Best Travel Products for Dog Owners

When planning a dog-friendly trip, it’s always important to pack the essentials. Doodle Mom is a master packer and list maker when it comes to traveling and after traveling with a dog for several years now and testing out a lot of brands, she decided to round up all her favorites to share.

Most of these items are absolutely essential and things that you should make room for no matter the type of trip, but there’s also a few bonus items that she recommends for certain types of adventure. Check the list below and see if you have all the essentials or need to get the human to stock up.

must own dog travel products

Highwave AutoDogMug Leak-Tight Growler: Rule number one when venturing out with your furry friend is to keep us hydrated. A healthy dog should drink .5-1 oz of water for every lb, so for a pup like me I need around 20 ounces. Quite possibly the best travel water bottle we’ve come across is the Highwave AutoDogMug Leak-Tight bottle. We have the growler and the next size down to use depending on our length of travel. This bottle allows the human to squeeze the water up into a bowl top that is easy for us pups to drink out of. When we’re done the water sucks right back down into the bottle so there’s no waste or inconvenience of having to dump the excess water somewhere, like out a car window when you’re driving. The bottle also has an open and close valve so there’s no spills when you’re carrying it in a bag and you can lock water in the bowl for an on-the-go water bowl.
Portable Mini Fan: We’ve done quite a bit of road trips ever since moving to California and one things the humans are always conscious of is the air flow to me in the backseat. Car vents aren’t always well placed when you have a dog hammock and some don’t have roof vents above the doors. This is the case in Doodle Mom’s car so she decided to get a portable mini fan that has legs that can wrap around anything and a chargeable battery that will last up to 24 hours on low speed. It’s really to position the fan around the passenger headrest. And if you have a usb plugin, you can plug the fan in on the go/charge it if the battery happens to die.
Wildebeest Gear: When you’re out adventuring having the right gear is everything! Wildebeest blends function with durability into all of their products, whether it’s the bag holder that velcro’s around your leash so there’s no annoying swinging or their treat pouch that has a magnetic closure for secure storage and a heavy duty clip for no slips from the hip. Their harness also saved the pawrents from my doodle pulling on all our long walks.
Torus self filling, filtered water bowl and Yeti Boomer water bowl: The Torus was a recent find when gearing up for our RV trip. Because you can’t drink the water at campsites, Doodle Mom found a travel size water bowl with a filter built in to ensure I was drinking clean water. A bonus with this is that there is a dial to lock the water flow or keep it open. When you keep it open, the bowl will refill as the water level gets low. The bowl also sits down amongst high sides to ensure there’s no spills. For shorter outdoor adventures, we love to bring my personalized Yeti Boomer bowl along to keep my water nice and chilled throughout the day.
Dog First Aide Kit: I feel like this one is obvious, but you’d be surprised how many dog owners don’t have a dog safety kit and to be honest my humans were those people before we moved to California. All the fires out here made us more aware of the sudden need to evacuate and urged us to compile a safety kit as a quick grab when needed. Now that we have this kit we never take a trip without it.
Grooming comb, scissors and paw protection cream: If you’re a little high maintenance like me and type A like Doodle Mom, you should always travel with your grooming tools. The steel comb and dull tipped scissors are essential for keeping my fluff in good shape after a roll on the beach or hiking on the trails and the paw cream helps protect and rejuvenate my paw pads to prevent tears and injuries.
Paw wash and towels: If there’s a chance for a bath, rain or snow, a microfiber towel is a must. The humans either use Tall Tails Cape Dog Towel or a shammy towel with spots to put your hands in for ultimate coverage. The humans have used these for years when wiping paws or my entire body for quick absorption. And once they’re dirty, just pop them in the wash with your other towels and they’ll be ready for the next adventure. When my paws are really dirty when we’re out and about and Doodle Mom wants to clean them before even getting into the car, she’ll use our portable paw cleaner from MudBuster. All you have to do is fill it with water, stick a paw in, twist it around and dry. Prior to this Doodle Mom usually uses a brush to get the loose debris off.
Earth Rated Compostable Dog Wipes and Dog Bags: Whether we’re adventuring or just going for our daily walks, Doodle Mom swears by Earth Rated’s dog wipes to get the yucky outdoors off my paws before I run wild through the house. Have you ever thought about what your furry friend’s paws touch? We also use their regular and compostable bags to keep our bag holder on our leash stocked and absolutely love the durability.
Portable freezer: Every since I was diagnosed with IBD, I’ve been on a raw diet. I like Instinct Raw - Little Bites and generally eat my food right out of the freezer. Transporting my food and keeping it nice and frozen throughout our adventure was a bit of a learning experience. A cooler wouldn’t keep it frozen enough on road trips over a couple hours and the freezers in mini fridges that are typically in hotel rooms aren’t strong enough to harden the food back up and keep it frozen, nor are they spacious enough for a bag of dog food. Which led to our other idea not working of just buying my food whenever we got to our destination - we still couldn’t keep it frozen enough. All of this led to Doodle Mom testing portable freezers. She landed on the CIGREEN Electric 20 liter cooler with dual zone refrigerator/freezer comportments (Did I mention my probiotic also has to be refrigerated?) based on good reviews of the brand online. The 20 liter size is perfect for more than one bag of food for our longer road trips and it has an adapter to plug into your car or a wall jack so you can keep it powered at all times.
Durable dog bed and elevated outdoor bed: I’m a big fan of having a bed in the car when we road trip. It provides an extra level of comfort and makes me feel more secure when we’re on bumpy/windy roads. Doodle Mom has an weatherproof bed in her car that we use for adventures because it’s also a safe material to use in all elements outdoors. I also have an elevated dog bed at home and Doodle Mom found a foldable one that we can take with us when we’re on the go and know we’ll be hanging outside. (Remember how I mentioned I’m high maintenance? This two things keep me from laying in leaves, twigs, etc. that easily get caught in my fluff and lead to an evening of brushing.)
K9 Sport Sack and Ruffwear Life Jacket: Not necessarily needed for all travel, but we take our K9 Sport Sack with us almost everywhere because we never know when we’re going to hit a narrow trail or cross terrain I’m not comfortable with. My Ruffwear life jacket is also the perfect fit for water activities like SUPing, canoeing and boating (I don’t swim). It’s not bulky at all so I still feel like I can move and there’s a handle at the top so the humans can dip me in and out of the water or quickly grab me if I almost fall in (yes, this has happened several times when I get a little adventurous and then chicken out).