Today was an important day. We’ve been aware of the fact that Jessie had never been on a train whereas Georgie’s had lots of trips, mostly when she was younger when we were car-free. She seems to have very happy associations with train travel probably because she always gets lots of tickles!
Jessie on the other hand had never had that experience – at least not with us. I decided to pack up her saddle bags, mostly to make it more like a day’s work for her which I figured she’d like – and also to lighten my load.
I packed her tennis ball, towel in case of wet weather, dried dog food, wet dog food (to mix in), dental chew, poo bags and the Citronella spray for her barking collar. We set off for the 11.33 with me anxiously scanning the horizon for other dogs.
This is the bit that frightened me most about today’s trip – what would happen if we saw another dog on the train? We still haven’t really solved this problem. She’s fine off the lead on our morning walks but as soon as we see another dog when she’s on the lead, she goes berserk. It has got better and there have been times when she’s been bombarded with lots of dogs on leads (on holiday in pretty Cornish villages for example) and somehow coped. But mostly it’s a daily exercise in trying to reduce her fear.
Anyway, the Citronella Collar
We were very lucky. The whole outward journey went off without any interruptions – no dogs, no funny looking people, no-one on the train reaching out to stroke her. She was able to concentrate on acclimatising herself with the train itself. I tried to be as casual and relaxed as possible, finding an apple in my bag as soon as we got on and occasionally giving her a tiny bit to take her mind off all the strange train noises. At first she did seem very agitated – desperately trying to find the source of every sound, examining every last spot on the ground like a dog working for the forensic department. But to her credit, after about ten minutes, she settled down and within two hours we had arrived at our destination.
The way back was more involved – the powers that be obviously thought we were ready for some further challenges.
On the twenty minute walk back to the station we started seeing more dogs – a chocolate Labrador with his human family, and two greyhounds walking with their owner – enough to get Jessie hot under the collar but still not wild in the same way as she is around our local patch. And then when we got into the station we spotted a dog on the platform. But amazingly there was no reaction! She kept her head down and marched forward – as if she was ‘at work’ and couldn’t be interrupted. I was amazed.
I found a two-seater (rather than a four-seater with a table) and coaxed her in with a treat. She went through the same checking system as before but for a shorter time and we settled down for the return trip. It was much busier than before and I knew we’d need to share our space. I cleared the seat next to me, sat Jessie on the floor between my legs and prayed for either a dog-lover or someone who would completely ignore her.
As we were pulling out of one of the stations I noticed a woman with a cute terrier-cross boarding our carriage. I was about to shout out, ‘Excuse me, there’s another dog here. We’re going to have a scene if you pass us,’ but before I could shout my warning, a very large man took the seat next to me. He completely obliterated the view to the woman and dog, and it seemed that Jessie’s view was also blocked from below. We were cocooned in our little area, safe until he moved! He was chatty and told me about his family dog, Whisky. Jessie seemed to like him too, so her first meeting with a passenger was a positive one – just as I’d hoped it would be.
When he got off the dogs spotted each other. Milo (I later found out his name) actually seemed more worried than Jessie – he started whining and after a while, Jessie couldn’t contain herself any longer. She barked, setting off her citronella collar, but no-one seemed to notice. I’d imagined this scenario in my mind with passengers getting up to move carriage, frowning and tutting at me for having such an out of control dog. But there was one bark only and even the woman who was now sitting next to us didn’t seem to notice.
Milo and Jessie eye-balled each other from under the seats and Milo had a spell on his owner’s lap just to calm him down. But they eventually got used to each other and fell asleep companionably with the aisle between them. My worst fear had been recognised and we had survived. The woman now sitting next to me, also a dog-lover with one of her own (Lucy the Cavalier King Charles) was very supportive and we talked ‘dog’ for the rest of the journey.
When we got home, Georgie and Jessie leapt all over each other, clearly delighted to be together again. Jessie had a lot of steam to let off – she’d been so good and kept herself together for the whole day. Jessie’s Big Adventure had gone off smoothly – it had been a learning curve for both of us and we’ll be having another trip just as soon as we can.
Visit our website, Out And About With Your Dog, for a whole section on Dog Travel.
