I figured a good way to dip my toe in the water (or footpath, as the case may be) would be to take one of those walks where you pay a premium and all your practicalities are taken care of. The company will find your accommodation & book you in. They carry your luggage from place to place. They provide maps and handy checklists of things you should remember to pack. Ideal for a newbie travelling alone but for one small, friendly dog. So I contacted this company about one of their short breaks fairly near home.
This particular company had a good website with plenty of information and photos. They suggested if you wanted to travel with a dog you should email, so I did. A couple of days later I got a reply listing the packages they offer on which a dog is welcome. There were 15 choices from all over Great Britain, out of a total of 63 packages that they offer. In addition, there were 3 short breaks out of the 37 they list. I suppose it goes without saying that the one I wanted to do was not included.
Do we really live in such a anti-dog world? Or maybe it's just an anti-dog country. Or maybe just an anti-dog company that I was unlucky enough to happen upon in my first attempt. Don't get me wrong, I know that dogs can get muddy, they have hair that - eek! - occasionally comes off, that they might bark and disturb someone for, oh, 5 seconds or so. But I'm pretty sure we pride ourselves on being a nation of animal lovers, don't we? According to the BBC
With 55,000 adult members, the RSCPA remains one of the UK's most popular charities. It collects some £28.5m each year in legacies alone.Wow. Apparently we do love animals, we just want someone else to take care of them.
I'm told, and my own experience supports the idea, that dogs are much more welcome in Europe generally than in the UK. Hotels routinely welcome dogs and they even provide bowls, dog towels and treats. Go on a cheap package holiday to a Mediterranean country and see how the stray dogs are treated. Without the benefit of dog wardens or the RSPCA, dogs live quietly in the streets, visiting restaurants where they are tolerated by the owners and where soft-hearted tourists slip them morsels to eat. By and large they don't even seem to slink around with the expectation of being mistreated or even shoo'ed away.
However, I'm going to be walking in Britain, not Europe (at least for now) so I need to find a way to go where I want to go and keep my faithful friend with me. I guess I'll just have to keep looking.
Frankly, if I were running a guesthouse, I'd be more concerned about the people who stayed with me, rather than the dogs. But that's just me. As in all things, if a dog's presence is in some way disagreeable enough to warrant a ban, then it's probably owned by someone who needs to be banned too.
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