Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled pooches, yearning to bark free.

September 30, 2008 8:14 PM

Big move, 3 dogs, suggestions?

Hello folks. It looks fairly likely that I'll be taking a job that will move me from WV to FL. The good news is that there is very little I want to take. I shall elucidate:
Self. Maybe 5-10 changes of clothes. Blanket or 2. Desktop Computer. PSP. Bicycle. PS3, 38" flatscreen. Girlfriend, and probably the greatest volume of all: fishing stuff.

Now for the kicker: 3 dogs.

No, really. There's nothing else worth taking. I'll be giving away almost everything I own from appliances to gadgets and tools and whatever. This is me starting over, committing belonging seppoku. I'll be hopefully moving into a furnished house, or I won't. I'll be managing a store where I can get all that stuff for free or cheap anyway.

Really though, 3 dogs. 1 Weighs 40lbs. One weighs 47lbs. One weighs 65lbs. One has bad hips. One is insane, but very well behaved. Really they're all well behaved. We used to take 3 hour car rides all the time, no issues. That was when I had an SUV with a dedicated DOG section though. Now I've got a 2004 dodge stratus.

They'll be paying me about $3000 in relocation expenses, so I'm guessing it's ryder truck and dolly, yucky. I can't crate the dogs in the back of the truck, can I? I can't rent a truck that'll let dogs in the cab, can I? I was thinking of buying an SUV this winter, but I won't need one in FL, seems like kind of a waste. I would just rent a 15 passenger van, but then I have to drive it back. Does anyone do one-way rentals of those?

Lend me your suggestions. I'm thinking of just UPS'ing everything to myself and driving down in the car---but I think 3 dogs and 2 people in a 5 seater car is a little...rough. I could get a separator bar though, I guess.

Oh right and a one-way plane ticket is less than $200, but I suppose I should move my car since I'm paying for it...and 3 dogs on a plane sounds expensive.

(btw I've lived in the same town now for 22 years. Never done more than an across-town move since I was 5. Eep!)(BTW Pensacola meetup in a month or 2 anyone?)

posted by TomMelee to pets & animals (10 comments total)

Budget Rent-a-Car allow pets in their rentals, and they have one-way rentals (of 12-seater vans and moving trucks and SUVs). I'd think other companies would have similar policies.
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:42 PM on September 30, 2008

I personally would rig the rest of the moving trip around the assumption that I'll be renting an SUV (one-way) and driving the dogs in it.

So, for the rest of it: Remaining driver drives Ryder truck which tows your car. (It's not a big deal; I've done it from GA to IL. With a cat with me in the cab, which was the hard part.)

No dogs in the back of a truck, please, and no cab will fit all three. :)
posted by iguanapolitico at 8:43 PM on September 30, 2008

If you were already thinking of buying a new/new-for-you SUV, why not shift to a larger car that would still be useful in FL? You might not need the winter truckiness of an SUV, but if you haul around fishing gear a lot, a station wagon might come in handy and you could fit your dogs in the back of it.

Welcome to the sunshine state, btw!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:08 PM on September 30, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh right and a one-way plane ticket is less than $200, but I suppose I should move my car since I'm paying for it...and 3 dogs on a plane sounds expensive.

Oh, and just to warn you, if you register your car here, it'll be at least a two hundred dollar "first time registration fee," which pretty much enraged me when I first moved to FL.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:10 PM on September 30, 2008

Have you considered the train?
posted by sunshinesky at 9:26 PM on September 30, 2008

Amtrak doesn't allow dogs.
posted by dogrose at 4:42 AM on October 1, 2008

Thanks for answers so far. I'm looking at the budget site right now. I sort of forgot that 15 passenger vans have seats in them (haha), we often drive them here w/ the seats out as cargo vans. Budget has cargo vans, but unfortunately they're not available for one way moves.

Checking out the other infos.
posted by TomMelee at 5:26 AM on October 1, 2008

I have three dogs which weigh, weirdly enough, almost exactly the same as yours and have much the same personalities/demands. Weird.
Anyway, we've driven about 10 - 12 hours to the beach for vacation with them in the backseat with zero problems, although by the second time we had acquired a station wagon (which i HIGHLY recommend). We liberally applied blankets to the backseat and had chewies/snacks/kongs for the boredom. And we stopped much more frequently than if it were just us--once every 2 hours at least. Our insane one, the youngest, was the one who worried me most and she did great. Well, except for the way back when she skipped peeing at a couple stops and started with her "I have to PEE RIGHT NOW" barks with the next rest stop 20 miles away.

If I were to move to Florida with them right now in your same situation, I would have my partner drive the regular car with one or two dogs in it and me drive the the moving van of some sort with one in it. We would be able to switch off driving each and not have the load of stuff we are taking impinge upon our comfort. Plus the dogs would be able to switch back and forth between vehicles for entertainment/change of scene. I would definitely take a separate van/truck for moving of the stuff. What you plan on taking may seem like a small load of stuff to the naked eye now but when you are hauling it around it for hundreds of miles it somehow magically blossoms into a giant shitload from hell.

Good luck and have fun!
posted by hecho de la basura at 6:34 AM on October 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I just drove from NYC to TX and back with my dog (just the one, 60 lbs.) and I was very, very glad I'd invested in this hammock-style seat cover. It gave her a little more room to stretch out and get comfortable. It also kept the seat clean and almost hair-free, which was the main reason I got it.
posted by dogrose at 7:18 AM on October 1, 2008

Thanks for answers. Final answer...we bought an SUV big enough for all the creatures and it'll tow a uhaul trailer. Good insight, the other option would have been 2 dogs in the car one in the moving van. Appreciate it.
posted by TomMelee at 5:46 AM on October 31, 2008