Leaving on a Road Trip in 16 Hours! - Need Help Figuring out Pooch Transport

Due to a death in the family, we have to make an unexpected quick trip about 400 miles out to the middle of Ohio tomorrow.  We're leaving at 6AM.  Due to the short notice, we have to take not only our 2 toddlers with us, but also our mid-sized dog, 'Sadie'.

We'd normally take the family hauler, Mrs. VCH's Suburban, but since it's such a short-term trip (we're coming back Friday) and her 'Burb's got a brake light on currently, we're both leaning towards taking my new Mazda 3 hatch (2018).  This would also save us about 75 bucks in gas.  

We've done short trips with the kids in car seats and pupparoo in the hatch, but with needing to carry 2 days' worth of clothes and gear for everyone, that's probably not feasible.  Poochie is pretty well-behaved, but I'm concerned about her being alone in the car while we get gas or make other quick stops since she likes to climb over seats and stuff.  We have a kennel for her, but it would pretty much swallow up the entire hatch area of my 3.  

Any thoughts on how we could keep Sadie contained in the car, or prevent her toenails from clawing up my cloth seats?  

We have (under a vet's advice) given our pooches Benadryl for car and RV trips to help calm them down a bit, so that might be an option for you.

I spent about $60ish bucks at Walmart for a soft rooftop cargo carrier for our MZ5 back around Christmas.  It was the only one that was available locally that did not require any type of roof rail or rack to be installed (although it can work with those).  Maybe getting one of those would enable you to keep the hatch area clear for the doggo?

In reply to wae :

I've thought about getting one of those carriers.  Got a link?  Is it weather-proof?

I see this dealie:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Rightline-Gear-Car-Top-Cargo-Bag-Jr-100W50/179738731

There's a larger one, too:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Rightline-Gear-Car-Top-Cargo-Bag-100W20/143708560

It says designed for SUVs, but it looks like it would fit on the roof of the 3.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

It's advertised as weatherproof and is really thick with Velcro-secured covers over the zippers.  We haven't driven through monsoons or anything with ours, but we did have some rain and snow during our trip with it and didn't experience any water intrusion at all.  This is the one I got: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Rightline-Gear-Car-Top-Cargo-Bag-100W20/143708560

Can you fit all of your bags and stuff in the back seat and footwells and use the kennel anyway?  That way you have a kennel when you're at your destination as well.

Alternatively, can the dog share space with a few bags in the back?  Then you can attach a leash to a cargo hook back there to limit her range so she doesn't climb over the seat.

In reply to wae :

How was the mounting system?  seem like it would hold on at 75 mph?  ;-)  Did it scratch the roof up?

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Good thoughts.  The one time she did ride back there she kept trying to climb over the seat, unsuccessfully.  I was thinking about tossing a blanket over the seat so she doesn't tear it.  I need to look and see if there's a cargo hook.  The kennel we have does fold up flat, so it could be brought along anyway, even if we don't use it all the time.  

As you can imagine, the back seat is full, width wise, with two child seats.  There's some space in the footwells.  Mrs. VCH had mentioned maybe Sadie could ride in her footwell for the trip, since I'd be doing all the driving (she isn't too comfortable with a stick shift).  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

The clips went over the weatherstripping in the door jams and everything closed up nicely.  Without a roof rack, you do have to manually position it up there so that it's centered, but once you have it where you want it, just cinch down the straps and it's good to go.  75mph wasn't a problem for us - the thing didn't budge.  One tip: when you put the straps on, put a twist in each one to cut down on the whistling noise.  I don't know why that works, but it did.  It's got a nice rubberized bottom to it that I assume is designed to keep it in place, so there were no scratches or anything on the roof when we took it off.  Before mounting it, I did run through a car wash real fast just to make sure there wasn't a ton of dirt up there.  When you put in on the car, if you're gentle about getting it where you want it and then fill it up you should be fine. The only opportunity I saw for damaging the finish would have been if you tried to slide it around when it was loaded.

Oh, also, you can get those universal dog barriers for cars that go between the cargo area and the back seat.  We used to use one of those when we had a Legacy wagon to keep the pups in the back.  I think I saw those at Petsmart a while back.  That and a furniture blanket can make a pretty nice ride for a hound.

In reply to wae :

I thought something that clips under the rear seat headrests would be an idea.  Thanks.  

Board the dog and avoid the purchase of dog travel gear and hassles of the dog during an already stressful family situation.  Is that not an option?  Costs will probably be similar. 

My condolences on your loss. 

In reply to wawazat :

If it were up to me, I'd board the dog.  Mrs. VCH is not on board with that, however, and we don't have any friends/family nearby who can take her.  

This is an issue every time we travel.  Doggie has to come with.  Which means dog-friendly hotels, or staying with relatives who can let her stay with us.  Honestly its more of a hassle than the kids.  Restaurants don't not let you bring kids in.  I love the dog, but she makes traveling a PITA.  

Appreciate your condolences.  

