Love Ella curled up on the boys beds
Her open crate was right next to their beds but she chose to snuggle with them all night. Bit cute really.
Glorious photos Emily!! Golly Ella is a fabulous character, I love her making friends and she looks so settled around camp. Kudos to you for making it so comfortable for her and everyone x
She is absolutely wonderful, but I'm sure it's her nature and not something we've done. She has the perfect mix of being rock solid and unflappable but also assertive enough when she needs to be. The other dog in the photos is our in-laws GR Roxy. She's a lovely girl too and very quiet and placid in comparison to what we've found with Ella and other labs.
We only had an issue with one other dog while we were away and it left a sour taste in my mouth. One couple had a brown and white border collie that was quite obviously reactive as we'd see it run at a few dogs. We happened to be walking Ella and saw them coming the other way. Ella was on lead and their dog was not. It charged straight up to Ella, angry and teeth bared. Thankfully the owner ran up and grabbed him.
The day we were leaving Ella was relaxed, lying down, tied up on my towball as I was packing the car. I turned my back for a second and turned back to see the same border collie (off lead again) race up to her. Ella lept to her feet and stood in a posture I've never seen in her nearly nine years. She stood side on, upright, head quite high and straight out, eyes tight, tail up and out and absolutely motionless. It was as close to breaking out into chaos as I've seen.
Thankfully the owner ran up and broke the collie's focus, grabbed him and raced off. Ella immediately relaxed her posture and did a huge shake, as if she was soaking wet. As soon as I could see it was safe, I let her off and we played a big game of tug to realise any remaning tension, possibly more from me than her!!
It didn't ruin the trip, it's just I could see how serious a moment it was. No one else there seemed to understand but I knew you lot would!
