Hi there - wondering if anyone has experienced of this and could give advice.
Penny (9 year old neutered female) is in many ways the perfect dog. Goes a bit nuts when visitors arrive but is calms down be the time they are siting down with a cup of tea / glass of wine
.
Before my OH and I separated we had a car - Penny was dreadful (screaming etc) for the first hour of any journey but would eventually settle, and if we were away for a few days would be fine on journeys throughout that period. Because we were very rarely in the car, we would have this performance every time (our fault I know for not doing journeys regularly).
Since we have separated she has hardly ever been in the car apart from an emergency trip to the vet. I'd really like to be able to take her on the bus, and possibly the train, but is she beyond changing? The last time she was on a bus was years ago and I had to get off as she made so much noise.
I live near the bus terminus and have thought about asking the driver if she could just get on for a sniff about, and maybe stay on for one stop (some drivers in Edinburgh are lovely and would not mind I'm sure). I'd also wondered about freezing a few gravy bones (she's a power chewer so would finish them in seconds if they weren't frozen) and giving her them just to see if we could manage a couple of stops. I did also wonder if there was a mild sedative I could get from the vet to use when I was doing the first few journeys so she gets used to the bus without a panic and hopefully we'd get to the stage where she could travel without them.
When the kids are at uni. I'm on my own and it would be lovely if Penny and I could just head out for a full day or even overnight e.g. down the coast to North Berwick,through to Glasgow to see the kids, or up to Aberdeen to see my Mum, although the train would be another training issue.
Please - does anyone have any advice or experience - it's slightly getting me down as it's the one downer about an otherwise (almost) perfect girl.
Thanks,
Susan