Vanlife with a Pup

Meet our pup, Acadia, and hear about the experiences of living van life with a pup

Acadia may love the van more than us! Learn more about the best parts of having a dog in a van as well as our tips and tricks for vanlife with a pup.

Acadia, the @vanlifepup

Acadia is our beautiful one-year-old blue heeler-black lab mix. We got her in March 2020, just as the Coronavirus pandemic was starting in the U.S., when she was only 10 weeks old. We like to brag that she was potty trained at 13 weeks, learned how to sit and stay at 14 weeks, and now can give hugs and high fives -- yeah, we're those dog parents.

Acadia is named after Acadia National Park, one of our favorite places to travel. We first visited the park on our second roadtrip in May 2019 and had to visit again for our June 2020 honeymoon so Acadia could see her nameplace. (More about that in our travel vlogs)

Best parts of vanlife with a dog

“A dog creates and transcribes a new landscape for you." - Rick Bass

We've only ever lived in our van with our dog, so we don't necessarily have anything to compare the perks of vanlife with a dog to, but we will share what some of our favorite parts are.

1. A built-in heater.

We don't often have nights that are cold enough to need a heater, but when we do, Acadia is there! When it does get cold or when we travel someone with low temperatures at night, she cuddles right between us and becomes a small fire nearly burning anything that touches her.

2. You never really have to be alone.

Sometimes Adam works and Madi has the day off, or Madi works and Adam has the day to himself. Rather than being stuck truly alone all day, we have Acadia to keep us company! Whether it's hiking, hammocking, or cleaning the van, she's there for entertainment and moral support. We've had endless laughs from Acadia; she's quite the character. Adam receives hugs and kisses from her almost constantly, and Madi receives dirty looks and side eyes.... not sure what she did to deserve them, but how can you resist laughing at this face.

3. You have your whole family with you.

We couldn't imagine vanlife without Acadia. Although we had to leave our cat with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad), it feels like we have our whole family with us. This made the transition to vanlife easier for us. We had to leave a lot behind when we moved into the van, and when we moved down to Texas, and having Acadia with us through all of it was very special. She's part of our family and we're glad she's on this adventure with us.

Tips and tricks for vanlife with a dog

That being said, here are our top five tips and tricks for living in 50 square feet with two humans and one medium-sized dog.

1. Keep a small towel handy at the door you most often enter/exit.

This comes in handy when bad weather comes through, or when your pup just decides to take a mud bath. We have used our dog towel endlessly for potty runs in the rain. When you live in a small space it's important to keep it clean. This towel has prevented us from having to mop and vacuum her dirt up every day.

2. Make sure you have good air flow when you leave your dog in your van.

We don't leave Acadia alone in the van often. However, there have been times where we both have to work and she has to be alone. We make sure to crack a window and open the fan so she has plenty of airflow. This becomes SUPER important in warmer environments. Dogs are surprisingly heat-tolerant, but they do need adequate air circulation. On warm days we tend to keep the fan running, park in the shade, and put one of our small battery-operated fans on her cage.

3. Get outside at least once a day, you'll regret it if you don't.

We promise there will be days when nobody wants to go outside. Those are the worst days to take a walk, but they are also the most important days to take a walk. Dogs get cabin fever just as easily as humans do. Acadia has given us a run for our money on those gloomy days when we don't want to get out of bed: jumping and running everywhere she can in the van, knocking over water bottles and her food bowl... it was a mess. It has been critical that we take her outside every day. Here's a horror story if this hasn't convinced you yet.

We had been taking 4-5 mile walks and hikes for almost every day of Acadia's time with us. One day in mid fall we only took her out twice to go to the bathroom, not even walking outside our campsite. A couple days later we came back from grocery shopping and she had destroyed the following items:

- Two contact cases, with contacts in them

- Madi's SmartWool quarterzip hoodie baselayer

- Madi's Maui Jim sunglasses

- Madi's two carpel tunnel sleep wrist braces

..... yup, that actually happened. Moral of this story: take your dogs outside every day, even if you don't live in a van!

4. Make a tote or box just for dog stuff.

A spoiled dog has a lot of stuff. Acadia has toys, treats, a harness, a backpack harness, and all her monthly medication. With organization being so important in a small space, we had to come up with a way to keep her stuff together and easy to get to. We store all her items in a tote box that is labeled with Duct tape with her name on it. It goes in our garage under the bed right at the backdoors for easy access when we go on a hike or when we need a refill in her treat bag. We store her food in an old cat litter box (we cleaned it, I promise). We found that was the best way to keep her food dry, upright, and free from bugs. We keep a small compression sack of food up front and refill that instead of filling from the litter box (lol) when we run out up front.

5. ALWAYS check ahead of time if there are pet restrictions where you are visiting.

This one doesn't need much of an explanation. We've had problems in this area before. Madi booked some backcountry camping in a Texas state park for Adam's birthday in December without paying much attention to their pet policy. It ended up that no dogs were allowed in the backcountry area... so we stayed in the van in the parking lot - perk of vanlife! There are plenty of websites and blogs dedicated to traveling with a pet that detail the areas that do and do not allow dogs.

Follow more of Acadia's vanlife details on her Instagram, @vanlifepup.