Jake's Progress

... and no, he didn't eat it. Or roll in it.

Labels: Travel

When you live almost anywhere else in the world - except perhaps the Netherlands - Copenhagen seems like the model city for transport and getting about. The Metro takes you directly from the airport into the city centre in 15 mins. All the public transport is integrated. I couldn't get over it when I pressed the button to translate the Metro ticket machine and there was a special ticket for dogs. On close inspection of my Metro leaflet (in English, I don't speak more Danish than yes/no/two beers please/thanks ) I learn that small dogs in bags go free (so a hypothetical attack chihuahua guarding my passport would have travelled FREE). All other dogs have to buy their own ticket. Dogs can sit anywhere except the front or end of the train, which is reserved for people with allergies. When I say they can sit anywhere, I don't think they mean on the seats.


Image by Laura & Garrett, some rights reserved.

Everyone in Copenhagen seems to cycle. Like the Dutch, the Danes pedal around on stately bikes in their everyday clothes. Sometimes dogs trot alongside, on and off-lead. Some dogs sit in a basket on the handlebars, and others sit in the very exciting Danish trikes. None of my pictures came out, but I honestly did see sights like these.



I also snapped a shiba inu dozing in a designer knitwear shop window. I wonder when the shop owner realised the merchandise was being used as a pillow?

Even sillier poodles in a department store window display ...


Rather nobler were the hounds guarding the Radhus (town hall).



Back in Edinburgh again now. "There's no place like home! There's no place like home!"

Labels: Travel

Image by Emmanuel, some rights reserved.

Work took me to Madrid for a few days... As usual when I travel, I studied the local dog-owning culture. There were many, many city dogs to watch. Lots of small dogs ... schnauzers, French bulldogs, English bulldogs (less exaggerated than the ones I've seen locally in the UK), miniature pinschers, lots of clipped spaniels and terriers (Madrid is a tad hotter than Edinburgh) and several of what I think are bolognese but may be the Spanish equivalent. In one small area I saw three different sorts of pet shops - one called Pet a porter (muy buen), full of little outfits & hip dog beds. One with cages of pups in the window :-( , and another with windows full pictures of dogs that need new homes (bueno!) I guess that the Spanish working day probably helps working people keep their dogs happy. Plus there are all those pavement cafes where dogs can sit under tables, waiting for snacks to fall. Lots of dogs get to trot around off-lead - "vamos, vamos," say their people, and the little legs trot to keep up. They all seem to wear two collars, and I guess one must be a dog license of some sort.

Sadly I can't share any of the pics I took of dog-life in Madrid because on my last night there my bag was nicked, so I lost my camera (among other things, including my passport). It all came right - I was with friends, the Madrid police and the British consulate were great, and I flew home on schedule with an emergency passport.

It's been pointed out to me that if I kept a chihuahua in my bag à la Paris Hilton, this would never had happened.

Labels: Travel, Whimsy

Gus: Right Jake. We are in Nottingham. I will climb this tree and pretend to be Robin Hood and you will be Friar Tuck the way you've been cadging scraps off senior family members.

Jake: Baroo?

Labels: Travel, Whimsy

We like the Borders. So we decided that even though the Tweedbank agility show is reachable from Edinburgh with an early start, we would splash out on a B&B near Kelso. Instead of the usual frenzied start to the day, we drove down on Friday afternoon, had a picnic looking at the rather lovely Leaderfoot Viaduct ; pottered round the ruins of Kelso Abbey, and found our B&B, the Garden House B&B in Whitmuir. It was as dog friendly as you could hope for - having been found on Dog Friendly Britain. We were in the garden flat, and I think Jake was non-plussed to see pheasants strolling past his bedroom window. But he loved the garden and particularly the walk round the loch. Unfortunately my camera phone didn't cope very well with the twilight in the woods - what should have been a lovely pic of Jake on a stile hasn't come out very well at all. ;-(



Three hearty cheers for the Buccleuch Arms, which allowed dogs in the bar as well as the garden with absolutely no fuss - and we can see why they won Scottish Inn of the Year 2008! One of the best cooked steaks any of us has had in a very long time, which provoked an outbreak of Crufts quality sits and pointed re-sits from Jake.

So come Saturday morning, we were rested and only had a 20 minute drive to the agility show - thanks to our hosts, who kindly gave us coffee and toast ahead of the other guests so we could get to the Borders showground in time to walk the courses.

Labels: Scotland, Travel

I’m back from a conference in Philadelphia. I really liked the city, though I pined terribly for Rod and Jake, and stared wistfully after every dog I saw. Found a groovy dog shop round the corner from our hotel : Doggie Style on 13th Street. It had the most fab range of dog treats, laid out like an artisan bakery.



I didn’t want to risk bringing anything back through UK customs, though. What better way to attract the attention of the sniffer dogs than by having a bag full of luxury dog biscuits? So I contented myself with one small squeaky plush hedgehog and, after much patient help from the staff, I chose Jake a waterproof for those late-night circuits round the block in the pouring rain. It has a very exciting design – he steps into it and it velcros up the back. Will show a pic in another post.

I found lots of Jakey-type dogs embedded into the very fabric of Philadelphia as I went about my business:

In Rittenhouse Square:



Inside the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts - a sculpture by (I think) Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, (1876-1973). There was another by the same artist of two greyhounds playing - but the snap I took on my camera phone didn't come out very well.



On the walls of the Perelman Building, Philadelphia Museum of Art, a dog which looks as though someone has just taken its bone away.

Labels: Travel

Sandy and I have just returned from a conference in the Czech Republic. There were lots of much loved pooches out and about in Brno. We even saw a dachshund sitting on its owner's lap in a pizza restaurant. After all, pizzas are a rich source of cheese, ham, spicy sausage... In America I've seen dogs trotting round department stores with their owners. It's best that Jake doesn't know about such things.

Though I was greeted handsomely when I got home, Jake used the following tactics to show the evil abandoning human she would have to work her way back into his affections :

• pointedly getting off the sofa when Gus got on, settling by Rod's chair instead
• when all three are on the sofa, Gus gets the dog bum, Rod the adoring head
• when Gus threw the ball, Jake took it back to Rod

Let that be a lesson.

Labels: Travel, Whimsy