Like many many others, we have not travelled anywhere in the last 18 months. This is 99.9% due to COVID, 0.1% due to Sam and Bea, for different reasons.
Sam took a long time to settle here, and even now still has his moments where he has to retreat to his safe spot on his upstairs bed and decompress by himself for a few hours. This used to be triggered by any unexplained noise or a change in routine; Sam likes things just so. While he was still working out which way was up, that he was home and safe and would come back here, we decided it would be too much of a stressful experience to take him someplace else and expect him to adjust. Over the last couple of months we have broadened his horizons, with slightly longer car trips, longer time spent in other peoples house and trips out for a walk without Joe, Bea and I.
Bea on the other hand will adjust to pretty much anywhere instantly. If there is a sofa or bed she will jump on it and fall asleep. She’s had periods this year where she has been unwell and under vet investigation and we didn’t want to drag her places if she wasn’t feeling up to it.
However, the stars aligned themselves for an opportunity for an overnight stay not quite two hours away, with a night in a hotel and a day spent at a friends, where Bea could have a sofa sleep after a walk and Sam could work off some energy in their huge garden. We decided to try it and see.
Firstly – I cannot fault the hotel. Lovely grounds, lovely clean rooms and very welcoming for dogs – providing beds and bowls. However, as I predicted, the provided dog beds were not greyhound sized and the bowls were normal bowls that were on the floor. Luckily we had thought of this and packed giant floor beds and their raised feeder stands. Along with blankets, coats, food, treats, first aid kit, tablets, harnesses, leads, muzzles and goodness knows what else. Thank God for a Discovery – woofers in the boot and a backseat absolutely full of their stuff. Joe and I had a backpack each…
We had a lovely quiet car trip down to Hampshire for our first port of call – The Vynes National Trust site. Perfect weather and woodland walks, we thought might just be the way to settle them down before we headed over to our hotel. We were sort of right.
Bea found the hotel itself fascinating – pulling on the end of her lead wandering around the corridors sniffing things out outside the rooms and through the bar area. I was slightly terrified she might just decided a small toilet stop might be in order when something smelt particularly fun. She got lots of fuss from members of staff she bumped her head into for smooths and generally thought the standard of living for the next 20 hours was probably ok.
Sam was surprisingly less sure about it – the room had to have lots of circles and sniffs with some panting but once Bea had curled up with Joe and I on the huge bed to watch the football, Sam decided that was probably safe and came up to join us, falling asleep not long after. A much quicker settle than I was hoping for in a new place – success!
Meal times were…. Interesting. The bit we hadn’t factored in was that Bea immediately toilets after eating – we have the doors open in our house at meal times as she eats and goes straight out, something she has done from day 1. So feeding in a hotel room a good two mins walk to outside seemed risky. Coupled with there being a flight of stairs / lift (it’s 50-50 if Bea will do stairs and she cries in lifts, so the only other option is Joe carrying her…) between us and outside, we decided feeding outside was probably a safer option for hotel room carpets. However that presented a different set of issues – outside was full of distractions and noises and smells and something they totally aren’t used to. So there was much circling, half hearted attempts at eating, wandering again and generally just not that effective. Compromise – the bowls on the steps of the stairs just inside the door – raised enough, quiet enough and close enough to outside. Lesson learnt!
Bed time was chaotic. As to be expected. Due to Beas issues with stairs, the woofers sleep downstairs in our house, and they may come up for cuddles in the morning. Now all of a sudden, despite their beds being available, the people bed was in sight. It took some time and chicken to coax them onto their beds and there was some wandering and a cold nose on my foot before everyone fell asleep. Bea decided at 3am she was done with her bed (I think she was cold) and jumped up between Joe and I. She then slept until 8am… the longest she has slept in since we have had them. So we are now pondering if we can reasonably transition them to upstairs in an attempt to get some more sleep – we just need to work out what is reasonable with stairs and how this would work if we had to go away and leave them with someone else. One to think on!
Sunday was spent enjoying some time at a friends house – her parents have a huge field and garden but there was a shooting party nearby that unsettled Sam for some time. Interestingly he finds the boot of the car to be a reasonable substitute for a safe space when we are away from home – he jumped back in at the sound of distant shots, curled up on his blanket and calmed down until he slept. We took the opportunity to use the annex part of the house for food and Bea instantly found their dogs bed and went to sleep, and Sam stretched out on the carpet in front of her and dozed off while we chatted over food and drink.
Sam, for all of his refusal to touch doors at all at home, when we weren’t looking nudged a door open and took himself off outside. This sent us all into a total panic as the field gate was open and there were donkeys and all sorts in the next fields. Nope, he was having the time of his life herding people and circling them at full speed with a huge grin on his face, and happy to come back to me when I called him – something that really surprised me. I still wouldn’t trust him generally off a lead but it was nice to know he vaguely listens to me! The commotion woke up a Bea and she came out for a little trot around the garden and a sniff among the bushes.
After an exciting couple of days of adventures, we had two very sleepy woofers in the car on the way home – we didn’t hear a sound! The joy and bouncing when we got in suggested they were pleased to be home, but no one was any the worse for wear for the adventure and we found it very useful.
We learnt more about the woofers in a new environment than we had for months here. Not that I’m recommending people drag their dogs away on trips but it was interesting to see how they adjusted to something new after a year of the same (despite that same being so alien to them a year ago) – we learnt that they trust us and look to us in new situations, that the car is not a place they are scared of anymore but a safe space for a nap, to how much fun it was having just time us and them on an adventure. Oh and if we are going anywhere for a week with them we might need a trailer for all their things!
