RV Travel With a Senior Dog: What We Do for Rindo
RV travel with a senior dog works when you plan the days around the dog’s range and the heat, not your own. Our dog Rindo is twelve, so her walks stay at one to two miles round trip, and on a hot afternoon she stays in the trailer with the power on instead of coming along.
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She’s been with us in the Brinkley since our very first trip. Here’s what we’ve learned so far, with the park rules and the gear we bought for her toward the end.
Meet Rindo
Rindo is a mini goldendoodle of about 35 to 40 pounds. She is extremely mellow, and she’s also my service dog. That’s a different thing from an emotional support animal, and it matters a lot in national parks (more on that below). She travels everywhere with us, including flights to Costa Rica, where she rides in the cabin as a service animal.
She’s in the videos too. In Episode 1, while we were loading the trailer for the very first time, there she is in the footage, thinking she’s coming. (She was.)
How far can a senior dog walk on an RV trip?
For Rindo, one to two miles round trip. That’s the number we plan around now. Older trip plans pictured a doodle who needed hard daily exercise, and that’s just not her anymore.
So every walk we plan gets one of two labels. It’s either a Rindo walk or a trailer day for her, and both answers are fine. She’s comfortable staying in the trailer as long as the power is on, and running the generator for her is fine with us. That means a longer hike for us doesn’t get ruled out on her account. It just becomes a day she stays home.
Here’s how that sorts out at a couple of places we’ve camped. At Hovenweep, the Park Service allows leashed pets on the trails, and the Square Tower Loop is about 2 miles (primitive and steep in places). That’s the very top of her range. Up at Vedauwoo, near our free site on Forest Road 700, the Turtle Rock Trail is an easy 2.8-mile loop, so by our rule it’s a trailer day for her.
Two Rindo moments from the road. On our first trip, in Leadville, she and I headed out on our very first solo adventure, a walk with a storm building. It was her idea to come out on the walk (that’s what I told the camera, anyway). The thunder and lightning started, and we made it back just in time. And at Lathrop, our first official state park in the new RV, it was just us and one other trailer in the whole park. That gave Rindo plenty of room to explore.
She’s happiest in places like Rabbit Valley, where she can walk out of the trailer without being tied up and go smell things. There are no trees where we camp there, so we can always see where she is, and she doesn’t wander off.
How do you keep a dog safe from heat in an RV?
Heat is the one we take most seriously with a twelve-year-old dog. Here’s how we handle it:
- When it’s hot, walks move to early morning or evening.
- We treat hot pavement as a real hazard in places like Texas and Arizona.
- She only stays in the trailer when the power is on.
- Sensors watch the inside of the trailer while we’re gone.
We started with a Waggle RV Pet Temperature Monitor, bought in September 2025 before our first trips in the Brinkley. It runs on its own 4G cellular connection and sends real-time alerts if the temperature climbs or the power drops. That power alert matters, because the whole stay-in-the-trailer plan depends on the power staying on.
It has sent us alerts, but none that mattered, because Rindo wasn’t in the trailer (most of them came while we were driving). Honestly, I’ve been a bit unimpressed. Most of the times I actually needed an alert, it had no cell connection. These days we rely more on our SwitchBot setup. The Hub 2 reads the temperature, and we have sensors all over the place: in the main trailer, the garage, the fridge, the freezer and outside. When we switch it on and leave Rindo inside, it turns the air conditioning on by itself if the trailer gets above 92 degrees. The setup is a three-pack of SwitchBot indoor/outdoor thermometers working with a SwitchBot Hub 2. We still use the Waggle, and I check it all the time.
The Park Service is blunt about cars, and it’s worth hearing. Hovenweep’s pet page says not to leave pets in the car when it’s above 68°F, even with the windows cracked. Mesa Verde says its temperatures are often too high to safely leave pets inside vehicles.
Getting a senior dog in and out of a travel trailer
Our Brinkley’s entry steps came as bare metal, and they’re slippery. When we were sorting this out in August, I put it like this: “She slips, but I think she’s also hesitant.” Those are two different problems, and one fix doesn’t solve both.
