It’s a dogs life!

It seems that everybody in mainland Europe has a dog.  Caravaners/motor home owners seem particularly fond of dogs, which surprises me as there’s little enough room as it is, without tripping over a four legged friend every time you move around.  However, what Karol pointed out is that different nationalities treat their dogs in different ways.

Take the Spanish – their dogs are an integral part of the family – whilst being well behaved they know their place. Italians take their dogs everywhere with them – including into shopping centres!  What happens if the dog has an accident on the tiled flooring?  No one seems to bat an eyelid. The Germans treat their dogs like babies, cuddling them and talking to them in baby talk, even lifting their paws for them to wave goodbye! As a result their dogs seem to be more often badly behaved, and they bark (or yap) a lot.

We also think that there is some truth about dogs looking like their owners – on our campsite near Trogir there were three very large, overweight, tattooed male owners of very large, overweight (not tattooed as far as we could see) dogs. They were almost the only people on site who didn’t speak, despite Karol’s attempts to say Guten Morgen or Hallo every time they walked past our pitch!

Quite a number of British caravaners and motor home owners bring their dogs with them which is great – dogs are often allowed to swim in the sea or lake in specified areas, and both dogs and owners look as though they are having a great time. However this means that many take the shortest channel crossing as they don’t want to leave their dogs. When we’ve been on day ferries to Ibiza, and overnight to Italy and Croatia we’ve noticed that continental dog owners don’t think that the rules on board apply to them – whilst kennels are always provided, and dogs are not ‘allowed’ in the public areas or cabins on board, the number of dog owners explaining that their pet needs to stay with them and not be shut away in the kennel is practically 100% – and no-one appears to mind!

Maybe we’ll be able to get a dog after all?…………………(says Karol)