Tuesday, Sep 15, 2015 at 20:27
Hi Jody will copy and paste part of an article my wife wrote for the CMCA about this subject, hope it helps.
Parks and beaches
The main sources we use are Council/Shire websites. Many have useful maps showing the dog exercise areas, on leash and off.
In Western Australia the Local Government Association (WALGA) has developed a statewide App, called ‘Local Eye’. It lists dog friendly parks within a 20km distance of your location. The App is available on iTunes and the Google Play store. The Local Government Association of South Australia also has a similar App called, ‘My Local
Services’ available at the Apple Apps Store and Google Play store. Whilst really for residents of SA, it has a great list of dog friendly parks and events. Both Apps are free.
Pawclub.com.au has a national ‘
Places to go’ interactive map covering parks & beaches and other pet
services.
Camping
Most people are aware of the publications, Camps 8 Australia Wide and
Bush camping with dogs. In addition to these, we read a lot of camping, caravanning and 4WD magazines. Any dog friendly camping spots are cut out from the magazines and put in a folder.
Pet-Friendly Accommodation on Australia’s East Coast by Carla Francis. Covers 5 star hotels to
campground from
Melbourne to
Cairns. The beauty of this book is that it covers birds and horse friendly
places, not just cats and dogs.
Internet searching brings up a myriad of possible websites that can also help. Our experience though is that some of those sites are unreliable, cover only a few
places, are out of date, or pushing a particular brand of caravan park. Here’s a list of resources we regularly use when planning a trip.
We use forums a lot to
check out best
places on all pet friendly needs. Our favourites are, ‘The
Grey Nomads’ (free) (www.thegreynomads.com.au), it has a travelling with pets section on its
forum and the Exploroz
forum (subscription) (www.exploroz.com). Trip advisor is starting to get reviews about camping
places with and without dogs (www.tripadvisor.com.au)
Other sources are
blogs written by fellow travellers with pets, some are CMCA members. There are some newish websites on camping with dogs but have limited information at the moment. They are worth checking from time to time as they add more information to their sites. An Internet search on ‘camping with dogs in Australia’ generates a list of these types of sites.
Medical
Needing emergency vet treatment often is unexpected and can be in an unfamiliar location. If you are on the road permanent or for an extended period then regular checkup ups and vaccinations need to be done.
The Australian Veterinary Association has a national ‘find a vet’ tool on its website, www.ava.com.au. You can search by postcode or an interactive map. In non-metro areas where there is not a vet in every town, the results show vets that are in the nearest towns to the postcode you have entered. However, its limitation is that not all vets in Australia are AVA members. To overcome this, our second approach is to do an Internet search on any towns we will be staying in, or near, using the name of the town and the word ‘vet’ in the search.
Other good sources to locate a vet or understand how often the visiting vet comes to the town are visitor centres, local councils/shires and local business directories. Whilst many provide information online, it is sometimes necessary to email or phone to get the information. If you are staying in caravan parks then ask at the time of booking where the nearest vet is located.
The pet
first aid App on our smartphone has a feature to find a 24/7 emergency vet. It is called
First Aid for Pets Australia and is available for Android and Apple phones and it’s free.
Boarding
Visiting National Parks, if camping overnight at the park, means leaving pets somewhere else.
Pawclub.com.au has a national ‘
Places to go’ interactive map with boarding kennels and pet minding. The website has lots of very useful information and
tools for other aspects of pet ownership.
Kennel dog’s website (www.kennel-dog.com.au) has a national directory of dog boarding kennels. You can search by postcode or click on a link to download an alphabetical list of kennels in
Melbourne,
Adelaide,
Sydney,
Darwin,
Gold Coast,
Brisbane, Tasmania,
Perth or
Canberra.
Pet Industry Association website Member Directory (www.piaa.net.au/directory/). Click on the ‘About our Members’ tab and you will find a searchable section for member category (Pet Boarding and Dog Training Members) and the ability to chose which postcode or just by State. It’s an alphabetical list of businesses. It also includes pet sitters, not just boarding facilities.
Local vets sometime offer boarding short term and are worth checking with directly. Some RSPCA shelters and other dog rescue kennels take paid private clients to help raise funds for their rescue activities.
Sometimes the caravan parks offer pet minding. It is not unheard of for dog owners at a caravan park to look after each others pets so that people can go to
places where pets are not allowed.
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