Travels with Boo!
Holidays or short breaks might be no more than a far distant dream at the moment for those of us lucky enough to be free from worry about health concerns thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. However, I wanted to talk about holidaying with Boo because it was something we did within months of adopting him.
I also thought it might inspire chat about favourite holidays or even allow us to dare to dream about our next ones with our beloved pooches.
With the lovely temperament he has, it has been awfully easy to take Boo on regular holidays with us. We don’t do a lot of flying to far off places, so that allows us to spend lovely holidays together within driving distance.
(FYI: This is not a paid for advertisement for the Republic of Ireland – although it might sound like it! Our far flung family means that we are lucky enough to be able to holiday in Ireland whenever we like. It is also a fantastic place to take your dog on holiday!)
We are lucky enough to have very close relatives on the beautiful west coast of Ireland and we have spent many happy holidays there watching the wind bending trees and the sands flying across the gorgeous beaches like desert storms. (The west of Ireland does get occasional warm weather too – honest!) Fortunately, rain and wind doesn’t seem to bother Boo and, to be honest, our years of experience have hardened us to Irish weather too.
Getting there…
Getting to Ireland’s far west coast can be quite a long journey by car, which will probably be your form of transport if you are taking your favourite four-legged friend. Added to that is the time taken to cross the Irish Sea by ferry. We travel from Holyhead and can choose from a number of different ferry options to help us to get to Dublin. Crossing the sea can take from 2 hours each way or longer depending upon how much you want to pay. Dogs must stay in your car or you can use the kennels on the car deck. Boo has always relaxed on the back seat with his blanket during the journey and he is used to the routine. When we used to take Mollie, we would get her some ‘relaxation’ tablets from our vet – it has never been necessary with Boo.
The roads across Ireland, from East to West, have improved a great deal over the last 20 years when it comes to ease of travel. It is quite do-able and there are lots of places to stop to stretch the legs along the way with your hairy travelling companion. We always have Boo’s water and food and his usual bowls easily accessible in the car and try to keep to his usual meal times during the journey.
The main route used to take us through the centre of a number of small traditional, ‘picture postcard’ towns such as Charlestown and Strokestown and around 6 hours or more to get across the country. In recent years, however, the route has been boosted by the creation of more dual-carriageways which bypass the smaller market towns. Not as interesting, but a whole lot faster!
As you can probably guess, Boo’s easy going nature and bucket loads of patience make him the ideal travel companion. His size and need to stretch out in comfort on a long journey, however, means that he takes up most of the interior of our estate car, leaving little room for luggage or growing children even though we have a roof box too.
Dogs are creatures of habit and need routine – when holidaying with them, it is best to take as many of their familiar items with you as you can – blanket, food, toys for example. To ease separation anxiety while you are there, always keep them with you.
Some advice from the experts…
The Kennel Club advises that owners should train their dogs not to bark or to move around the vehicle excessively when travelling. They also suggest using a special dog guard, dog cage or canine harness to keep them and you safe. We waited to be sure that Boo was happy to make increasingly lengthy car journeys before we even considered taking him to the west of Ireland. As a result, he still relaxes with us during the journey – often snoring or dribbling over our snacks.
I would also like to echo TKC advice about taking a recent photo of your pet pooch with you when you travel (very easy these days with mobile phones) so if, god forbid, your hairy pal goes missing, you have something to help others to help you to find him.
Beach beauties…
We are surrounded by beautiful, occasionally wild and blustery, beaches near to where our relatives live in Ireland. In that area alone, at least 10 of them are officially ‘dog friendly’. Often these usually huge beaches are scattered with locals (depending on the weather) and visitors taking in the magnificent scenery and stretching their legs with their dogs. As a family, we often don our wet-suits and, with a deep breath, enter the freezing (even in summer) but beautifully clear waves.
When we first used to take Boo, he would follow us up to the waves, have a go at biting the ripples and then sit on the sand unwilling to go any further than ankle deep. From there he would watch us without moving until all or one of us would come shivering out of the water.
As he became more used to this strange human activity (‘why would anyone want to do that?’- the usual expression on his face), he became brave enough to join us and exhibited some great doggy swimming strokes. Now he is getting on a bit, those occasions are fewer and far between.
These days, one of Boo’s favourite beach activities is sniffing the seaweed, hunting for left-over picnics and trying to decide the purpose of a beached jellyfish. He also often enjoys the occasional little play with another dog on the sand. We always ensure that Boo is beautifully behaved on the beach and, if we need to, we put him on his lead. We always scoop the poop – shame on you if you don’t! A bit of advice: take plenty of poop bags with you when you go to any beach just in case your dog, like Boo, provides a few extra ounces of sloppy poop, probably caused by his determination to guzzle sea water!
We love holidaying and enjoying summer fun with Boo – we hope we can continue to do so for a few more years to come.
Next time: Boo is best in show!
