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Post Info TOPIC: Are we selfish?
Jimmy Kwaka


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Are we selfish?
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We have a wonderful little dog, a LLasa Apso named Dougal, or Dangerous Doggie Doogie. He is a delight, it is said this breed are like in permanent puppyhood without the destructiveness, and I have to agree. We recently took him with us on a six week trip from Hervey Bay up to Cooktown and back. He was beautifully behaved, slept in his own bed on the floor at night, only creeping up onto our bed in the morning for a cuddle and when nature called. But having a dog with you can severely curtail your own activities. Cannot go into national parks, cannot go to a pub or a restaurant or a club for lunch, cannot just up and abandon the van for a couple of days to go on some trip somewhere. Yeah, we saved money on not doing these things, but really, we wanted to do stuff like that. Some people just leave their dogs in the van all day when they go off and do this kind of extra-curricular activity, but we simply cannot do that. Number one, he would howl the roof off, and number two, we think it is cruel and irresponsible. So, on our big trip coming up soon, we will leave him behind. We have organised house sitters for that extended period, so he will have his own space and bed and surroundings and will not have to be on a lead for four months. My question is, are we being too selfish? We have family who live here in Hervey Bay with us, and if anything goes wrong they will be here to assist our sitters, so we are lucky in that regard. Dangerous is an accommodating little bloke, we went to Europe last year and had sitters, and he was none the worse for wear when we returned, having fallen desperately in love with the wonderful couple we had minding him. And I will say, coping with a wet dog in a caravan is not my idea of fun. Nor is waiting for an eternity while he inspected what seemed to be 5 acres of land before doing a number two. I will say that we can recommend this breed highly as travelling companions. They love to have a walk, but are just as happy sitting with you and doing nothing if you so desire. He is a lover and not a fighter, so we were always concerned about others who seemed to think they were immune from the law and had large dogs rampaging about uncontrolled. He has already been attacked twice before under these circumstances. So there we have it.



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Possum3


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Jimmy your article is very hard to read owing to lack of spacing, may I suggest you amend and space.

You are correct in your statements regarding some dog owners.

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the rocket


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Selfish, not at all. Some people want to be with their dog more than sight seeing n going  to restaurants etc. there choice. Made friends with a couple once. Invited them to come to dinner with us, they replied, no sorry, we would like to but  we got the dog. we do housesitting n think it a great idea. 



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Spook


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I have four girls (was five), all rescues or rejects. I don't go anywhere without them unless it's out on the bike for a few hours.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

My girls are Misha, Maddy, Morgan and Muffin. RIP Jen, my princess.

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Peter_n_Margaret


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FACT.
It is impossible to enjoy the full range of benefits and pleasures of travel if you are accompanied by a pet, if you have any consideration for the pet.
Nor should you expect others to appreciate your pet like you do.
Make a choice.

We chose pets while the kids were young.
Now we choose no pets.

Cheers,
Peter

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RosieW


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Not selfish. Better for you and Doogie.

You can have the best of both worlds - everyone gets a holiday.

We have 3 dogs, started travelling with none. We are caretaking a station (8 months in and loving it). While we are restricted in what we can do (no national parks, pubs only if they have a beer garden), we work around it. We love our dogs, and wouldn't be without them.

When we do the 6-weekly grocery run the husky goes into the vet for a hydrobath. The vets in Roma 'dog-sit' for station people free of charge anyway (it's a long day), but with the red dirt, he needs a bath (he'd turn even redder if we bathed him at home). The kelpies stay home.

When we go away on longer/further holidays, we either take them with us (Victoria last year) or board them (earlier this year for Caloundra and next week for Tassie). If we wanted to do a national park, we'd get them dog-sat (Pawshake/Madpaws) or board them.

I personally prefer to leave the kelpies, we were in an on-leash only area when they were puppies, and both were attacked 20+ times in 10 months by off-leash dogs of all sizes, so now are leash reactive. It's imprinted, as they were going through the 'fear stages' of their development; will never be fixed, but we can manage it.

In the end, it comes down to what you and Doogie are comfortable with.

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Stuart-Jan


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It is a great pity that our behaviour as responsible pet owners has to be adjusted to allow for those that are not considerate of others. I have 2 cats that travel with us full time. Both walk on a lead with no problems but it is difficult to find camp sites where there are not loose dogs wandering around despite the fact that many of them are in a "pets must be on a leash" area



-- Edited by Stuart-Jan on Sunday 30th of September 2018 05:50:54 PM

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RosieW


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Stuart-Jan wrote:

It is a great pity that our behaviour as responsible pet owners has to be adjusted to allow for those that are not considerate of others. I have 2 cats that travel with us full time. Both walk on a lead with no problems but it is difficult to find camp sites where there are not loose dogs wandering around despite the fact that many of them are in a "pets must be on a leash" area



-- Edited by Stuart-Jan on Sunday 30th of September 2018 05:50:54 PM

 Yeah. The ones that sh*t me are the CPs that say 'dogs under 10kg'. Why? 'Because they are less dangerous.' Bulldust!!! They still have teeth, and are more likely to be left to run loose because 'they won't hurt anyone' or get underfoot and trip you (had that happen to me once or twice...)



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The Mobile Madhouse: me (Rosie), him (Troy), a kelpie, a kelpie-dingo, a husky & a rainbow lorikeet.
Tony Bev


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Peter_n_Margaret wrote:

FACT.
It is impossible to enjoy the full range of benefits and pleasures of travel if you are accompanied by a pet, if you have any consideration for the pet.
Nor should you expect others to appreciate your pet like you do.
Make a choice.

We chose pets while the kids were young.
Now we choose no pets.

Cheers,
Peter

I agree with the above, and add a bit more

We travelled with a cat in West Australia, until she passed on

As we like to go to Tamworth in January, (it is usually hot there, at that time of year)
The wife has decided not to have another pet, until our/her travelling days have ended

In my opinion, like Peter above has already said, it is your decision, to do what you want to do
You are not being selfish, by travelling with pets, providing you are willing to look after them
You are also not being selfish, by not travelling with a pet, if you think that your pet, is being stressed



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