Travelling with Poppy Dog

David

Moderator
Staff member
We're all off for a few days. We're running a track day at Castle Combe on Monday then off to Cornwall direct from the hotel the next day for a week off. We've booked Poppy into a "luxury" dog hotel near Devizes from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday morning. I think she'll be fine because she's already well used to kennels from her previous life. The logistics are a bit tricky, however. I've compressed all the paperwork, portable radios, card terminal, wrist bands and other stuff we have to take into the absolute minimum. Poppy will be in the back of the car on her car bed on top of two big sandwich boards. A folding table fits nicely between the back seats and the dog guard.

I've made a little list of dog things we need to take and it looks a bit alarming. I've packed enough dog food for a few days and we'll buy more when we are in Cornwall plus whatever I discover I've forgotten Poppy-wise.

Fuel is still an issue of course. I still can't get any locally and we had just half a tank - enough to get to Chippenham but not much further. We have two track cars so I've syphoned fuel from them. I also found a jerry can with 20 litres in it. All rather old and not recommended to use but desperate times and it is diluted with the half tank of good fuel. So we now have a full tank and if the fuel consumption is not too far off normal we have enough to get all the way to Cornwall.

Interestingly, I think, a customer coming on the Monday track day called with a query and in the course of conversation it emerged that he was a petrol tanker driver. He was very adamant that there is NO shortage of tanker drivers as reported in the press. Apparently they are paid a premium and as a result there are no vacancies. So all this run on fuel and garages running out is media induced. Fingers crossed we can get fuel in Cornwall. Apparently people are calling at garages with fuel and tank topping with as little as 2 or 3 litres. So annoying.

Anyway this will be our first holiday away with Pops and we are really looking forward to some nice walks with her even though as a juvenile we know there will be a few high stress Poppy moments (I do have the medium length training lead packed if needed).
 
Good luck on the trip David , the fuel situation down here appears to have eased over the past 24 hours so you should be ok . Hope you all have a grand time, its nice and quiet here now and of course, many of the summer dog beach bans are lifted, added bonus x
 

Jacqui-S

Moderator
Location
Fife, Scotland
Hope all goes well David.

The end of the week has seen a lot more fuel availability as far as our travels went.
We had luck with fuel at Morrisons a couple of times (we had OHs car which is diesel).
Some of the smaller garages were out of everything though.
OH was stuck in Norwich at the weekend. He ended up using google maps to locate garages and phoned around to see who had what. Saves using fuel driving around.
My guess would be that you will be fine David.

Enjoy your time away.
(PS at least half the stuff we had in our car was dog paraphernalia)
 

Candy

Biscuit Tin Guardian
I think you're going to be just fine! I did quite a bit of travelling by train with GGJ when she was less than two years old and she was a total star. I was amazed by her! I think it's more if they're bored that there are problems. Give them a challenge that they've been well prepared for and feel supported through and they do brilliantly and make you feel ludicrously proud! I hope all goes well for you!
 

David

Moderator
Staff member
Good luck on the trip David , the fuel situation down here appears to have eased over the past 24 hours so you should be ok . Hope you all have a grand time, its nice and quiet here now and of course, many of the summer dog beach bans are lifted, added bonus x
Pops loves swimming so we're really looking forward to letting her have some beach time.

I think you're going to be just fine! I did quite a bit of travelling by train with GGJ when she was less than two years old and she was a total star. I was amazed by her! I think it's more if they're bored that there are problems. Give them a challenge that they've been well prepared for and feel supported through and they do brilliantly and make you feel ludicrously proud! I hope all goes well for you!
Yes our old girl, Lady was actually a bit older when we first took her on holiday with us. It was fine but we had to keep a very sharp eye out for sheep on the moors. Later I got her steady with sheep and that was well worth the time and effort.

The main issue this time is potentially the free range chickens at the holiday cottage.
 
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