Is He Ready for a Road Trip?

Sure in this selfie taken before leaving the driveway Rooster looks like a good travel companion, but he proved he's not ready for the open road yet.

I thought Rooster our seven month old German Shepherd was ready to tag along for the holidays. He loves car rides, he's house trained and he's locked down some basics commands.

I even googled road trip tips for pets.

Minnesota here we come! What could possibly go wrong?

I think I will start with the fact there were just to many distractions for him to take care of important business on this trip. Mainly going to the bathroom.

The designated pet areas at each rest stop contained too many smells for Rooster to calm down long enough and focus on going to the bathroom.

By the time we got to the hotel I knew it had been too long for him without going to the bathroom, and I would be playing with fire no matter where I left him. I opted for taking him with in the car and planned on running inside only to eat and then would return to the car and take him on a walk.

The two bowls of oyster stew, a few discs of deer sausage, along with my cheese and cracker intake proved too long of a wait.

I returned to my car with Rooster climbing all over the seats along with a fresh pile of dog poop he was busy tracking all over my Traverse. To his training I will give credit he did poop on the newspaper in my car, unfortunately I wrap presents in newspaper. The poo was not just on newspaper it was on the presents wrapped in newspaper. Did I mention he is a large seven months old, and deposits deuces like a grown man. Awesome.

Trying to find a place open at 6:00 pm on Christmas Eve to buy cleaning supplies for the car took some time. Thank God for the one gas station that thoroughly hustled me with overpriced cleaning products.

By the time I made it back to the hotel, I was tired. I was tired of the smell, tired of the dog, and tired of the cold. I decided to relax in the hotel room before tackling the clean up of the Traverse. Mistake. I didn’t think that while I rested the poop in the back would freeze to the carpeted areas of the car, it did.

Maybe I’m not cut out for taking the dog on a road trip, or maybe it’s him. Possibly we should each take 50% of the blame on this nightmare before Christmas. I do know it might be a while before we try the Rooster road tip again. Maybe after the snow and the poo thaw. Maybe.