Euro with the dog

[brian108]

Hi Everyone,
Advice please on our predicament. We have caravanned on the Continent twice (Normandy and Germany) and we would like to go more often. However we always take our dog (corgi) and I become concerned about the time he will spend locked in the car on the ferry. We don't like the tunnel and boat operators give a variety of times to get from Dover to either Calais or Dunkirk. Our last trip on the old Norfolk Line to Dunkirk gave a crossing time of 1hr 30 mins, which was totally inaccurate. Now DFDS quote 2hours. I would like to know what other caravanners think is a adequate time to have the dog cooped up on the vehicle deck, locked in a car.
brian108

 

[NickinFrance]

It depends on the dog, we fairly regularly take our laid back Golden Retriever & Dutch Labrador on 6-8 hour Western Channel crossings, they just snuggle down & sleep.
They prefer to be together so we don't use the on-board kennels.

 

[otherclive]

Take our two springers on Dover-Dunkerque and they are absolutely fine. Quite frankly 2 hours is nothing for a dog to be in the car providing you ensure its ventilated, they have water and the alarm interior sensor is disabled. I would guess that they spend longer cooped up when you are travelling on land and with more bumps and jolts too. When they are not on walkies most muts just sleep!

 

[PaulT]

A lot depends on how the dog is in the car. Both dogs that we have caravaned with are quiet and well behaved in the car - they both spend most of the journey asleep. We always use the Portsmouth-Caen route which at night means the dogs are in the car alone for about 8 hours and we've never had any trouble at all.