3 Border Collies and a 26BH...

[justrfb]

Hello All.
New here but not new to camping or forums. Sorry if this has been covered before but with a quick search, I didn't see any thing specific to our question. We are long time pop up campers and are thinking about "pulling the trigger" on a 2017 Jay Flight 26BH Elite. We have 3 Border Collies. What is your experiences camping in a TT (hard side!!! Yeah!) with dogs? More specifically, what do you do to protect them on HOT days with brown or black out threat, generator?.. Also, how are pets "accepted" by camping neighbors? Any other thoughts? We will be camping mostly in the North East... Thank you.

P.S. Any thoughts on this specific model would be nice too if you please.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Rich

[Siamese]

We have a 2017, 26BH that we use to travel a lot in the south during the winter and the occasional weekend trip in our home state, Michigan during the summer.

We always bring our two mouse terriers (siamese cats) with us. They love the traveling, and we have a pet door in the right side nightstand that leads to their litter box that's partitioned off from the rest of the storage area.

So, not three dogs, but our two cats that we've managed to accommodate. You'll figure out what you need to do to keep your dogs happy and comfortable. I don't think you'll have a problem finding room for them.

For what it's worth, the 26BH is an easy trailer to reconfigure. Kind of radical, but we took out the top rear bunk, and now the lower bunk is my wife's (Snore-zilla) bed/den. Wire shelves on the back wall take care of her clothes and things.

We took out the queen bed and the dividing wall between the bedroom and kitchen. And, swung the sofa 90 degrees and have it agains the left side wall. We have a four foot wide bed on the front wall of the trailer. Now, we have a huge living room with an L shaped sitting areal. Hooks on the wall by the door for all our coats, and a shelf unit on the floor under the coats for shoes, purses, and so on. Lots of space with no slide! The cats have room to run around, and we never have to do the 26BH sideways shuffle to get around.

So, we got a little radical, but it's our trailer's job to keep us and our pets comfy for up to a month at a time. The pets are important members of our family, and make the trailer our home. You'll make it work.

P.S.
We seldom camp where it's really hot. Michigan a little in the summer, and The deep south in the winter, so temps are always moderate. We're seldom without an electrical hookup, so we have AC when we occasionally need it. We use the furnace more often. If we stop somewhere just to eat, we'll put the cats in the trailer with the windows open.

We have a generator strapped into the pickup bed under the topper, and leave it there when we run it, although it's not powerful enough to run AC. A 3500 watt unit could sit in that spot if we needed AC, and would never have to be lugged around, as long as it has sufficient oxygen.

Our camping neighbors are seldom aware we have cats onboard, except when we walk them on their leashes. I'll admit that when we pull into a site at a campground and see dogs next door, we cringe because many owners allow their dogs to bark and don't keep them on a leash. For the most part, owners seem to be responsible. If the campground allows dogs, and you keep the quiet and leashed, I doubt very much that anyone will have any objection. Most likely, your dogs will make new friends wherever they go.

[oldmanAZ]

Hello to you and welcome to the forum.

We haven't yet camped with our dogs where high temps were a potential issue. We have looked into temp monitoring and reporting devices and may buy a MOTOROLA MC4000 for our next trip (early 2020). It uses a cell phone connection with a battery backup in case of a power failure. Where we are likely to be camping, a WiFi devices won't work for us.

Our dogs are ALWAYS tethered/leashed when outside and we ALWAYS clean up after them so there have never been issues in that regard. We close the blinds when gone, and our dogs don't bark unless someone knocks on the door so no issues there, either.

Sadly, our camping has NOT been in the NorthEast, but almost everywhere else.

[RetiredOne]

Originally Posted by justrfb

We are long time pop up campers and are thinking about "pulling the trigger" on a 2017 Jay Flight 26BH Elite. We have 3 Border Collies. What is your experiences camping in a TT (hard side!!! Yeah!) with dogs?

Just wondering, did they camp with you in the pop ups? How did you handle the heat there?

[justrfb]

Good question RetireOne...

They did camp with us but it will be a little different as we used to camp at our now (sadly) shut down Border Collie Rescue in upstate New York. There, we didn't have a need to leave them in our camper for any length of time without us. They were always with us, either in the PU or out hiking, playing, relaxing or eating... If we get this new 26BH, we would like to travel to see places and imagine leaving the dogs in the TT when we go sight seeing or out to dinner lets say... Don't suspect it will happen often or for too long of time but if we go out and leave the dogs... What can we expect from our neighbors? We heard stories of people breaking camper windows to get "trapped" dogs out? What do you do in case of brown or black out? We do have a generator(portable)... Are they allowed? we are just wondering because if we cant really bring the dogs and leave them for short periods of time, then it really doesn't make sense to go with a "hard side"... Thanks for the interest and help.

Sincerely,
Rich

[Chet & Marie]

We have camped with our 2 Scotties in tents, pop ups, and now a travel trailer for almost 40 years now with no problem. When outside we have them on long leashes and always clean up after them. If we leave them in the TT it is for short periods of time and leave the AC on if it is hot. Otherwise we leave the windows open with a fan on. They do not carry on while we are gone but usually take a nap on our bed or the couch and get a treat when we leave. We would not imagine boarding them as we enjoy their company on our many camping trips each year.

[wags999]

AT many campgrounds you will be fine. Some have a limit of 2 animals which would cause an issue. I would ask before making reservations. Some will also not allow dogs to be left alone even in an RV, they usually can recommend a local shelter that will house them for a day or so, it has to do with barking. Nothing more irritating than having a dog bark everything someone drives or walk down the street. As far as generators, most campgrounds with electrical hookup's don't allow generators, again for the noise bothering others. If your dogs are well behaved and you ask the policy before you make a reservation you shouldn't have any issues. As others have said, there are devices that will monitor electric and notify if it should go out.


Good Luck.


PS you would have the same issues even with a pop up, or any other type of RV.

[justrfb]

Hello All again.

Thank you for your replies on our dogs question. We still haven't decided to "pull the trigger" on this camper as we are mulling it over, leaning more towards "no, not at this time"... We are happy and understand about the AC and monitoring systems but there is one of our dogs who sometimes is a little more excited... I/we appreciate your offer of experience and advice, thank you.

Sincerely,
Rich and Annemarie

[justrfb]

Well...

We did it!!! Here is our (NTU) 2017 Jay Flight 26BH.

Now, the fun starts... EMS, pressure regulator, filter, sewer hose, levelers, chocks...