Vent!

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delladooo
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Location: Blackpool, UK

Re: Vent!

Post by delladooo »

Nettle wrote:IME travelling across UK is far worse than the USA which at least has more comfort stops (unless closed!). Over here you can go untold miles without a whisper of a comfort stop and it is so stressful I no longer cover long distances.

"Dog-friendly" also has a number of interpretations. There was a big brochure in one of the dog magazines about alleged dog-friendly accommodation, both self-catering and hotel, and man! If that is "friendly" I'd hate to stay in the other sort. :evil:

A further problem is our breakdown services. Currently the two main ones won't take dogs onward with human passengers, and one of the smaller ones only might, depending on the individual driver. Not a good situation. Are we supposed to leave our dogs on the motorway? I contacted the AA and RAC and said I and many other dog owners would be prepared to pay an extra premium to be certain our dogs could travel with us, but they couldn't give a damn.
I didn't know that! I assumed because we're supposedly a 'nation of dog lovers' and there are so many of them plus we're smaller than the USA it would be easier :shock: I never thought about breakdown cover, I have it in case something happened on my commute but have always just accepted it would be helpful if anything happened any other time as an added bonus. If they don't take dogs then the latter is mostly redundant. I assumed they'd take the dog / cat / any other animal because it's your property :?
ClareMarsh wrote:maybe we need to set up a business ...
That sounds like a brilliant idea, start with a travel hotels and then expand into motorway services, complete dog friendly facilities :wink:
JudyN
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Re: Vent!

Post by JudyN »

Nettle wrote:Currently the two main ones won't take dogs onward with human passengers, and one of the smaller ones only might, depending on the individual driver. Not a good situation.
I didn't know that either :shock: So what are you supposed to do if you break down on the motorway, or elsewhere? I suppose the police would take you on if you're on the motorway - there's no way I'd go with a breakdown service and leave Jasper with the police :?
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
jacksdad
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Re: Vent!

Post by jacksdad »

JudyN wrote:there's no way I'd go with a breakdown service and leave Jasper with the police :?
Jasper might actually like hanging with the police...he could finally snark at people and it be legal :P
JudyN
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Re: Vent!

Post by JudyN »

He'd be bound to snark at the wrong people though :lol:

I've just had a look at the RAC website and it seems that they will usually transport pets,but at their discretion: http://www.rac.co.uk/advice/pets-and-breakdowns/ Which is fair enough really. If Jasper was seriously stressed and flipping out at the thought of getting into a cab with a strange driver I really couldn't expect them to allow him in - it would be a danger to him and other road users. It would, however, be OK to leave him in the car if it was being towed or put on the back of a transporter. I doubt whether I'd be allowed to stay in there with him, but at least we could get him home and deal with his stress levels on familiar ground.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Nettle
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Re: Vent!

Post by Nettle »

It's the 'discretion' thing that's such a problem. Earlier this year I went to renew and was treated dismissively over this issue. I want certainty not discretion, and I'm prepared to pay for it. Why can't they see this as a marketing opportunity? Trouble is, most people don't realise there is a problem until there is.

One staff member, genuinely trying to be helpful, suggested I left the dogs with the nearest RSPCA. I couldn't be rude as he really was doing his best, so I just said feebly Oh no, that wouldn't do at all. As if :roll:

For those not in the know, that would probably be the very last time I saw my dogs.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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JudyN
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Re: Vent!

Post by JudyN »

I think to guarantee being able to take a dog, they would need something like a foldable crate, or maybe some safe way of harnessing the dog to an attachment - and to have room in the vehicle, of course. I do think some dogs could be unsafe in the cab, particularly after a stressful experience.

I'm now freaking out over what would happen if I was injured and not able to handle Jasp myself, or even explain to the authorities that he's lovely really and is just a bit scared :(
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
jacksdad
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Re: Vent!

Post by jacksdad »

a visiting young employee from our parent company informed me to day..."your just like my father" :shock: :evil:
MPbandmom
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Re: Vent!

Post by MPbandmom »

jacksdad wrote:a visiting young employee from our parent company informed me to day..."your just like my father" :shock: :evil:
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: (I'm old enough to laugh. :mrgreen: )

On the break down issue. It is stressful enough to break down with people. Two summers ago I broke down with both dogs in the van. For a moment I was afraid the van would catch fire and I would have to get both dogs out along an interstate highway and literally head for the hills as the only way away from the road was up a steep hill. That would be if I could manage to drag Sirius uphill while she was trying to charge at all of the tractor trailer trucks zooming by. :roll:

The tow truck stated that the dogs couldn't travel in the cab, not that I would have loaded Sirius in the cab of a truck with a strange man anyway, so the dogs stayed in their crates in the van while it was tipped up and loaded onto a flatbed tow truck. Then we were taken to a motel where the van was tipped down again so that I could get stuff and dogs out of the van before it was taken on to the shop. The truck driver was trying to hold the door open for me so it wouldn't fall closed due to the slant of the van, but when it came to getting Sirius out, I told him to stand way back, because I didn't anticipate Sirius being in the least resemblance to cordial mood at this point. Fortunately the motel had a room with an outside door available. I ended up paying for 2 night's stay because there wasn't anywhere I could leave the dogs other than in the room while the repair shop's courtesy driver took me over to get the van, and the van was ready after the housekeeping crew went home.

It was stressful for me and the dogs, but we did manage to have a successful resolution to breaking down on the interstate with a reactive dog. Not something that I would want to repeat unless absolutely necessary, but at the same time I know that it can all work out okay.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
bendog
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Re: Vent!

Post by bendog »

Judy - I have same worries with Popples. We were once pulled by police for a standard vehicle check (all fine *phew*) and she went totally ballastic at the police man when he knocked on the window. She'd bite if scared I'm sure.

