Travelling on business with Pontus

Travelling on business away from home is always a bit lonely, but it just has to be done from time to time. When you have working dogs in training it is even more annoying to be away for a long time as the dogs are not being stimulated in all that time. Usually you come back and things have piled up, so there seem to be even less time to train the dog and before you know of it, all they have done is to lie on their dog beds and playing in the garden for a week with no training. This is not good for a young dog and if you ever had a chewing dog, the dog bed will be the first thing he takes his frustration out on if you are gone.

My dogs don’t chew, but they still miss the action if I am away on business with my dog beds. So to make myself feel better, I took Pontus along this week. What I, most embarrassingly, had not thought of was that we needed a dog bed for the front seat where he was going to sit. So I took a dog bed cover quickly and tied it on to the top of the seat so it could be protected a little from all the white hairs. With his harness fitted, he was quite interested in the Perthshire countryside:

Pontus on his hastily put together dog bed in the car.

But of course it got too boring after a few hours, so he mastered the art of sleeping (upright) in the car seat. A far cry from sleeping in a proper dog bed!!

Pontus sleeping in his car seat. Not as good as a dog bed.

As training is a MUST, I could not get time to do much on the first day and all he got was a “hunt” on the way up to the Wallace Memorial. It is not that important what you do with a nine month puppy, as long as you get it out and expose it to new situations.

Pontus visiting the Wallace memorial.

Pontus will be a working dog and hunting strange ground is one of the things he needs to do so as I drove over the Pennines on A66, I stopped in a layby and took Pontus out for a hunt. No sheep and no nesting birds at the moment, so it was OK. We saw a hell of a lot of rabbits, so that was a good opportunity to teach him to behave. Here he is with the A66 lorries in the back ground.

Pontus just off the A66, you can see the lorries in the back ground.

We got to Leeds and Manchester and while I was in the meetings, he had to go in the back of the car on the big, bespoke dog bed. I didn’t want him to be in the front. We did have a quick dash in to the city where I was struggling to find a wee piece of grass where he could do his business. Very build up all over and the country boy was feeling a little out of place.

Pontus feeling out of sorts in the big city.

If you pay a little extra in some hotels, you can bring your dog and I did so, bringing a travel dog bed for the purpose. The lift was in itself something Pontus found very easy to adjust to.

Pontus takes the lift ride in his stride.

Needless to say, we also took an hour just off the A66 on our way home, to hunt the ground.

We got home late Wednesday night and didn’t feel guilty having been away, my dog had had a fabulous and stimulating time. He is now with his friends in the garden on their waterproof dog beds.