If you have been on the road for a while or you’re just starting and the thought of traveling alone scars you. A pup might be just what you need. The next part sucks though what type of dog do you want to get, A poodle, a boxer, a mutt, I will make this choice so much easier for you.
Choosing a dog will boil down to four things: size, temperament, age, and consumption. A smaller dog helps keep your small home more manageable. When you are traveling and you head into town you will be exposing your dog to so many people, so it’s important that your dog is nice and well behaved. The age of your dog is very important too. In training dogs, a puppy is easier than training an older (2+ years old) dog. Not to mention a healthy younger dog will be much more apt to deal with the cold or heat. Finally, the consumption of water and food is very important. Water is gold in van life and if your big dog chugs a gallon a day you will be needing to get water every day and that would suck. So let’s dive into the specifics!
Let’s begin this with this statement. Any dog can be a van life dog. All dogs will have pitfalls. This guide is meant to make your van life dog genetically set up for success in van life. So when I say a Great Dane is not good for a van life dog it’s based on broad statistics, not your Great Dane.
We have Sage, a mutt that weighs about 50 lbs and standing on her back legs is about 5 ft tall from the sole of her foot to her nose. So overall I rank her as a medium-sized dog. Dogs are generally measured in inches to their shoulder. Sage is approximately 15 in. sing just what I would consider a perfect sized dog. However, her weight makes her consume a little bit more food than ideal.
Size
Size is the first thing to consider when going in the van life. You are getting ready to live in probably less than a hundred square foot and every single inch is important. Ideally, your self converting your van, so you can account for the space that your dog is going to take up. In my opinion, it is imperative to allow a dog their own space to be able to go, to feel safe. Mainly when you are driving or sleeping. I don’t believe in crate training for a means to restrict your dog, but to allow them a space that they always feel safe. For this reason, the size of your dog directly relates to the size of the “crate” in your van. So the smaller the dog easier it is to make sure they have antiquated space. However, there is an argument for having a larger dog in the van. When I leave my wife alone in the van in a sketchy area with my dog she is perfectly comfortable. This is because Sage is big enough to defend her in any situation. Sage has a pretty aggressive bark and you would never know she is as small as she is. So If Alesha is offset and Sage barks, yes it sounds like there is a much larger dog in that van and then there actually is. For that reason, there is an argument to have a larger dog when traveling alone. I’ve had this conversation multiple times with my wife. If she was travelling alone she would feel more comfortable with a dog the size of Sage than a chihuahua.
Size also directly correlates to how your dog is viewed in public. A big dog like a pit bull, German Shepard, or a Doberman won’t be as easily accepted as a smaller dog like a Springer Spaniel or a Terrier. People have a tendency to fear the larger dogs. The exception as far as breeds go is a lab or retriever. They are for some reason universally viewed as a loving and happy dog. So they are the exception to that notion.
But why would I care what people think of my dog?
Simply put, once you’re living in Van life your dog is going to be out and about in the world so much more because you will be out in the world. No more going in your backyard to play with your dog to make sure they are well-exercised, you’re going to have to go to a dog park or a normal Park to run off your dog’s energy. So if you show up to a park because the local dog park is way too small, yes that happens a lot with me, it’ll be easier to have your dog off-leash if it’s less intimidating.
What temperament should my dog have?
Temperament is also very important as far as determining the correct dog do join you in your van life travels. The main reason is having an overly aggressive dog could cause you many problems. Much as stated before, your dog is going to be out in public. This means if they attack or bite a child you’re going to be held responsible for that. And it’s not like you can lock your dog in your house or in your backyard after this occurs. You are going to remain out with the public because of your lifestyle. There are a few ways to get around that such as a muzzle or just going to less populated areas.
Not to mention if your dog is overly aggressive, they can give away the fact that you were sleeping in your van. There’s nothing worse than someone walking by your window to get into their car late at night and your dog barking at them. This was something that took Sage months before she was comfortable with. she also has a tendency to look out our back window. Luckily she doesn’t bark at people when she does that however if she was more aggressive and she did bark at those people, we would have a lot harder time stealth camping in large cities.
What is the best age for my van life dog?
Choosing the right age for your van life dog, ultimately changes what you’re going to need to train for and how careful you need to be with them. The perfect example of this is if you were going on a 12-mile hike and planning on backpacking in the woods, would you want to take your 13-year-old dog? No, because they probably wouldn’t be able to make the hike and it would ultimately make the endeavor much less enjoyable. So it’s important that you get a dog that can be as active or more active than you. Sage is 2 years old and the fittest and active dog I know. So I’m not worried about her during a hike I’m worried about me completing the hike.
Another big thing that goes with the age of a dog is their tolerance to heat and cold. When you’re living in a van you are completely subject to the weather. If it’s 100 degrees outside That’s how hot is going to be in the van. That means that you are going to be in that heat and your dog is going to be in that heat. There are a couple of tricks to make sure that you stay cool however you can’t get away from how hot it is outside. The younger dog will be able to handle that temperature so much better. Not to mention it when it gets cold outside a younger dog will be able to make a more luscious and thick winter coat.
The benefits of getting a young dog are that you’re not inheriting someone else’s problem. What I mean by that is if you hate begging you and you rescue a dog that’s older and begs you would need to train that out of them. Whereas if you got a puppy they won’t have that problem and you don’t have to train them out of that habit. Sage was young but was heavily abused by the time we got her. She still hasn’t gotten over men with hats but It’s taking a long time for her to be comfortable around people.
The downside to puppies is their susceptibility to heat and cold, just like old dogs are however they grow out of it quicker. By six to eight months you don’t have to worry about them like you do an old dog. Also, people are much more willing to approach a puppy, this will make your dog much more well-behaved around people in the long run.
Getting a dog that is as young as possible is probably your best bet. The time that you will need to baby them will be very minimal. Usually Around 6-18 months. Getting a dog that is older is also very possible, just be aware that they will have tendencies that may make van life hard.
What is consumption and why is it important?
In van life water is gold. Your life will revolve around whether or not your water tank is full half full or empty. Trust me this part of Van life genuinely sucks. Sage drinking a ton of water and then pukes it on our floor. It’s incredibly frustrating when we run out of water filling up her water bowl and then she manages to drink half of it and then water puke onto the floor. She’ll then proceed to finish her bowl, look up and say, “Can I have some more water.” What a little butt.
This also goes for food as well. We have a small bucket where we put her food. It’s literally the biggest bucket we can fit in the space and set aside for her food. Ultimately it means that we have to buy her food every 2 weeks It would be incredibly difficult if she ate that amount of food in a week. One of my friends has a Great Dane and she says that she goes through a 50-pound bag of dog food in 2 weeks. There’s no way we’ll be able to store that much food in the van. This kind of relates to the size of your dog and Is determined by the activity level of your dog. An active German Shepherd will eat much more than a non-active or older German Shepherd. As a general rule of thumb for van life plan on your dog is active.
So now that we went over the different things that will make up a good van life dog let’s talk about different breeds that will make the perfect van life dog.
I have made a spreadsheet numerous different dogs and rank them on these categories as well as a couple of categories that may matter to you. You can download it below.
Feel free to add your own dogs and rank them for yourself. These are only my opinions based on their stats.
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