When I went on a course with Steve Mann he said he occasionally gets called to houses when baliffs need to get in, to remove the dog first so they can get access. Similarly if ambulance crews need to get into a property and theres a dog, there are protocols, but he said often it's just someone with not much dog knowledge, a bite suit and a slip-stick (don't know what they are called - those noose stick things dog wardens use)

We have driven lots in UK with dogs, and halfway across France. France motorways have lots of nice picnic places to stop where it is easy to give the dogs a bit of a leg stretch. UK motorways only have a bit of grass verge by a busy service station usually. I didn't dare let the dogs off lead much in France though except in public parks near the towns for fear of wild boars in the woods :shock:
mansbestfriend
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Re: Vent!

Post by mansbestfriend »

Vent - When walking with the dog and you avoid a dog-dog confrontation but for some reason end up stranded on a side-track :? . On the plus side, we find new paths, shortcuts, and nooks this way and it makes a more interesting walk. :)
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Sit.
DianeLDL
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Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 4:16 pm
Location: Maine USA

Re: Vent!

Post by DianeLDL »

This is my first chance to read the talk on traveling with dogs. I have no idea what our Allstate motor club would do if we broke down in rhe road. :shock:

Once, my husband has the dog at a park in Albuquerque in the summer when it was triple digits F, and the battery died. He called me and I not only called the motor club, but I found our neighbor at home, and together she and I went to rescue Sandh who was standing under and overhang with my husband waiting for the motor club truck. So, my neighbor and I took Sandy home, and left hubby alone to wait for truck that arrived right after we left. :lol:

Now, I am wondering what would have happened of my neighbor had not been home and able to help me get to rescue Sandy. Sandy's crate was in the car, and the battery was jumped so my husband made it home. Then, the guy who did the jump also sold us a new battery and even put it in at our house.

Now, I am worried with all our traveling cross country. :shock:

And Nettle, you wouldnt believe the number of rest areas that have been closed "for repairs" all over the US. There is a major highway through the mojave desert where we have 200 miles and both rest rooms are closed. (Note on the California Highway rest stop system online said it was due to graffiti!) :roll:

There is one teeny town on that route called Ludlow with two gas stations, one restaurant and motel. One place even has a sign of ni dogs allowed on the grass. So many people have stopped at the other gas station near the restaurant that they added port-o-potties in the back. I found an area across the street that is basically dirt that Sandy uses. Once, though, and only once when Sandy was new to us, we stopped at the side of the highway. Husband had Sandy, but raced back to car with Sandy after he heard the rattler of a rattle snake. Since then, we know to go in Needles, just over the Colorado River after leaving Arizona and then racing 200 miles to Ludlow for facilities for both us and Sandy. :roll:

So, in the US, it can get pretty bad when they close rest stops. I have learned to limit my liquid intake. At least, we have some nice truck stops, and trucker often have dogs with them for company on the road, so there are usually areas for Sandy. I do have to not only keep him on leash, but I have to carry him through the gas pumps and parking areas to the grassy areas. Too dangerous for him otherwise. :shock:

I will need to look into the Allstate motor club policy as to towing situations. It sounds frightening after hearing the experience of MPBandmom. Sandy is also reactive, but since he travels in a crate, that is helpful for transporting him in another vehicle. Actually, with two of us, I would get a cab to a motel while husband goes with the tow guy, of course, as long as it isn't in the middle of the desert.

Well, we are now in Oklahoma City. Tomorrow, we go to Elk City, Oklahoma, and then, if all is well, we head to our Albuquerque house on Tuesday. :D

Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
Sweetie's Human
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Re: Vent!

Post by Sweetie's Human »

Hope you got home safely and with little fuss Diane.

My vent is about the lunatic dogs in my neighbourhood the last three nights - including my own! I don't know who starts it, but one will bark, then another gets worked up, then Sweetie joins in, then there's a reply from down the road, then another, then my nut-case goes again, and so on and so forth...

And surely 4:45am is too early for the birds to start squawking! I have a funny feeling that's when I'll be woken up by a barking pug again tomorrow.

Lucky she's bloody cute :?
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Nettle
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Re: Vent!

Post by Nettle »

My vent concerns another marlin fishing episode. Now if you see a short old lady standing away from the footpath, holding a thrashing tantrum-ing bull breed on two leads while a small much younger lady walks alongside looking worried, do you deliberately allow four gundogs and a mini schnauzer to surround them? Do you then attempt to go over and 'say hello'? Do you then make a series of helpful remarks about socialisation? Wouldn't you just carry on walking along the footpath?

Jeeeeepers. :evil:
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
JudyN
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Re: Vent!

Post by JudyN »

That sounds like my morning multipled by ten, Nettle :lol: Why don't they teach this stuff in school?
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
DianeLDL
Posts: 832
Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 4:16 pm
Location: Maine USA

Re: Vent!

Post by DianeLDL »

Hi all,

Yes, we arrived back home in Albuquerque on Tuesday. Still trying to catch up. That is why I have been quiet. :D

Also, Sandy although happy being in his regular home and bed, and sniffed out our yard, he had been extremely reactive to every dog barking in the neighborhood. :roll: :shock:

It will take him some time to get reaccustomed to the noises around here. We were gone for 4 months and on the road for two weeks each direction. :roll:

Thankfully, we didnt have any need for tow trucks or road assistance :D , but we did find another closed rest stop. :evil:

And in Oklahoma city, we stayex at the Candlewood Suites where my husband saw (thankfully without Sandy) a guy with a pitbull who warned my husband to stay away. His dog will attack. :evil:
So, for the two nights we were there, we feared of running into him when taking Sandy out. Thank goodness, it never happened. At least, we were warned. :shock:

Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
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