I've always been a proponent of transporting a dog in a kennel so they aren't a missile in an accident or otherwise a distraction, so they are otherwise contained and calm, and mud, etc. is contained in the kennel.  We have an older Thule roof bag (something like the current Thule Interstate) and it has seen hard rain, snow, ice, and we've never had any issues with it leaking.  We upgraded vehicles to an Explorer when we had our first son so there was room in the rear for a large kennel.  We still use the roof bag occasionally to put camping gear, folding chairs, etc. in, especially when traveling with someone else besides our 4 and I don't want to take our trailer.  In a pinch when traveling we've left the car run with A/C on while at a restaurant and the vehicle in sight for the dog.  We often got dog friendly rental houses on VRBO rather than hotels as well.  If you can't use a kennel in this short of notice, can you leave one person in the car during stops to keep the dog in the back?  

volvoclearinghouse said:

In reply to wawazat :

If it were up to me, I'd board the dog.  Mrs. VCH is not on board with that, however, and we don't have any friends/family nearby who can take her.  

This is an issue every time we travel.  Doggie has to come with.  Which means dog-friendly hotels, or staying with relatives who can let her stay with us.  Honestly its more of a hassle than the kids.  Restaurants don't not let you bring kids in.  I love the dog, but she makes traveling a PITA.  

Appreciate your condolences.  

We use in-home pet sitters, and it's been a lot more affordable than boarding.  It's worked out really well for us, even on a week+ trip out of the country.  We do have two dogs and two cats, though, so they have a friend to hang out with.

It doesn't help you right now, but that is a pretty good option for the future.

I've got something like this for the back seat of my FRS:

Might work well for keeping nails off of the rear seat back, in conjunction with a net or something fastened between the grab handles and headrests to keep the pooch in back. Of course, I'm sure the same could be accomplished with a blanket. 

We put our lab in her harness and buckle her up with these. No jumping over seats or fur based projectile in a crash. I think we got ours at Farm&Fleet or Menards. Linkerino 

Sorry for your family's loss.

Do you have a child gate/barrier? Some fancy bungie work may secure it behind the seat.  Worked in my Buick Rainier.  Traveled a lot with roof top carriers.  Regardless of type, always wrapped the luggage in black bags, just in case.

By the way, we have  three dogs, I know what you're going through.  I keep buying larger vehicles,to accommodate my wife's travel needs.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

If you need a place for doggo to stretch her legs while in Ohio, if you're going to be near me in Columbus, you're welcome to hang out and let her run around. We have 3.5 acres and a warm dirty shop for her to hang out in. Email is my user name at gmail. Also have a 4 year old and nearly-2-year-old and boatloads of toys to entertain the kiddos.

We travel with our dogs all the time and I would recommend just getting a smaller crate for the dog in the back.  The folding metal ones really aren't the right answer in an accident situation in a vehicle; everyone is better off with the plastic airline style that is two half clamshells. Bonus points for the plastic ones too because you can stack on or around them better, or even put them on top of other luggage. 

As long as the dog can lay down the long direction and turn around inside it's big enough.  There's an argument for keeping the crate smaller so the dog doesn't get tossed around as far but most people default to too large. 

Thanks for the input, advice, and help, all.  As it turns out, the trip is being called off.  Too much logistically to deal with (we also have 17 chickens) to take off on short notice.  We'll plan a trip out there sometime when the weather's better.  

In reply to dculberson :

Appreciate the offer, when we do go out there (probably this spring/ summer) I'll shoot you an email.  Our situations always struck me as eerily similar (rental property, 3+ acre homesteads, 4 and 2 year old kids) so if nothing else we'll have plenty to talk about. 

How about renting a bigger vehicle?

I don't recommend those cloth rooftop carriers unless you pony up for an expensive brand-name canvas bag.  After a few hundred miles the cheap ones will disintegrate.  As the material flaps in the wind the rubber backing falls apart and eventually the whole thing just turns to threads.  I tried this a few years ago and the bag was more duct tape than canvas by the end of the 15 hour drive.  I'm glad it didn't rain on that trip.

In the long-run, OEM crossbars for the Mazda3 are $220.  That's probably cheaper than buying used Yakima crossbars and towers and a new fit-kit.  Check your local craigslist for a rooftop box.   Yakima and Thule boxes are +$400 new, but often sell for $75 to $150 used on craigslist.  Don't worry if they don't have keys, you can order new locks and/or keys directly from Yakima and Thule for $30 to $40.   You'll see a ~3 mpg dip in fuel economy, and a little more noise, but keeping the car uncluttered is a nice bonus.

I'd stick with the brand-name systems.  I bought cheap ebay crossbars to fit the roof rails on my minivan and the quality of the hardware was garbage.  The bolts stripped and rusted during install...at least they'll never be coming off!  I also bought cheap Kayak cradles on Amazon and they were garbage. I resold them before ever actually putting them on my roof.

The OEM systems are usually made by a brand-name company and will be of a much higher quality.  Once you own a Yakima or Thule system you can keep them forever, just buy a new fit kit whenever you have a new car.

As the family member who spends 100% of the time behind the wheel on roadtrips,  I've realized the comfort of my passengers is more important than all other considerations.  As much as I prefer to drive the smaller, newer, efficient, nicer driving car...anything more than 2-3 hours and we're taking the aging minivan.

What about putting a hitch on the Mazda and buying a small cargo trailer? We did that for our last family hauler, worked great. We had the same problem, kids plus dog = no room for luggage. Trailer was $500, hitch was $125. Fuel mileage hit from towing was barely noticeable.