Traveling With Your Dog or Cat This Summer? The 2026 Road Trip Safety Guide

Pet travel is having a moment. Recent polling shows about a quarter of U.S. pet owners now bring their pets along on trips — a big jump from just a couple of years ago — and when dogs travel, the overwhelming majority go by car. If your summer plans include a road trip with your dog or cat, a little prep turns a stressful drive into an easy one.

Restraint isn’t optional

An unrestrained pet becomes a projectile in even a low-speed crash — and a scared, uninjured pet loose at a crash scene is one of the most common ways travel turns into a lost-pet emergency. Use a crash-tested harness that clips into a seatbelt, or a secured carrier or crate in the back seat. Front seats and airbags don’t mix with pets.

Dogs and cats need different kits

A cat’s travel kit isn’t a dog’s kit minus the leash. Cats need carrier acclimation ahead of the trip (leave the carrier out at home for a week with a familiar blanket inside), a disposable litter setup, and a lighter meal a few hours before departure. Dogs need water for every stop, waste bags, and a leash that goes on before the car door opens — rest stops are prime bolting territory.

Plan your stops like they matter (they do)

Every 2–3 hours, stop for water, a stretch, and a bathroom break. Keep the AC running the whole time someone’s in the car with the pets, and never leave them in a parked car at a rest stop — interiors can turn dangerous in minutes even on a mild day.

The ID layer: where most travel plans fail

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about traveling with pets: if your dog slips a collar at a gas station 400 miles from home, nobody in that town knows your pet, your vet, or your neighborhood Facebook group. Your pet’s ID has to do all the work.

That’s exactly the scenario a Shiloh’s House smart NFC tag is built for. A stranger in any town taps the tag with any modern phone and your pet’s full profile opens instantly — your cell, a backup contact, medical notes — no app for them to download, no local shelter hours to wait out. And because the profile lives in the free Lohji app, you can add your hotel or campsite as a temporary contact note the moment you arrive, then remove it when you head home. An engraved tag can’t do that. (Deciding between technologies? Here’s our honest NFC vs QR vs engraved comparison.)

Before you pull out of the driveway

Confirm your microchip registry has your current phone number (they work as a team — here’s why you want both), photograph your pet on your phone that morning, pack any medications with a day or two of buffer, and check that vaccination records are handy — Lohji stores those right on your pet’s profile, which beats digging through a glovebox.

The bottom line

Restrain every pet on every ride, stop every couple of hours, pack by species, and make sure a total stranger in an unfamiliar town can reach you in ten seconds flat. Do those four things and the road trip photos will be the only dramatic part of the story. Shop Shiloh’s House smart pet tags before you load the car, and check out our full pet travel checklist for the packing list.