12 Tips to Van Life with a Dog
Need tips on how to make living in a tiny van with your dog as seamless as possible? We have 12 invaluable solutions that can help make this new life as fun as possible for you and your furry friend.
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Tips for Van Life with your Best Friend
The Summary
1. A GPS Collar is worth it’s weight in gold
Life on the road is going to bring you to endless amounts of ‘new to you’ trails, campgrounds, roads, etc. A lot of these spaces are safe for off leash adventure but there’s always a little bit of worry when your dog is off leash in places you’re not familiar with. For a little extra peace of mind, we bought the Garmin Alpha 100/TT 15 Mini GPS collar and remote just before we hit the road and it is hands down one of our best investments we’ve made for van life. Unlike most GPS collars on the market (there are many to chose from now), the Garmin uses satellite to track GPS so having cell signal doesn’t need to be a primary concern. We can use our Garmin in literally any corner of the world and it will always work.
2. A Bear Bell can make all the difference
Wearing a bear bell doesn’t have to mean you’re trying to scare off bears. While that was our original purpose, we’ve found that putting a bear bell on Penelope’s collar has so many more benefits.
For Example:
Alerting hikers and bikers when we’re approaching - especially useful when we’re out mountain biking and can unintentionally sneak up on people quickly.
Keeping track of her general location - She’s small, she’s mostly black, and she likes to wander. The sound of the bell lets us know if she’s roaming around a tree to our left, our right, behind us, or wherever! She’s also been known to run up on us from behind at full speed. The kind of speed where you need to bend your knees just in case she slams right into you. It’s especially useful at camp sites where she has the room and freedom to roam around without being on leash. Think of the bell as a louder dog tag jingle.
Alerting wild animals - We can’t say for sure if bear bells actually scare off bears or any other wild animals. In fact, some say the jingle of a bear bell intrigues bears to come closer instead. What we can say is that we’ve never seen a bear on trail with Penelope. We rarely have other wild animal encounters on trail either.
3. Where to put the Water Bowl
We’ve noticed that a dedicated spot to put your dog (or cat’s) water bowl in the van is usually an after thought when you’re building your van, or at least it was for us! Lucky for us, our shower ended up being the perfect place for Penelope’s water bowl. Remember, your van moves and the moment you hit a dirt road, the water WILL spill. If you’re still in your van design phase, think about putting in a dedicated dog bowl tray that can handle spills. If you’re already too far in to your build and don’t have a shower or tray solution, try a Petmate No Spill Bowl
4. A Handheld Vacuum is a must.
A mini broom in the van is an obvious must-have but we believe a vacuum should be right up there as well. Since releasing the video linked above, we’ve upgraded to the Bissell Pet Hair Hand Vacuum. We’ve had it for a year and I can definitely recommend it. The only downside to any vacuum is they have to be charged in order to function. However it doesn’t pull much power and the pros far outweigh the cons.
Cons:
Must be charged
Pros:
Can be used to vacuum the bed sheets to keep them fresh for longer
Can pick up fine dirt on the floor
The crevice tool helps you get into tight corners where even a mini broom can’t reach.
5. Pet Hair Roller/Remover will save your sanity
A pet hair roller, along with the vacuum, is the ultimate secret weapon to harmonious van life with a dog. All dogs shed and while a vacuum can help a ton, a hair roller doesn’t require charging or batteries - the ultimate win for all off-grid living. This particular one works really well and has held up for several years. We like to use it daily on the bed sheets and blankets to keep them from piling up with hair.
6. Dog Gear Organizer/Storage
Where to put various dog gear like a leash, harness, and poop bags were again an after thought - are you seeing a theme here? Oops! Our solution ended up being a closet organizer that we attached to the back of the passenger seat. It’s close to the sliding door so we can quickly and easily access it from outside the van. We also placed some hooks by the door to hold the dog leash when we remember to put it there and not just on the ground.
7. A comfy dog bed for lounging and driving
We didn’t start life on the road with a dog bed, actually. Penelope loves lounging on the bed instead. But now that we have one, we’ve noticed that she does like having her own space sometimes especially when it’s a little warm in the van.
Also, if you don’t have a bucket seat and your dog likes being nearby when you’re driving, a dog bed placed between the driver and passenger seats can make all the difference. She’s too big to be carried in my lap all of the time so placing a Chuckit! Travel Pillow Bed between the seats has helped to give her a designated spot where she knows she’s allowed to lay down. We also love that we can also throw it outside at camp as a place for her to lay because *Princess Penelope doesn’t lay on bare ground*.
8. Where to keep the huge dog food bag?
Carrying around a 40 pound bag of dog food can be a tricky in a tiny van. It’s way too big to keep up front in our main living area where storage space is very valuable. Instead, we keep the big bag in a secure tote storage bin in our van garage which we can access from the back doors. Then we keep a week’s worth supply of food in a smaller container in a more accessible spot - see #9
9. Secure Food Storage
As a daily dog food dispenser, we use this Air Tight Dry Food Storage. It only fits about a week’s worth of food but it’s worth the space saving. Think about storing it in a secure place as well. We built a high shelf last minute only to fill a gap between the shower and driver seat but it turned out to be the perfect spot to place Penelope’s food and there’s no way she can reach it.
10. Waterproof Dog Collar
There’s nothing worse than a stinky dog collar. If your dog loves swimming or rolling in all sorts of dirt and mud then a waterproof dog collar is a must for keeping the van a touch cleaner than it could be otherwise. We made Penelope’s collar ourselves by hand but there are plenty out there on the market. This one looks similar to ours and has great reviews!
11. A Warm Jacket
Living on the road means you often have to take on unexpected weather. Having a warm jacket for your dog might seem unnecessary for some but for Penelope, it’s a must. Sure you can let your furry friend wear your own jacket but I promise they will be a lot more comfortable in their very own jacket. Penelope’s Ruffwear coat has held up perfectly to multiple washings over 4+ years and she loves wearing it!
12. A Doggie step
If the bed in your van is elevated, a step for you dog to get onto the bed is necessary. In our case, our Dometic Fridge doubles as a step for us and for Penelope. She can get on and off by herself whenever she wants.
We hope this helps make life on the road with your best friend just a little easier. If you have any other tips that have worked for you, drop them below in the comments!