We made a six day road trip from Colorado to North Carolina to pick up our Vizsla puppy, Zooka.  Personally, we prefer road trips over flying, which we outline why here, with tips on making a successful road trip with a new puppy.

We crammed in a lot of driving over two days to reach our destination.

The day of pick up from the breeder was an easy drive through the Great Smoky Mountains for some scenic driving.  We got a chance to meet some of Zooka's other siblings and his mom, watch them play (video below) and spend time with our breeder.

The final three days included six hours max travel so we had plenty of time for breaks along the way. We are setup to RV camp in our van, but we lack air conditioning for sleeping, so we decided to stay in hotels since it was very hot and humid.

Our little Zooka was a fabulous traveler, letting us know when he needed potty breaks or meals (by screaming – his signals were not subtle!) and doing plenty of play, exploring and observing during our stops.

Zooka napped during most of the drive time. When he was awake, he self-entertained well with the toys and a bully stick in his crate.

When driving, we use travel crates to keep our dogs safe. Zooka was in a travel crate set up right behind our driver/passenger seat so we could see him and he could see us.

At our stops, Zooka was very good at pottying in the grass. He loved to sit and watch people, other dogs (from a distance – no introducing to other dogs right now) and vehicles. None of it scared him, which was great, because our breeder had already taken him on several field trips before we headed home with him. Loud motorcycles or trucks were of interest but did not startle him.

Before Zooka turned 10 weeks old, he has traveled from North Carolina through Georgia (just a corner, so no stops here), Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and home to Colorado.

We mapped our route including the stops we made on the return trip in the map below.