Tuesday 14 June 2022

Experiences with a dog in South Africa, Dubai and the UK.

As dog owners, going out for more than 8-10 hours can be tricky, we do however have very good neighbours, who are more than happy to look after the dog, but we don't want to assume and take advantage of them as they have offered to have the dog for us during the summer holidays while we go to visit our son in Australia. We also have a friend who lives nearby who has helped out with walking the dog. Most of the places we go we can take the dog with us, or we make sure we're back in a reasonable time frame. 

Going on holiday with the dog is tricky as we discovered on relocating the dog and the cat here in January 2020. I initially had pet sitters lined up through a house sitting service to enable me to travel back and forth to Dubai, but with covid, travel was restricted and when I was able to fly, the UK was in lock down and people couldn't stay over. A mutual friend was able to stay for 3 weeks as she was unable to get back to South Africa when her job ended and a couple came to stay for 2 months over the winter as they'd returned from their holiday in Australia early due to covid and as they were renting their house out, they had no where to stay when they cut their travels short. Our son also had to travel over from Northern Ireland to collect the dog in April 2021 to enable me to return to Dubai to finalise the move to the UK. We've since made the journey several times and the dog has travelled well in the kennels, after all he is used to flying and more recently we've taken him on buses and trains.

On the ferry

Travel crates for flying

In South Africa we had a regular house sitter and in Dubai we had the most amazing kennels to use, but in the UK it has been a very different experience. 

In South Africa we also regularly took the dog camping with us, the downside was that we were limited with where we could go for walks and he wasn't allowed in shops, cafes or pubs etc. We did find dog friendly accommodation also.

We had to supervise Bob 24/7 due to Monkey's visiting the garden.

In Dubai walking the dog was a struggle due to the heat. In the winter we visited dog parks and we also weren't able to take him places with us, other than the desert and lakes, which eventually dogs were banned from as the beaches were out of bounds also.


Soft play in Dubai

A day out in the desert

In the UK the dog can spend most of the year in the garden, we can walk almost anywhere and the dog can come with us into pubs and coffee shops while we're out and about, therefore making the UK much more friendly than South Africa or Dubai.

Going on holiday with the dog in the UK has been a great experience, we've found some lovely holiday lets where we've been able to take the dog, I've taken him camping and I also discovered a couple of hotel chains where we've been able to stay. The only downside is we've not been able to leave the dog unattended even in the garden, but with 2 of us, it's not been too much of a problem.

Camping in Oxford

A hotel stay

Is your dog well travelled?
Do you take your dog on holiday with you?

8 comments:

  1. It does seem like the UK is much friendlier to dogs. Bob is such a well travelled dog, he's been more places in the world than I have. lol x

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  2. Our dog loved to travel! And we miss him SO much...

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  3. We don't have a dog but the UK sounds like the better place for doggie holidays.

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  4. I'm a huge dog-lover, although our precious Shih Tzu (Isabel) passed away, and we don't have a dog at this time. I recently traveled in England, Wales, and Scotland. One of the things that I love about the UK is how much the dogs are a part of the social life in villages and towns. I love how the British people bring their dogs right into the pubs and shops. And all of the dogs I observed were well-behaved. Here's wishing you many happy camping trips with your canine friend.
    Carol
    www.scribblingboomer.com

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    1. Sorry to hear about your dog. It's so nice to be able to take our dog with us everywhere we go

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