Dogs on the road

We had never really travelled with our dogs (except on trips from Thunder Bay to Kenora) until this trip. We usually left them with Thunder Bear Boarding Kennels to hang out with Art and Irene or more recently with one of my friends and her family. For longer trips, my parents had come to Thunder Bay to look after them. We knew Maverick and Dawson would travel well while we were driving as they always just tended to sleep when we drove to Kenora. We had also done a trial run with the van on the north shore of Lake Superior in the fall of 2017 and things had gone well so we were optimistic.

So after 9 weeks on the road, I feel pretty confidant saying that Dawson and Maverick seem to be quite settled into this van routine. Initially Dawson would get anxious being left in the van whether it was for 20 minutes or 1.5 hours (as mentioned we do have a good fan in the van for air flow and we don’t leave the dogs in the van if it is too hot outside). At first we could hear Dawson barking or whining as we walked (or biked) away from the van and he also got into the garbage bag a few times (before we started consistently remembering to put it away). But now both of them seem to know that we will be back and that the van is our “home”.

The longest they have been in the van is about 6 hours when we took the Haida Gwaii ferry to/from Prince Rupert. I was a bit nervous leaving them so long and even just being on the ferry which is different than just being parked in a parking lot. It was also a night ferry so although there is an opportunity halfway through the ferry ride to check in on them, I slept through it and didn’t go down. What tore at my heartstrings about this experience is when we walked away from the van to head up to the passenger deck, Dawson was sitting in the front seat watching us. 6 hours later when we came back down to the vehicle to get ready to deboard, Dawson was still sitting in that front passenger seat watching for us – I honestly don’t know if he slept that night. 

For the day to day van life, there is lots of exploring for the dogs when you stay somewhere new every night. We are constantly walking around with them whether we are hiking trails, checking out towns/cities or taking a walk around the campground we are staying at so there are new smells and people to meet all the time. So many people have commented on what beautiful dogs they are and always want to know “what breed”. It is funny because husky shepherd cross is pretty much the standard rescue breed in Northwestern Ontario but here they kind of stand out.

Some of the challenges with having the dogs with you is when it is hot. You are hot and they are hot but there isn’t a lot of indoor places you can take them so you can both get out of the heat.  If there is a beach that allows dogs, we try to head there (Haida Gwaii was great for this - more on Haida Gwaii soon....)  We will also try to find parks with trees so we can hang out in the shade. The dogs usually just sleep while Mike and I read or look at maps and guidebooks planning where we are going to go next. Rainy days are actually okay because the dogs will just hang out in the van while we do errands or visit a museum. 

But the main point of this blog is to say the dogs are good and we are happy to have them with us.  Here are a few of my favourite pictures so far: