Car Journey and 2 Male Greyhounds

[dawnsteve]

Hi,

I wondered if I could ask some advise.  My parents have recently adopted Jaytee (Lightning) and he is already getting one well with my boy Spot.  We've had some territorial issues over beds which we are managing and will I'm sure resolve over a period of time.

However, we are planning to go away at the end of September, both Spot and Jaytee will be travelling in the same car, so would really appreciate some advise how to manage the territorial closeness in a car.  My initial thoughts were to arrange some short journeys together (initial journey to muzzle both boys) so they get used to the idea.

However, I am sure I am not the first person to experience this issue, so would appreciate any advice you may have on how to manage this as stress-free for the boys as possible.

Thank you

Dawn

[suethejam]

Hi there

We travel a lot with various combinations of hounds and have had next to no trouble considering the miles we've done! I think that starting with shorter journeys is a good idea - not least becaue it will give you a chance to see where they like to sit - our Ty, forexample, would only lie in one spot, it was his regardless how many hounds he had to turf out of his way!

Using cages is the obvious solution, though we've never done that as it's not flexible enough (we travel with up to five big hounds in the boot (back seats lowered)of a estate car.

I think my top tips would be:

* Give the dogs as much room as possible - lower the back seats where you can; Sometimes I lower one half of the back seat but leave one up - this means that they can still move around but it gives a little bit of separation for hounds that want a bit of privacy.
* Pad out the rear footwells (I use a plastic storage box and pad around it with duvets/blankets - make sure that there are no gaps where they can catch their legs/paws - this gives them more room to lie down and means they can't get stuck in the footwell
* Where we're travelling with luggage, we put most of it in a roofbox, but we have used "sausage" holdalls to create zones in the boot so that the hounds have a separate space
* When we were travelling with ancient Ollie, we took his doughnut bed - all the hounds acknowledged that it was his, so there was no competition, it has squashy sides all round, so he was supported and comfy
* Obviously, lots of comfy beds are important because then they settle - the back of my car has a minumum of three duvets plus blankets! I make sure that all the bedding in the car is washable - I've had some nervous hounds who have anxiety dire-rear - not a big deal!

I hope that helps - in my experience, most greyhounds travel well - usually they settle down to sleep and don't show their faces unless the car stops!

[dawnsteve]

Thank you for the advice Sue, this is really helpful.