Doggie Vacation Day Angst - Day 1

The dog's vacation preparation started the day before we left. The first order of the day was to accustom our dogs to the rental Dodge Durango, which was Necessary as the Nissan was in the shop. Dogs have no idea the pleasures that await on a vacation, especially if this is the first time.




As a baby puppy, Leon, had come over on a plane, went on a trip to MO with me for a seminar, and went on our last ski vacation until now. In that time, our two current vehicles were the only ones that Leon had ever been in. I often joke that my Nissan is like Leon's baby crate. He used to travel with me from lesson to lesson, before I bought a place big enough to have lessons at in my Nissan all the time. Once he goes in, generally, it's nap time. So poor Leon did not know what to make of the bohemoth rental car.



Jack was less concerned, and settled himself in shortly. Leon needed a bit of a trip to the thrift store to find some cheap stuffed toys for him to suckle on. He was much better after that, but definately stuck in his "happy place" suckly trance.



I was so glad that we road around doing errands the day before in our truck. As much time as you try to spend accustoming your dogs to change, if you haven't in fact traveled for years with them, it can be a shock to the system. They have no idea long two hour hikes await, and that the rest of the day not skiing is meant to cater to them:) So we had a bit of time to start and acclimate them to the most recent new change. The next day the dogs were quiet and mostly asleep for the four hour ride (snow, or it would have been 2 hours) to Mount Washington NH.



But wait, there was a next challenge. We live in a wide open rural settings, and got a condo on the second floor of a development this year. It's right off the state park trails that the dogs are going to love. Before enjoying that, however, we needed to brave the "apartment like" steep stairs complete with see through balcony railings so the dogs could see the ground below. They, especially Leon, are still getting used to this.



To Be Continued...



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