Hi, I'm looking for some advice/suggestions please.

My husband wanted us to go away fro Christmas to Merimbula where our mother in law owns a house where we can stay free. However I said that I would not go without Beau and she says we cannot take the dogs to stay in her house.

We want to try to get a short holiday, but we have Beau and also an adult GSD. Both dogs are entire.

I am not really willing to put Beau in kennels even for a couple of weeks as he is only 8 months old and should be with me.

Has anyone got any idease about dog-friendly places we could go with a reasonable distance of Melbourne and not too rough or expensive? Or any other suggestions?

Hiya Beau, was it you at the Melbourne Royal? Have you looked to see if there are any dog welcome caravan parks in the area? Why doesn't your Mum want the dogs there?

I sympathise with you, we, sorry, I haven't had a holiday since 2003, I won't put my hound in kennels and he is too big to ask anyone to have. At least you have warm Christmases, ours are freezing cold, so the caravan idea might be a good one.

Perhaps us here in the UK, could start a DH dogsitting service, or compile a list of people who would babysit for holidays???

I also haven't had a holiday for years as I simply will not put my hounds into kennels and I don't trust anyone else enough to let them look after them. Having said that holidays do not really interest me as I prefer days out with the dogs and coming back to my home

Hi Beau

There are lots of places that now specialise in pet friendly accommodation. We did a search online when we were travelling up the north coast of NSW and found a wonderful place where we and the two deerhounds were made very welcome. The dogs were allowed to sleep inside and there was a safe fenced yard as well as acres of paddocks to run in Try typing pet friendly accommodation into google or start with holidayingwithdogs.com.au or love me love my dog. Good luck! Holidaying with the hounds is great fun, they love exploring new places and long runs on the beach - we can recommend it.

houndy wrote:


Same here Houndy. Hubby has gone back to Western Australia about 4 times and I stay home and look after the hounds. Doesn't bother me that much except his family keep wanting me to go as well. Oh well

We have not long come back from a holiday in the Lake District. 12 of us went, all
Deerhound friends. We rented a converted chapel for a week. We took 2 Deerhounds
and a Whippet and their was another 2 Deerhounds and a Greyhound. Some of the group did
not take dogs as they wanted a dog free holiday but I can't see the point of walking
without a dog.

We had a wonderful time and the weather was kind. The highlight of the week being an
eight hour walk up a fell called High Street. We reached the summit (2.717ft) at around
1.30pm and then we stopped for our picnic. On our walk we saw wild Fell ponies and lots
of Red Deer. We arrived back at the cars at around 5.30pm. It was a fantastic day.
I was very proud of myself for successfully completing the walk as 6 days later I was
having the surgery on my ankle. Two members of the walk were children, my daughter
Charlotte and our friends daughter Jamine. They did exceptionally well with no complaints
at all.

The dogs had a wonderful time and because our dogs are stock safe they were off the lead
most of the time. The only downside to that was that Mallie came home with a broken bone
in her hind leg which was a result of too much racing around over rocks with the darned
Whippet. Mallie is ok now though.

This is Mallie and Orrin at the halfway point up High Street Fell. The Whippet (Ellie)
didn't stay still long enough to get her photo taken.

Lovely photo. They certainly look right at home on the moors.

Beau have you made any decisions yet?