them.
Speaker 2:Maybe they're just like looking at you.
Speaker 1:Maybe, but I also understand I'd rather them listen to it for 45 minutes than watch it for 10. So don't forget to check us out there, rate and review us. Also, we will put down in the show notes or the description, depending on where you're seeing this all the links to the things that we've talked about today, and hopefully that helps. If you do have questions for us, you can shoot us a note on the comment section of YouTube or you can go to the website and hit contact us and it'll shoot us an actual email. That was a lot.
Speaker 2:That was a lot good job.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys so much for watching and we will see you next week. Safe travels.