iluvdogs

For the past few weeks, our five month old beagle puppy has been taking car rides every weekend. Since we like to take short day trips on the weekend just to get out of the city, it is important that Taco gets car training  and is used to traveling in the car with us. He needs to be able to fit into our lifestyle and it’s best for the training to start as soon after a puppy’s vaccinations are complete.

I make sure that Taco doesn’t eat too much in the mornings if we are going to take him with us. We already had a throw up incident! He doesn’t seem to drink much food or eat much when we are on the road though. He’s gotten to the point where he’s settling down faster and even sleeps during long rides. He loves to sit in my lap, however, and I have to push him down towards the ground. He also has a blanket and dog chews so that he’s comfortable during the ride.

On a school holiday for the King’s birthday, we took him with us to an ostrich farm where he got to meet a few big birds, camels, horses and sheep. Most of the animals were pretty scared of him. We had yummy noodles for lunch at Petchaburi and afterwards walked up the hill to see the palace at the top. Taco had a run in with a few monkeys that live on the mountain. He had to be carried most of the way to make sure that he didn’t bother the monkeys and vice versa.

That weekend was a long weekend and the whole family, including Taco, headed to the province of Kanchanaburi. We spent two nights in a small town called Sanghklaburi next to the Burmese border. The town was very small compared to Bangkok and it was full of fellow Bangkokians escaping the busy capital. Sanghklaburi is a four hour drive from Bangkok and is in the same direction as the bridge over the River Kwai and Nam Tok Sai Yok. However, to get to Sanghklaburi, you have to keep going up into the mountains along a windy two lane highway until you reach a huge reservoir that was one of the King’s projects to prevent flooding and generate electricity.We stayed at a resort called Sanghkla Garden, on the banks of the reservoir without air conditioning or hot water. The resort owners were kind enough to boil water for our morning showers.


We had called ahead to make sure dogs were permitted at the resort. I brought along Taco’s dog crate so that he would have a place to sleep and be confined when needed. It also helped him to feel more at ease since this is his normal sleeping place and is regarded as his den. I took him for frequent walks to so that he could go potty. He went with us everywhere. The nice thing about Thailand is that people don’t really mind you bringing small pet dogs with you, even in the open air restaurants. While we ate, he sat and played under the table. He would often lick pieces of ice or just go to sleep.

The only bad thing about traveling with a dog in Thailand is that there are so many stray dogs. At the market where we had several meals, I had to keep Taco on my lap if large dogs were around. My dad kept a large stick on hand to chase more aggressive dogs away when necessary. A lot of the dogs were just curious, but I didn’t like having the stray dogs and their diseases near my puppy. Taco was very interested in these strange dogs and would often bark at them.

It was a lot of fun traveling with Taco, but when we got home we were both exhausted. Taco sleep most of the day and night for two days recuperating from his adventurous weekend. It was a great opportunity to socialize him and make sure he will be able to travel with us as an adult dog.