We took Finlay for his first ever holiday away, in a cottage on a farm in North Devon. Dogs are part of the family so for us that means they get to come on holiday with us and although we do have aspirations to have a holiday away without him at some point, that won't be for a while yet. We set off in the car for what turned out to be a very long journey down to the West Country, due to many traffic jams....but Finlay travels well in the car so he slept until we broke part way for a leg stretch.
We got to the cottage late afternoon and Finlay began exploring, all seemed to be going well. The cottage was on a working farm where they had Alpacas, Goats, Sheep, Geese and Chickens....all of these things were of GREAT interest to Finlay. He was very good though and although his chase instinct was kicking in, he didn't go too mad or bark at the livestock. He did however take a great interest in the output of some of the livestock, more on that later. The owners of the farm (and their parents) often walked by the gate to the cottage and Finlay would always greet them with wags, I think they might have fallen a bit in love with him....and indeed him with them. Plus they even recognised him as a Tibetan Spaniel, which is unusual.
At home Finlay sleeps downstairs and we sleep upstairs, it works well. So the cottage was to be the same setup, so we thought nothing of it as we went upstairs having settled him down for the night. We'd brought all his familiar things, beds, toys and towels. But then "woof"......."woof"......"woof"!!!!! He was insistent, so we ignored him for a while, but an hour and a half later we gave up and went down. He didn't want to go in the garden, but did seem to want our company. So my wife dutifully slept on the couch! Next night much the same, so my turn on the couch. At this point dear reader, you are probably either thinking "they're mad" or "poor Finlay".....well we were erring on the side of "poor Finlay". It is unlike him as he is so confident normally, but we couldn't help fear that we were being conned.
To cut a long story short, neither of us had a brilliant sleep for the whole week, but by the end of the week, Finlay had begun to settle. We did sleep downstairs with him, but only for a few hours then came upstairs. Earlier in the week he wasn't even using the bed we took with us, it was like he was really unsettled. We forget that he is only a year old and although he is perfectly settled at home, the cottage couldn't have been much more different. Strange sounds and smells and it must have put him off his stride. During the day though, that was a different matter, he was on his top game. We walked miles.
A quick digression about walking dogs on cliff paths. Some dog walkers are just plain bonkers, because they didn't have their dog on a lead. I don't care how obedient your dog is, you just do NOT walk your dog on a cliff path off lead, it just isn't worth the risk. We are on our 3rd Tibbie and although I'm sure there are other similar dog breeds, we've found Tibbies to be completely unaware of risk and danger. Walking right up to a cliff edge did not bother Finlay and the steepest of paths are just a challenge. So he was on his lead, with a very tight hold on that lead too!!
Most evenings we found ourselves in a local dog friendly pub, which suited Finlay down to the ground because there was a constant stream of adoring fans walking by. For those of you that have met Finlay, you know what this means!! Lots of wagging, cute staring and then in for the 'kill'. He had so much fuss, in fact I think he felt the whole week was all about Finlay.
There was one big Finlay naughty moment, one that you will be very familiar with if you own a dog. Fox poo! We were at a National Trust property walking around the grounds, when Finlay found the freshest, runniest most rank smelling pile of fox poo ever seen and he went in head first and rolled for England. What a mess. He did a fine job for his first ever fox poo roll and boy did he stink. We had some kitchen roll in the car boot, and some shampoo back at the cottage, but we stopped in Tesco on the way home for some extra supplies. He got cleaned up but still whiffed a bit for the rest of the holiday. All of our dogs have done it and it is never convenient, but this was about as inconvenient as you can get. What a darling, but you can't be angry at him, it is a natural thing for them to do. Wait what I am saying, he's a git!
So apart from the disturbed nights we had a great week and so did the boy. One of our favourite places was a cafe called "Storm In A Teacup" in Watermouth Harbour. If you ever find yourself in that area of North Devon near Ilfracombe/Combe Martin do go there. Finlay set up shop at one of the tables, and dog biscuits and fuss were never far away.
All in all, Finlay proved to be the 'go anywhere dog' we always wanted....apart from night-times. But we'll have to work on that. I can also thoroughly recommend Widmouth Farm Cottages, they are dog friendly and even have a dog exercise field and poo bins and their own private beach, their website is http://www.widmouthfarmcottages.com/
A postscript to the non-sleeping issue, first night back home, he slept like a log.....not a peep out of him. We had expected woofing.....but no woofing!
Some photos as usual
Here Finlay is looking at some cattle through a fence, as it happens it is a pretty good show stand too!
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| I've got my eye on somethin' |
Now I did mention the output of a certain farm animal, the sheep. Finlay absolutely loved eating sheep poo, helpfully here is me filming him doing it with my wife shouting at me to stop him....typical husband!
Finally here is King Canute, filmed at the private beach owned by the farm. It turns out Finlay is quite the water dog. He has been to the beach before, but never has the water been so animated and Fin loved it. This is only a small segment of his antics, he spent ages jumping in and out of the waves.
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