What she loves is a set of folding dog stairs with a fake grass surface (they’re on our travel trailer setup list too). We bought two sets, the first in January 2026 for $64.77 and the second in May for $75.76. One went at the trailer door, because the RV steps are slippery. The other is for the truck, because the truck is too high for her. That truck set is critical, and I won’t let her out of the truck without it.
At the trailer, we’ve since put turf rugs on the entry steps, and they’ve been great. So she doesn’t use the grass stairs at the RV much anymore.
What are the campground pet rules?
They change from park to park, so read them before you book. Texas state parks are a good example of how strict they can get. Their FAQ says you must be with your pet at all times, and that you may not leave it unattended in a vehicle or at your campsite. Texas counts trailers and RVs as vehicles. Some of those rules don’t apply to service dogs, but if your dog is a pet, plan around that one.
Then there are the park-by-park rules. A few from places we’ve camped:
- Catalina State Park doesn’t allow dogs in the bighorn sheep area beyond Montrose Pools.
- Brazos Bend has alligators, and it asks you to keep pets out of the lakes.
- Kartchner Caverns doesn’t allow pets on cave tours.
- Camp Eddy in Grand Junction welcomes dogs and has its own dog park.
In town we look for dog-friendly patios first, so Rindo can come with us.
Can dogs go on national park trails?
It depends on the park, and the rules for pets are much tighter than the rules for service dogs. Mesa Verde keeps pets off the trails on its Mesa Top Loop and out of its buildings. Hovenweep allows leashed pets on its trails and in the campground, but not in the visitor center. Both require a leash no longer than 6 feet.
Service dogs are a different category. The Park Service says service dogs are legally permitted anywhere visitors can go, and only dogs qualify. The dog has to be trained to perform a specific task for a person with a disability, and it has to be under its handler’s control. Emotional support and comfort animals are not service animals, so the pet rules apply to them.
When it isn’t obvious, park staff can ask only two questions. Is the animal required because of a disability? And what work or tasks has it been trained to perform? Under Park Service policy, they can’t require documentation or a certificate. Rindo is my service dog, so she can go where I go. The Park Service draws that line carefully, and so do we.
The dog gear we actually bought for the road
None of this is fancy, and it isn’t much money next to everything else that went into the trailer.
One note on the tie-out cables. Before you clip any dog to a 25-foot cable, check the campground’s leash rule. Hovenweep says pets must be on a leash no longer than 6 feet at all times, even in your campsite, and Texas state parks set the same 6-foot limit. The rest of what we carry is on our packing lists.
Here’s the dog gear we bought for the road:
| Item | Bought | We paid |
|---|---|---|
| Waggle RV Pet Temperature Monitor (4G) | Sep 2025 | $75.57 |
| Folding dog stairs with a grass rug | Jan 2026 | $64.77 |
| ONETIGRIS raised dog bed (a mesh cot) | Apr 2026 | $60.45 |
| Bonza collapsible dog bowls | Apr 2026 | $10.79 |
| “Just Chillin'” pet safety sign for the vehicle | Apr 2026 | $17.28 |
| Second set of folding dog stairs | May 2026 | $75.76 |
| Two tie-out cables, 15 feet and 25 feet | May 2026 | $38.85 |
| Total | $343.47 |
Questions people ask
Can you leave a dog alone in an RV at a campground?
It depends on the park’s rules and the weather. Texas state parks say you may not leave a pet unattended in a vehicle or at your campsite, and they count RVs as vehicles. Where it’s allowed, we only leave Rindo with the power on and sensors running that can alert us.
Are dogs allowed on national park trails?
Pets are allowed on some trails and banned from others, so check each park’s pet page. Hovenweep allows leashed pets on its trails, while Mesa Verde allows them on only some of its trails. Service dogs can go anywhere visitors can go.
How hot is too hot to leave a dog in a car?
Hovenweep National Monument tells visitors not to leave pets in the car when it’s above 68°F, even with the windows cracked. Mesa Verde warns that cracking a window isn’t enough to keep a car cool.
How far should a senior dog walk?
It depends on the dog, and your vet is the right person to ask. For Rindo at twelve, our planning number is one to two miles round trip. Anything longer becomes a day she stays at the trailer.
See you down the road,
Matt