Travel is a significant source of stress for many companion animals. Understanding species-specific needs and preparation strategies makes travel safer and less aversive.
Companion animal travel welfare is often treated as an inconvenience to manage rather than a genuine welfare concern. For many animals, travel is intensely aversive, involving unfamiliar motion, sounds, smells, and confinement. Preparation through systematic desensitisation and counterconditioning can transform travel from a traumatic experience to a manageable one. For animals with severe travel anxiety, veterinary intervention including anti-nausea and anxiolytic medication is both appropriate and welfare-positive. The goal should be to minimise necessary travel and make unavoidable travel as comfortable as possible.