I'm pretty happy with with the two vehicals we use for our dogs. One is a Honda Element. I find it's perfect for me, some training equipment and two dogs. I have the all wheel drive version. It's easy maintanence, decent gas milage, and works well in the summer in that the doors all open up in a way that provides a lot of air circulation once you're at training. I also have a few fans that plug in the back as well.
The other car is a '97 wrangler that I use when I just have one dog with me. Now most everyone is probably thinking I'm nuts because the wrangler doesn't really have much room. I do lots of tracking, and go to lots of trials. In a lot of these occations with just one dog along we go into some pretty rough areas. The 4 wheel drive has helped a lot over the years.
When we want to haul more than one or two, we simply bring our 4 place jones trailer. I really sold on dog trailers. All the equipment can simply be placed inside, and the dogs have more room inside the trailer than they have in the crates. We chose the jones because it fit our needs the best, but there are certainly others out there that do a good job.
I was pleasantly suprised with my Honda, as it pulls our trailer with no problem at all. Our trailer weighs @ 1050 lbs with 4 dogs inside so it's not too heavy. The wrangler pulls the trailer as well, and it's actually kind of fun in the summer time to take the trailer and put the top down on the jeep after training, or coming home from a trial.
As an example of the above, I'll start loading up for training in @ a half hour and we're taking the jeep and the trailer. I put a bikini top on the jeep that covers the front seat and wire crate in the back. I also took the doors off today. Hex, (my older GSD) gets to ride in the jeep, and the others get to ride in the trailer. After training when we stop for lunch, the jeep & trailer combination isn't much longer than a full sized extended cab pickup. So parking generally isn't an issue.
When we first got the trailer, we had a series of pickup trucks. A couple of Chevy Silverado's, and a Nissan Titan. While I liked the way they pulled the trailer, it was really hard to park in an urban situations. That's part of the reason I went with the wrangler/trailer combo.
Al Govednik
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