Wednesday 2 March 2016

Delilah Dog's First Holiday

This February half term was our puppy's first holiday.  It's fair to say I was a little apprehensive!

We'd booked our holiday cottage in Wales way back before Delilah arrived, but luckily we knew it was dog friendly so we just had to pay a small supplement.

Our old dog had always loved staying at Ty n Simmde and exploring the Welsh countryside, but how was a delinquent pup going to react?

The first challenge was the journey.  It's a good 4 1/2 hour drive from our house and Delilah had never travelled that far.  Her brother who lives with my mother-in-law gets terrible car sickness even on short journeys, so just in case we packed lots of wipes and towels to clean up, and factored in lots of pit-stops.

We needn't have worried.  She travelled beautifully.  She nested down in my footwell on her blanket, and pretty much slept for the whole journey, with a few quick wee stops at service stations along the way.

We'd taken her dog crate to sleep in, along with her bed and some toys to make her feel at home, and she settled into the cottage right away.  I knew they kept some old blankets stashed away, so we covered the sofas in case for when she inevitably jumped up on them.  The one thing we were missing was a stair gate to prevent her marauding around on the beds upstairs!


Delilah loves to chase and/or chew everything she sees.  So her days were pretty much leaf, leaf, leaf, stone, stick, leaf, stone, leaf, leaf, snooze and repeat....  She had an absolute ball!  

There was one whimper-inducing moment when an errant sheep from the next farm wandered into our garden and she shot inside with her tail between her legs, but other than that, it was all good.




She coped remarkably well with all the walking, we sometimes forget she's only 6 months old, so shouldn't really be going on massive hikes as her little hips are still developing, but with lots of breaks, she was grand.

The beach was a revelation to her.  She spent ages chasing the little bubbles of foam that washed up the shore from the sea, and drank a fair bit of salty sea-water from the rock pools (crazy animal).



We were optimistic that Delilah would be a swimmer like Ella was, but she wasn't keen on the cold water.  We need to work on that.


Snowdonia is well geared for welcoming dogs, and she behaved beautifully in every cafe and restaurant we visited, curling up under the table and going to sleep. The only place she wasn't allowed was on the canal boat trip we did, so she got an extra long and rainy towpath walk instead!

If anything, she behaved better on holiday than she does at home.  To be honest she can be a bit of a handful still, chewing and jumping up.  I guess she got a lot more mental stimulation than she does on a normal day stuck at home with me while I'm working.  I must make more of an effort to take her out and do stuff during the week, and not just her normal two walks around the block.

I really do think it was a great adventure for her, and we can't wait to take her back at Easter.  I'm so glad she enjoys the great outdoors like we do.

20 comments:

  1. Wow, it looks like you all had a fabulous time! Love Delilah's little jacket!

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  2. What a cute little pup! It looks like you enjoyed her holiday - what an adventure! x

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    1. Thank you! Yes, we all had a great time. x

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  3. Oh she's beautiful and it looks like such a perfect place for a first holiday. I love the i'm not going in there stance she has next to the sea, I don't think i'd be in there either. Wales really is such a beautiful place and I want to go back there now.

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    1. Yes, I'm really missing it, can't wait to go back at Easter.

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  4. Oh she is so gorgeous and it is lovely to read such a positive post about taking a dog on holiday. We are considering getting a dog and the holiday side of things does worry us as kennels are so expensive, but I suppose you just have to find places that are geared for dogs. I never knew dogs got travel sick either, I'm glad yours didn't.

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    1. We've got a camping trip organised for May, so we'll see how she copes in a tent!

      We always took our last dog away with us and never had any problems, you just need to book accommodation that welcomes dogs. We tried kennels once - let's just say never again!

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  5. What a cute doggy, it looks like everyone had a great time.

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  6. She is absolutely gorgeous! I love that pic of her in the pink jacket. #FeelingDogEnvy

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  7. She's such a beautiful dog and I love her little pink coat x

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  8. After taking Alvin on holiday in the UK, we now always look for dog friendly accommodation. It is great to go on holiday as a family. She ids totally adorable

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  9. Delilah is beautiful! Glad your first holiday with her was such a great experience... I best no let Boo see this as I'm under lots of pressure for us to get a dog :)

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  10. Such gorgeous photo's - I don't blame her for not being sure of the sea - it looks freezing

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  11. Wow what a good little traveller, my dog gets poorly over the shortest of distances, I have to hold a tub under her nose lol! Lovely pictures of Delilah's first holiday x

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  12. I'm glad it went so well. It bodes well for future trips.

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  13. Oh Liz, she's adorable! Great to dog friendly holidays in such a beautiful part of Wales.

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  14. Awww, puppies and even grown up dogs are such fun - they're just so excited by everything. Im' much more of a dog person really - I'm not getting one though!!

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  15. This looks SO idyllic! Delilah is scrumptious and I can well imagine she must have loved her holiday - Maddie loved the week we spent in Cornwall last September so much we're going back this September. I can safely say it's the only time I think I've seen her properly tired, every day we got back to where we were staying she'd go straight to sleep!! X

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