NY to Durham NC to Las Vegas NV with Dog Mid-October

Hello!
My fiance, my dog and I are moving from Brooklyn NY to Las Vegas NV mid-October! We have our trip planned out nicely and a large suv rented for 7 days. This will be our first car trip together, all of us. Our dog is my profile picture, Mr. Lexington, who is a 22 month old 60lb black lab/pit mix. He's been great the few times we've had him in a car, but those have been 30 minute trips into Manhattan to see a vet, not a cross country road trip. I've purchased a seat belt harness, but I'll bet he'll prefer laying in his crate to being harnessed to a seat.

My reason for posting is I'm hoping to get route insights beyond google maps and some rest stop suggestions for unique delicious local food and dog friendly stops to keep ourselves sane on the road.

Here is the route we've planned:
Brooklyn NY to Durham NC
Durham NC to Jackson TN
Jackson TN to Oklahoma City OK
Ok City OK to Albuquerque NM
Albuquerque NM to Grand Canyon South Rim
Grand Canyon to Las Vegas

My fiance and I are planning on splitting the driving right down the middle, with each destination 9-10.5 hours away not including stops we should be fine, Durham to Jackson is our longest leg of the journey. We're not too touristy so our current places of interest would include the meteor crater in Winslow AZ and the Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock AR. But our priorities are to stay on schedule and get to Las Vegas.

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Keeping up a good pace, especially when traveling with children and/or pets, means that you have to make the best use of your stops, not just the time you're actually behind the wheel. You have to make more frequent stops as such critters require exercise and mental breaks from being cooped up in the car. The best way to do this is to take short hikes in natural settings not far from the main highways that you're following. Fortunately such stops are easy to find.

AZBuck