In our new blog series, Schnauzers On Tour, members will share their schnauzer-friendly holiday experiences. Hopefully it will help you think about all the lovely places you can take your schnauzers when you next go on a dog-friendly holiday! Our first contributer is Linda Sloan who visited Rosemarkie with her husband Dave and her gang of 4 schnauzers, Henry, Daisy, Reuben and George. Find out more about this beautiful place. Schnauzers On Tour in Rosemarkie.
We packed the motorhome and were off for two weeks in mid June to our favourite camp site – Rosemarkie on the Moray Firth. Lovely views from the window over the beach and straight out to sea. The site has a lovely dog walk – very good for focusing the mind when bedtime wees are needed as there are so many peemails to answer!
We love to walk along to the community café. Depending on the tide you can either walk on the sand or along the front. Waiting at the end are lovely lattes and gorgeous scones and cakes! What’s not to like? Lots of seats outside, always water and treats for the pups; you could sit there all day and just watch the sea. The schnozzies also made us proud when a family spread out a picnic rug quite near where we were sitting (a bit too close for politeness really) and a toddler backed almost right up to us and not one of the dogs reacted!
We all slept well on the first night, Dave and I and all four schnauzers – Henry, Daisy, Reuben and George. However, disaster began to unfold on the second and subsequent nights when, one by one, the pups came down with a tummy bug. However, good old Yudigest sachets sorted them out and we managed to have everyone better in time to attend the Moray and Nairn schnauzer walk on the Sunday. Lovely walk through Culbin Forest in fantastic company – don’t all schnauzer people make fantastic company? – on what turned out to be a very hot day. Both Daisy and George were brilliant off lead but Henry decided he needed to be at the front so had to go back on his lead when his recall deserted him! And Reuben, well, he got so worked up over one dog that he couldn’t leave alone… Hormones I think!. Sigh!
Dave has been doing some lead work with Reuben – boot camp, he calls it. He took Reuben out some nights for an extra walk after tea, just for some one to one training. On his own, Reub can become much more focused on what he is supposed to be doing and gets a lot less excited, to the extent that a dog charged out from his tie down position next to a caravan and Reub didn’t bat an eyelid. Good boy! But when we’re walking all four, either Reub or George will spot another dog and start to whinge or bark. And then they dance on the ends of their leads, barking loudly! So very embarrassing! The two week holiday has been so stressful in that regard that it has made us look for and book a training assessment for the whole pack. Hopefully we can get to the stage of having better behaved dogs in due course.
One of our favourite places to visit in the Inverness area is Brodie Castle. We aren’t allowed to take the dogs inside the building but the grounds are lovely with some really nice walks. And there is a lovely tea room with very nice cheese scones. I sense a theme going on here…
On one of the days we visited Grantown On Spey and had a nice walk through the town, meeting two more schnauzers on our way, and then decided to head to Aviemore, famous for its winter sports but also, as it turned out, a very popular place to visit all year round. The temperature was 27 so we were seeking shade to walk, but as we drove between Grantown and Aviemore we could see snow on the distant Cairngorms!
A couple of days before we came home we got up in the morning and put the dogs’ leads on – site rules say they have to be on the lead on the site – but, somehow, I managed to switch Reuben’s and Daisy’s leads. ‘Well, does it matter?’ I hear you ask. Actually, it did! Because we have four dogs, we have a different coloured lead for each one. It makes it easier to untangle them from each other when they start practising macramé! First thing in the morning it’s always important to know who has had a wee (or anything else) and switched leads completely messed with my head:
“Daisy’s had a wee. No, wait, she lifted her leg. “
“Reub is having a girly wee. Oh, no, that’s Daisy… “
And so on. I just couldn’t deal with that at that time in the morning. Or any time of the day!
And so, our fortnight away came to an end. We packed up again and headed home – a long eight hour journey (including a couple of stops) but the pups were so very well behaved in the motorhome, snoozing the majority of the way. Good dogs! See you again in just a few short weeks Rosemarkie.
Mad About Schnauzers UK is a fun, social group for schnauzer lovers. We also have a fundraising arm which raises money for rescue schnauzers in need at The Diana Brimblecombe Animal Rescue Centre.