ThinkstockWith more families traveling with their four-legged friends than ever, it’s important to know logistics and tips to make your trips as enjoyable as possible for all involved.

Long-term travel with large-breed dogs is absolutely rewarding. As we near the three-month mark of traveling the United States with our Labrador, we are thrilled with the memories we’ve been able to make and the deeper level our relationship with her has reached. That said, extended travel is far from perfect, and trying to pull it off with a dog brings additional challenges, to be sure. As we find our way and work out the kinks, there are few areas of note other travelers may find helpful.

Sipping

While indoor restaurants and patio dining options often prove to be too much stimulation for our lovable Labrador, she tends to do pretty well behaviorally at places such as wineries, breweries and other beverage-only establishments. At a winery in Dahlonega, Georgia, she relaxed with her water bowl and a chew treat while we taste-tested a flight of reds. When we noticed how focused and settled she was when food wasn’t around, we knew we were on to something.

Now, whenever we try a new place, we look for drink options such as bar happy hours, microbrewery tasting sessions and vineyard trails with pet-friendly wineries. It’s an activity she can participate in, and it allows us to shop for dinner beverages to take back to our cabin or hotel. Win-win in our book. With the bar and canine happy hour option, we try to search out venues that don’t offer much more to eat than bar pretzels. Once food enters the equation, all bets are off when it comes to the level of self-control she’ll be able to exhibit. As long as we stick to sipping though, we’re good to go.

Supervision

Pets are like toddlers sometimes. Just when you think you can safely turn your head for a split second to answer a phone or lock a car door, chaos will surely ensue. Although we certainly exercise a greater degree of responsibility than some of the other pet owners we meet on the road, in the end we’re human beings just like everyone else. Nobody gets it perfect every time, nor can you accurately predict every antic your four-legged child will try to exhibit.

Recently, while getting ready to take our Labrador for a walk, I unzipped the tent flap and grabbed the leash to attach to her collar so we could enjoy some trails near where we were camping. She had been quietly napping for the last half hour, giving no indication of any impending mischief. One look at the scampering squirrel making his way down from a nearby tree, however, and she was bounding out of that tent like a rattlesnake on crack. Needless to say, the next few minutes did not flow smoothly.

Our new procedure? Forming a two-person human chain whenever we need to transition her from one environment to another. This provides backup to the person who is coordinating gear, treats and other supplies as well as locking up the vehicle or hotel room while we make our way to the next activity. This is particularly critical once we get her out of the SUV, since there are usually multiple tasks remaining. One of us will hold the harness and get the leash attached while the other finishes packing out.

Space

If you’ve never tried to pack light while taking a large-breed dog along for a road trip, you may find yourself a bit shocked at the amount of room required for both your canine and their gear. These same belongings add significantly to the pack-out time required for settling in at the hotel. While we still have her saddle bags, they’re loaded a little heavy for her senior hips to handle on a regular basis and serve more as a piece of luggage that we — her service humans — transport for her at each hotel stop. That said, she still likes to feel like she has her independence. Similarly, since we currently lack the ability to grow extra arms and hands, we like to have her be able to carry a few things for quick rest stops and daycare drop-offs.

Collapsible containers and other gear with carabiner clips make life a great deal easier. We can clip her water bowl to the ring on her lift harness along with a water bottle and a tied-on bandana to stay ready for adventure in city parks, highway rest areas and impromptu picnic spots. One brand in particular that has collapsible gear for pets of all sizes is Popware for Pets. In addition to water and food bowls, they have a KlipScoop, which is a collapsible one-cup serving scoop for dog food that also serves as one side of a two-handled bag clip to keep kibbles contained. A majority of their items fall in the $7-to-$15 price range, and the color selection is varied.

The size of your dog food purchases can also play a role, particularly if you’re used to buying in bulk. If the brand you favor offers smaller bags more suitable for limited cargo space, this will help you out a great deal on the road. For example, the food we previously used was available only at a specialty store in our hometown. Now that we are on the road full time, we need a food she enjoys that’s available everywhere.

For us, that’s meant Beneful Healthy Weight by Purina. It’s affordable and available in smaller-sized sacks, and we can pick it up at department and discount stores across the country. Similarly, when we pick up snack stashes for the Jeep, we try to purchase ones that come in a resealable flat pack. They tuck easily into the storage pouches on the backs of our seat covers, making them easy to reach when she needs reinforcement during fuel and errand stops.

Streamlining

It’s no secret to those of us who travel frequently with our dogs that the industry has some serious gaps when it comes to accessibility. Pet fees run the gamut from nonexistent and modest to steep and completely unreasonable. My personal top peeve is the nightly pet fee. There’s no way any staff member is going to be performing a top-to-bottom fur removal every day of your stay. Charging a fee every 24 hours is beyond ridiculous. Especially when temper-tantrum-throwing toddlers wielding sticky lollipops and colored markers consistently get a total pass.

Similarly, it isn’t uncommon for the front desk staff to greet you with a pet policy the size of a hefty magazine and proceed to walk you through access procedures that can involve anything from avoiding the common lobby area for entry and exit, to walking a block plus to a canine potty break area and then sticking you on the top floor. I would argue that if management has put that much time into creating a policy that makes animals virtually invisible to the average guest, the establishment in question isn’t pet-friendly. It’s begrudgingly pet-tolerant. At best.

When you’re planning a weekend getaway or a weeklong vacation, avoiding the less friendly venues can be a simple matter of planning ahead. Wrangling a dog, a business, a marriage and day-to-day logistics full time from the road, however, can leave you at the mercy of front desk meanies more often than you might find comfortable.

I’m not sure why certain segments of the travel industry have upped their game while others still stubbornly refuse to step up. Especially when there’s a significant amount of money on the line. According to DogVacay’s second annual State of U.S. Pet Travel study conducted by Nielsen, 14 percent of dog owners have missed an important life event or trip due to difficulties in coordinating pet arrangements. Of that 14 percent, 69 percent stated they’d missed a spontaneous weekend getaway. That’s a boatload of cash that could be contributing to the bottom line of the hospitality industry.

The 2014 Portrait of American Travelers report by MMGY Global provides similar results, including a noteworthy 26 percent of millennials who specifically search for hotel rooms that allow pets when they travel. The MMGY data also showed that of the 27 percent of travelers who have taken a staycation this year, 16 percent of them did so because they didn’t want to leave their pets behind. Clearly, there’s money to be made by making travel easier for man’s best friend. Those businesses willing to take a hard look at their policies and increase pet accessibility should be able to cash in on significant financial rewards.