Sands Full Speed Ahead: Cottage Trip with the Dogs

Thanks again to Lisa Sands for sending us such a stellar example of the Rat Terrier breed.
My mom (kid's and dog's "Gran") has rented a cottage on Lake Huron, Lurgan Beach, near Kincardine for the past 2 years and dogs and children are welcome.

Last year we brought Dora; our South African Boerboel, this year both Dora and Jigger came along for the vacation.

We had a lovely time, the weather was perfect, my kids and my dogs were well behaved.

Jigger had been with us for 1 week before we left, and he impressed us mightily with his confidence and behaviour during the vacation.

Lake Huron is a deep lake and creates some decent waves; but Jigger had no problem jumping right in to water over his head and swimming; a feat I was pretty impressed with for a 9 week old puppy. I think he chose the swimming over staying on shore because both me, the kids and Dora were in the lake; but he soon figured out that Gran was sitting on the shore; so he didn't have to swim every time.

He was friendly and outgoing to all the people walking by and observant of all the dogs (it is an on-leash area but dogs are welcome to the beach). He made quite a few human friends during the week we were there.

He is learning that being in his crate is not torture (he screams a bit when he figures he should be out; but a bacon reward for going in and settling down is quickly changing his mind). It helps that Dora is also crated when we leave.

He is a good traveller in the car; we drove 3 hours on the way up, he was very good; we stopped at about the 2 hour mark for lunch and potty break; both dogs were excellent, well-behaved pets. On the way home we drove 2 1/2 hours to London to visit family and the dogs were again excellent. They didn't come in the house (it was a bit crowded) but they patiently waited in the van while we visited (it was a rainy evening so no heat issues) and came out and went for walks a few times with big "sister" Dora and the family.

All in all an uneventful vacation that was relaxing and enjoyable, with 9 week old puppy that had been with the family 1 week.

Again, thank you to Lisa Sands for producing such a confident and fun dog!