animals left in vans!

If, and a big if in weather like we are having, the van is cool inside and the dog(s) dont bark or howl, I dont see it should be a problem. On rare occasions we have left them for up to 6 hours when we are home, so apart from the heat why should it be any different in a van?. I hate to see dogs, large and small, dragged round shops, shows etc. they cant possibly enjoy the experience, especially when it is very hot.

This weekend, we had all windows/skylights open and blinds drawn, including windscreen covered. it was cooler in the van than outside. It was a C &CC rally so it was possible to do this, not so safe on a commercial site.

I think perhaps a lot of sites have a 'no dogs to be left in vans' policy to prevent yapping, barking, howling, whining dogs - not all dogs behave like this - thank goodness!
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My dogs are full members of my family and although have had to leave them at kennels for long weekends when I visit my daughter in Spain, they usually come with us.
That sometimes means if we go out for a drink or meal or festival (Which we all know the Spanish love), we leave them at HOME in the motorhome.
They do regard the motorhome as their home, they have their beds and we make sure the motorhome is well ventilated.
Sometimes when it has been quite hot we have left them for half to quarter of a day in the motorhome as it is cooler than sitting in the sun (which we like). They are happy, they have freedom to move about, drink water, sleep, look out the window. They are secure knowing no matter where we are they have a walk morning and evening and we are in doubt prefer this to living in a cage for a fortnight.
They are also well socialised and do not get nervous in towns or country as a consequence.

We normally leave our dogs in our small motorhome. We have a thermostatic fan in the roof and mostly park so the back of the van is facing the sun (no windows at rear), if it is going to help I put up the internal or external silver screens.

But and its a big but you can get caught out if you don't think about it all the time.

We left them for only 40 minutes on a cool but sunny day in Orkney. We went out well wrapped up against the wind but when we got back it was warm in the van, the dogs weren't exactly distressed but one was panting a bit. On that occasion the sun was coming in the side and we didn't leave the fan on. So that brought it home to us to be even more careful in future.

Just to put that into perspective both dogs have been lying in the sun panting all day today and could we get them into the shade ......

We will leave our dogs in our coachbuilt van for several hours.

To do so we pull up the silver blinds to keep the sun out. There is a Fiamma turbo vent roof fan with thermostat. If neccesary, we will leave an oscolating table fan on too. The van will then stay within 1 degree of outside ambient temperature. We have an in/out temp guague, so can monitor this.

One of our dogs is very nervous, her van is her home, she is far more content in there than outside.

Our dogs are our top priority. Not everybody is like this, but what what really gets my goat is people making ill-informed statements like dogs should not be left in vans.

Our dogs are rescue dogs, both were in a cage for up to a year before rehoming. What is cruel in my opinion is sending them to boarding kennels, back to a cage.

The clubs that run dog shows under Kennel Club authority are paranoid about not leaving dogs in vehicles. I can understand why as there've been several cases, over the years, where dogs have died due to heat build up. You'd think that to participate in shows you must be a dog lover, but some people just don't seem to understand how quickly spaces like cars and vans can warm up, even with windows open, and how distressingly hot they can become. Even with full page warnings in entry schedules and catalogues and constant PA warnings during the event people still do it.

Several years ago our Rosie was entered at Leeds Dog Show when we had three beardies and our panel van. Our pup wasn't old enough to be let in the show, so Mrs SDA took Rosie off to the showground. I unfurled the awning and put up the puppy pen, leaving the sliding side and rear lifthatch doors wide open. It was a beautiful day and the temperature was way up in the '80's. Both the puppy and our oldie beardie stayed with me and lazed around under the awning. They seemed to prefer to stay outside, where there was a slight breeze, to snoozing in the van, which effectivly had one third of it's sides open to the air as well as fully open Heki's.

Three times during the day there was a patrol around all vehicles in the car parking areas to check no dogs were in distress. Apparently they found two cars with dogs in that had to have their owners called urgently. When they saw our set up the stewards thought it was wonderful and wished more people operated like that.

SDA