4 Sept 2020

My dog is quite skilled at identifying dogs on the television – and barking ferociously while rushing around the house trying to work out where those other dogs have got to.  Her vision’s quite good, but mental acuity – not so good.

Fortunately she’s also not so good at reading my diarrhoea’s, or looking at photos. Because today I spent time with another dog. Because..

We went quad bike riding through a farm area and onto the beach with sand dunes, and massive waves, and whales, and all sorts of amazing things.

One of the two farm dogs came along for the trip, travelling mainly with one of the guides. But whenever we stopped to admire the scenery, she leapt up onto my quad bike and perched quite comfortably behind my seat.

She was a very laid back and friendly dog. I know that our dog would have enjoyed the trip as well but might have needed restraining when it came to the chocolate muffins we all had for morning tea.

We have started talks about how you would travel with a dog, if we were going on a long “Around Australia” type of trip. Taking the dog would be brilliant, but the logistics around it need a lot of thought. Yes there are places you can stay and bring your dog, but they are not commonly available. And what do you do with your dog when you want to go and take 400 photos of wildflowers at a national park, for example? Or go on a whale watching cruise? Or go quad biking?

Chewie would love to accompany us on all of those things, I’m sure – she would particularly enjoy barking at the whales.

In other countries around the world, travelling with a pet is so commonplace – I remember a hotel in US where they offered a doggy day care in the hotel! (And even massages for the dog in the day spa.)

Australia is not so dog friendly. We are allowed to take them to some cafes, but even then only in particular areas. 

Granted, some dogs are not so travel friendly. But mine is an experienced cafe dog who enjoys travelling with her humans. She has adopted the child seat in the back of the car as hers and quite comfortably curls up in there when there’s no grandchild in place 🙂

Animal owners of Australia unite – what things do we want to be able to take our dogs along to?