Holly the adventure dog

Our dog Holly is a seasoned adventurer. She’s been featured in dog travel blogs and logged more than 14,000 travel miles, not including her trips to dog shows during her show dog days. Now she’s living the #vanlife with us.

How does she do it?

We get that question a lot, so we thought we’d shed some light on how she travels with us in Red Delicious:

What is “The Holly Hole?”
Where does she eat, play, and sleep?
What is the most important dog travel tip?

“The Holly Hole”

One of the features of Red Delicious is a little tunnel that connects the front of the car to the sleeping area. We dubbed it The Holly Hole. She goes in and out like so:

Holly demonstrating the use of “The Holly Hole.” More #dogtravel and #vanlife tips in a new blog post: nomadswithavan.com

A video posted by Tamara (@taminacan) on Feb 28, 2015 at 5:48am PST

Holly, when her curiosity won out and she first discovered The Holly Hole

Eating, Playing, and Sleeping

When we first camped with Holly, we’d put her bowl on the ground in the dirt while she ate. But we had to stop that nonsense because her kibbles fly everywhere and she’d end up eating dirt and sticks trying to pick them up.

Now, we let her eat on the floor on the passenger’s side. Much cleaner.

She also plays with her toys up there too. Because it’s a minivan, it’s fairly spacious. That’s especially important once the sun goes down because it’s hard to keep tabs on her in the dark outside. So after dark, she’s usually in the van unless we bring her out to sit with us by the fire.

She does like to hang out and play outside the van when the weather’s nice though.

She just likes the dirt, we suppose

A little brisket stuffed in Holly’s toy and nothing else matters #nomads #vanlife #cairnterriers #dogsofinstagram A video posted by Tamara (@taminacan) on Feb 10, 2015 at 6:57pm PST

Holly likes to wet her whole face when she drinks water, and save a little peanut butter from her toys in her beard for later…then come romp around where we sleep! 🙂

But all that eating and playing is pretty tiring. We have a dog bed for her, but she doesn’t use it in the van. Instead, she’ll nap in the back sleeping area during the day and snuggle up with us at night. When it’s really cold at night, one of us snuggles with her in a sleeping bag. Otherwise, she’s usually fine sleeping on top of the blanket.

“It’s time for my mid-morning nap, guys.” – Holly

Lazy morning

Holly is VERY comfortable with #vanlife (Turn up audio!!) #cairnterriers #nomads

A video posted by Tamara (@taminacan) on Jan 29, 2015 at 7:03pm PST

Most Important Dog Travel Tip: Dogs Need a Routine

All these things aside, the most important thing about traveling with a dog is establishing a routine. (This is important just for living with a dog, period.)

Why is it so important? It keeps everyone sane and happy when you’re all in a small space together. Holly’s routine looks like this and rarely ever strays:

Morning: Snuggle, walk, breakfast, nap
Mid-Day: Bathroom break, toys, more napping
Afternoon: Toys (in the van or outside), walk, dinner
Evening: Lots of toys, bathroom break, more toys, bedtime

We always make sure to take Holly out for her bathroom break about 30 minutes before we go to bed because she likes to play with her toys for a while before she settles down. This ensures we don’t have a dog stepping on our face while we try to sleep. 🙂

The Thing About Old Dogs

The thing about old dogs is they’re great travelers. Holly loves the hum of the moving car and to sniff around in new places. But she also naps a lot of the day and likes smaller spaces because they’re easier for her to navigate since she’s lost most of her eyesight. She’s also got a bladder of steel: this girl is very well house-trained — and now van-trained — and can hold it in between bathroom breaks. I think this would be a lot harder with a puppy.

But the other thing about old dogs is: they get sick.

It’s an inevitable fact of life that our best, furry friends have to leave us sometime, and 16-year-old Holly is no exception, unfortunately.

Chris and I learned about a week ago that Holly has lymphoma. As our friends and family know, we have been so devastated at the thought of losing our favorite travel companion. It’s been hard to stay positive. Really hard.

But we’re determined to make sure the rest of Holly’s life (the vet says 1-2 months) is as best as it can be. Which means keeping up her routine, packing extra treats into her toys, and giving her lots and lots of love.

We’re so lucky to have this adventure dog as our best friend, and to remind us to treasure every day. We love you Holly!

Next week, Holly and her friends are headed toward southern Florida and the Keys. See you there!