{"id":453,"date":"2012-04-15T20:11:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T00:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/?page_id=453"},"modified":"2012-04-15T20:20:10","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T00:20:10","slug":"travels-with-charlies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/travels-with-charlies\/","title":{"rendered":"Travels with Charlies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>John Steinbeck didn&#8217;t become famous as a travel writer, but he did write <em>Travels with Charley, a <\/em>very fine book about touring the country in a very small, homemade camper, accompanied by Charley, his poodle buddy.<em><\/em>\u00a0 His experience traveling with a dog was very positive.\u00a0 The <a title=\"Steeles on Wheels\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1VniU-1A\">Steeles<\/a>, on the other hand, report a less happy outcome: they had to find a home for their dog because it just didn&#8217;t like the vagabond lifestyle.<\/p>\n<p>But they both had just one dog.\u00a0 We have two.\u00a0 And I have to say that neither of our mutts is as&#8230; refined, shall we say&#8230; as Steinbeck&#8217;s or even the Steeles&#8217;.\u00a0 Which made me wonder what travels with our Charlies would be like.<\/p>\n<p>First let me introduce them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Muchacho (&#8220;Cha-Cha&#8221; to his friends) is a German Shepherd mix from Puerto Rico.\u00a0 He has never learned English.\u00a0 Or perhaps he has just never learned to obey commands in English.\u00a0 He may very well ignore command in Spanish, too.\u00a0 I have never tried that.\u00a0 He is our &#8220;gentleman&#8221;, as his vet puts it.\u00a0 At least he is gentlemanly now, at age 11.\u00a0 In his younger years he was more feisty.\u00a0 He is not an aggressive dog, but once broke a leash to start a fight with another dog.\u00a0 That is behavior we never saw before that time and never saw it since.\u00a0 Perhaps the passing dog insulted him in Spanish.<\/li>\n<li>Grace is a terrier mix from Virginia.\u00a0 Or, more appropriately, a &#8220;holy terror&#8221; mix.\u00a0 Never has a dog been so poorly named.\u00a0 There is nothing quiet, gentle or graceful about her.\u00a0 &#8220;Tasmanian Devil&#8221; is the name that fits.\u00a0 She is the alpha dog and has been from the day she was introduced to Cha-Cha.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_454\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/014.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-454\" class=\"size-large wp-image-454\" title=\"014\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/014-1024x819.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"511\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/014-1024x819.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/014-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/014-150x120.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/014-400x320.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grace (on top, of course) and Cha-Cha<\/p><\/div>\n<p>They were kennel-mates but had not met until that fateful day when we decided to adopt both.\u00a0 The kennel master suggested that we introduce them, to see if there was any personality clash.\u00a0 So we put Grace, who was just 3 months old and about 3 pounds of non-stop energy, in with Cha-Cha, who was 6 months old and about 25 very somber pounds.\u00a0 We thought that Grace might be intimidated by the much larger dog, so we kept close watch, making sure that Grace would not be freaked and that Cha-Cha would not be too aggressive.<\/p>\n<p>Well, we were worried about the wrong dog.\u00a0 The moment we put Grace down she charged at Cha-Cha, nipping at his legs and generally establishing the fact that she was in charge here.\u00a0 Cha-Cha retreated to the corner and looked imploringly at us to save him from the little monster.<\/p>\n<p>But there is no saving Cha-Cha from Grace &#8211; she is truly irrepressible. More than a decade later the dynamic hasn&#8217;t changed much.\u00a0 He still looks at us imploringly.\u00a0 She still pushes him around.\u00a0 But they love each other and are terrific companions &#8211; to each other and to us.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Red Beast is a &#8220;crew cab&#8221; truck, meaning that it has a full rear seat.\u00a0 The seats actually fold down, creating a flat surface for cargo.\u00a0 Or dogs.\u00a0 We plan to travel with the dogs in the rear seat, on that flat surface.\u00a0 They both travel well, if you don&#8217;t count Grace barking at every passing 18-wheeler.\u00a0 Hopefully she will tire of that after the novelty wears off. And before both Jett and I succumb to fatal migraines.<\/p>\n<p>I am more worried about their campground behavior.\u00a0 We get the impression that many campgrounds &#8211; even so-called &#8220;pet friendly&#8221; ones &#8211; would prefer that pets did not exist.\u00a0 Some charge extra, though it is hard to see why a dog would increase a campground&#8217;s expenses.\u00a0 Insurance, possibly, but what else? Water?<\/p>\n<p>Staying at campgrounds means walking the dogs.\u00a0 That will be my job.\u00a0 But both dogs have very little experience with relieving themselves while on a leash and I think it is all too possible that they will feel more comfortable relieving themselves in the RV rather than in some unfamiliar grassy spot by the highway. Cleaning the RV messes will be my job too.<\/p>\n<p>And which do I walk first?\u00a0 Our house has a fenced-in yard, so we have always just let them out.\u00a0 Taking one for a walk first means that one dog will be second. What is the socially correct way to handle this?\u00a0 Do I always take Grace first because she is alpha? Or take turns because that is fair?\u00a0 Will the one left behind raise a Baskervilles howl, causing a disturbance and getting us booted from the campground?<\/p>\n<p>Most campgrounds prohibit leaving dogs alone because some do raise Baskerville howls.\u00a0 Now, we love our dogs but we do leave them alone while we work.\u00a0 While I can&#8217;t swear that they don&#8217;t howl all day long, I really don&#8217;t know how they behave when we are not there.\u00a0 We have often thought about leaving a webcam active, to get a view into their lives during the day, but I think we are a little afraid to find out.\u00a0 They probably just sleep all day, but maybe that is just a ruse.\u00a0 Maybe they throw a keg party for the neighbor cats.<\/p>\n<p>That &#8220;don&#8217;t leave the dogs alone&#8221; policy will crimp our style is several ways.\u00a0 For example, it is going to be hard to see San Francisco with dogs in tow.\u00a0 Maybe we will be able to find a dogsitter at the campground?\u00a0 We would be happy to return the favor.<\/p>\n<p>Once we get to our winter home, wherever that may be, we will be looking for jobs.\u00a0 Again, how do we work without leaving the dogs alone?\u00a0 Will I need to take a night watchman job just so I can hang out with the dogs while Jett works?\u00a0 It will be a problem.<\/p>\n<p>I know what you are thinking: why take them at all?\u00a0 Why not find a home for them, then travel carefree? It is a good question, but moot because we couldn&#8217;t live without them any more than they could live without us.\u00a0 But the fact is that they are both older than we are, in dog years.\u00a0 Grace will probably last forever as only the good die young.\u00a0 But Cha-Cha is not in great health.\u00a0 I think there is a real possibility that he will not live to see San Diego.\u00a0 Which would be a shame.<\/p>\n<p>I hear that Spanish is spoken there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Steinbeck didn&#8217;t become famous as a travel writer, but he did write Travels with Charley, a very fine book about touring the country in a very small, homemade camper, accompanied by Charley, his poodle buddy.\u00a0 His experience traveling with a dog was very positive.\u00a0 The Steeles, on the other hand, report a less happy &hellip; <a class=\"read-excerpt\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/travels-with-charlies\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-453","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1VniU-7j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/453\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}