A Holiday Home for the Boys

I realize that all of my posts right now are about Tanner and Toby, but for the time being, my life literally revolves around these jokers. Forgive me. We'll all get settled and move past this phase ...hopefully sooner than later.

Last weekend BK and I ventured off for a long weekend to Belgium (more about this later). Just like in the States, we were faced with the task of finding somewhere for Tanner and Toby to go while we're on vacation. In Texas it was typically a friend who stayed at the house, either of my parents, or occasionally a TCU student who watched them.

Now that we're in Switzerland we don't have those nice familiar choices anymore. This was a serious concern for BK and I, as right now the boys pretty much won't let us out of their sight to ensure that we don't leave them again. Much to my dismay, BK even got to the point where he didn't want to plan any more travel until we had the dogs figured out. How were we going to leave them for a weekend, or longer, when they wouldn't even let us leave the apartment without howling at the top of their lungs?

Thankfully, our dog trainer found a place for us outside of Basel. She even called the place and explained to them what we were working on from a behavior standpoint...and they still agreed to take the boys.

On the way to the dog holiday home

BK headed to Belgium last Sunday, which threw Tanner into a tailspin; so much so that he stopped eating, would just sit and shiver, and was making himself throw up. I took him to the vet, who gave him something to calm his stomach, and he seemed better after that. Thursday the trainer picked up myself and the boys to take us out to the "dog holiday home." In Switzerland dogs cannot be loose in the car, so the boys had to ride in "the box" (crate) in the back of the car. They did not appreciate this and Tanner pretty much cried the entire 20 minutes it took to get there- an awesome start.

You're probably wondering how it went...

It was GREAT! The owner even said that they were "lovely" dogs. I've heard a lot of words used to describe the boys. Lovely is not one of them. This place is pretty much a big farm where the dogs essentially run the place. T&T had their own 6'x4' room to eat and sleep in, but spent the majority of their time with the pack of dogs that was there. They apparently got along great with the other dogs and were only on a hunger strike for the first day. We even made it back to Basel on public transportation.

I found this the other day and thought it was funny- reminds me of our reunions.

I celebrated this success by booking four additional stays for them while I was there to pick them up. Woo hoo! Let the travel planning begin!