Heading west with a Border Collie

[Laurie and Helen]

Hi everyone,

Well if you didn't know Helen and I are taking early retirement and will be taking a break in south west WA early August for a few months after we settle into our new house in Hervey Bay. We will be travelling with our much loved Border Collie Rascal who is 12 and stone deaf.

At this stage we are not sure of our departure point as it is dependant upon where our grandson is for his first birthday (his dad is in the QPS and is moving north around May-June) Departure points could be one of several places north of Rocky and south of Thursday Is so an early cape trip is not out of the question yet.

Down to the topic, apart from the normal issues like National Parks and 1080 poisons does anyone have major reasons why we shouldn't take our trusty companion. We will most likely make our way across to Boulia and Alice Springs and either head west to Laverton or down through Coober Pedy to Port Augusta and across the coast road. (rain and road conditions at the time will be the major decider)

Hope to see some of you on the road soon.

[Chris]

Laurie and Helen,

you must be feeling so excited at these coming changes. We too will be heading up the centre and across the Plenty to Boulia, only in reverse to you, and earlier than you....

But in response to your question, the only person who can really know what decision is right regarding taking the dog is of course yourselves. I think at the end of the day you will do what your instincts say, regardless of the practicalities. Because much loved pets are so central to our lives.

But I will add my views anyway. The overall response is that I would not want to travel with an aged pet, and if there was any other good option (such as a loving home for the pet with someone else) then I would leave him or her behind. Reasons why include:

• 
  
• a pet this old will be settled and have a routine which travel will disrupt
  
• the age of the pet will dictate a reliable vet being handy, preferably one who knows the animal. Vets can be hard to get in remote areas.
  
• when you want to go out to dinner or shopping one of you has to stay behind with the animal. (Generally you can't leave a dog in or around a caravan park while you are absent). The same applies to bush camps.
  
• And as you say, all those lovely national park and conservation parks are out of bounds if you travel with a pet.
  

I do not envy you this decision!

Chris

[John and Ann]

Hi Laurie and Helen,

Congrats on the early retirement, it's a good thing and very easy to get used to. Won't be too long before you wonder how you managed to have time to go to work.

We've never travelled with a family member of the "pet" variety so can't offer first hand advice about how that might impact on your visit to our South West region. What I can say is that most of the areas that should and are likely on your itinerary are a part of a National Park, we have so many here, which is not a bad thing.

I would think that it would be much more comforting to know you beloved companion is safe and happily awaiting your return at home with a trusted friend or family member rather that you and he/she being stressed by temporary (foreign, if available) accommodations fretting over your return.

The process of determining where you can and cannot go with your companion is way too much stress when you undertake your well deserved retirement travels. Your pooch will love you no less if you indulge and travel solo.

Enjoy, it'll be winter and cold so rug up, nice though all the same.

John

[Tolley]

Laurie and Helen,

As many Koggers we have met know, we ALWAYS travel with our two poodles. Moet, the white one, is 12 soon to be 13. Cherie, the black one is four. They love the Kedron. We have travelled over 50,000 km in the van and they have been there for every one of those kilometers. We have been around Australia, last year, and there was litte that we could not do because of the pups.

Most Visitor Information Centres will quickly give you the details of local dog sitters, if you need one. We often take the pups with us into NP's. We park in the carpark and place the pups in the van. Providing the weather is moderate we can then have a couple of hours to wander and look at the umpteenth gorge etc. We have also camped in NP's with them but in such cases they are kept close on leads and kept quiet. We have not had one complaint from fellow NP campers. Mind you, the further away from capital cities you are the less likely you encounter dog Nazi Rangers and busy body campers. You have to use your common sense and judgement.

As Gayleen will tell you, we only purchased a caravan so we could take the pups on holidays with us! And, by-the-way, while travelling around Australia with the pups we were approached on numerous occasions by fellow travellers who were expressing regret that they had left their pup, pups, at home!

Take the pup with you!

Kind regards

Colin, Gayleen, Moet and Cherie.....woof, wooof!

[Laurie and Helen]

Colin & Gayleen,

Thank you, we had already made up our mind to take Rascal with us. We were hopeful and assured that others do take their dogs with them with minimal disruption. In our case moving to a new area to live the option of leaving him behind was not really an option at all especially since he has gone deaf over the last few months. He has been caravaning with us for a while and loves it. He has the whole back seat of the cruiser to himself so he is quite spoilt really. We use to travel with two, but Anzac weekend 2008 was our last trip with one of our mates but he enjoyed it right to the end. Rascal was only a boy when this photo was taken looking after his old friend.

[Tolley]

Laurie and Helen,

That is a great photo. It oozes the personality of Anzac and Rascal. You would need to have a cold heart to leave such a good mate behind.

Safe travels.

Colin

[Steve and Kez]

Hi Guys,

All I can say is "Just Do It".

We travelled with our best mate Rex (a red cattle dog) up until he passed away at aged 17. We miss him very much and would gladly swap any of the (minor) inconveniences there were to have with us still. He was a better travel companion then a lot of the people we know.

Start a travel passport for him and get all the caravan parks you stay in to stamp it if they were happy with his behaviour. You can then use it to persuade the "not so pet friendly" parks into letting him in. It proved to be a very handy tool for us.

Better to try and fail then suffer the regret of not trying at all

Good luck with your travels

[Ian and Sue]

Hi Laurie and Helen,

We always travel with our two boys, Mickie (15 years) and Rusty (11 years). We are currently in NSW having travelled from northern WA to Albury for a geocaching event which was on over Easter, we haven't made major plans for the few months we will be staying in the east and are playing everything by ear with our older boy. Mickie was diagnosed with a heart mumor in January, common for senior dogs, the heart tablets and fluid tablets he now takes daily are definately giving him quality of life. He is quiet deaf and has been for a couple of years now and he is going slightly senile, having said all of that he doesn't have arthritis or aches and pains and still gets frisky at meal times. He loves travelling in the caravan and had we thought he would be upset we wouldn't have taken this long trip.

This time across we are having to make extra toilet stops for him and I guess you could say that we pretty much treat him as you would treat an older person, yes that might stop us leaving him for more than a couple of hours at a time but hey if that is what it takes to enjoy what might be one of his last trips then so be it. We are still having a great time.

If you do head north through Geraldton on your trip please look us up as we will be home in June or July and would happily give you a place to park up for a while and a baby-sitter for your kiddy.

Sue