The Ultimate Test Drive -- November 30, 2007

On October 24, 2007, Pete, Acacia, Bing and I drove out of our driveway in our Honda Odyssey toward the south. Our destination…Scottsdale, Arizona, for me to judge APDT Rally-O trials. This was the moment I had been dying for, and dreading at the same time. By now, we all know about Bing’s trials and tribulations in the car, and this was going to be ‘the big test.’

I think we set up for it quite well. Acacia adores being in the car; as a matter of fact, it’s often impossible to get her out of the car! She goes in, lays down, and the moment we start driving, she’s in CIC (Car Induced Coma). Bing, not so much. Acacia gets the back seat. The middle seats are pulled out to allow for maximum space for us all to move around. In there, we had Bing’s new folding plastic travel crate, our cooler, a thermos of dog water, and assorted toys and treats for humans and canines. The entire area was covered in remnants of our new living room carpet (this seemed to have an immediate calming effect on Bing when we put it in…it was familiar). The rest of that area was Bing’s to use. Of course, he chose to spend 99% of his waking hours sitting in the space between the two front seats while insisting that one of us pet him.

However, stopping and getting out of the car was still an issue! I knew that having Bing on a leash for 2 ½ weeks was going to be tough on all of us…he’s so used to running around offleash that this was going to seriously cramp his style. I determined that if we were doing anything more than having a quick pee or walking to the hotel room, he’d be wearing his no-pull harness. He didn’t particularly care for the harness, and initially struggled with having it put on. But after 3 days of having to ‘wait’ when the van door opened, having me fumble with the harness and the leash, he realized that ‘harness’ means “WALK”!!!! As I predicted, the sight of the harness became his cue to stand still because something good was going to happen (discriminative stimulus).

Things were starting to look up! Oh, but there was one more challenge…there were times he needed to be crated in the car. This took a bit of time, as Pete had to set the crate up each time we wanted to use it. Bing fought it, didn’t want to go in it, despite having chewies, shredding towels and toys in there, and his resistance increased as our trip became longer. As we left the van, he would usually only bark a handful of times and then settle. Although, on one occasion Bing and Acacia actually had a howling session lasting few minutes after leaving them in a parking garage in Santa Fe. We often would return to find a sleeping Schming (as we like to call him) in the crate (YAY!) and only once did Pete find evidence of chewing on the inside of the crate. Of course, Mellow Mutts helped to ease the transition, and once or twice I gave him a melatonin pill (5 mg). That helped, but we didn’t rely on either.

On the second-last day of the trip, we were astonished to see Bing get into the van, look around for a few minutes, lay down and chew for a few minutes, and then curl up in the middle of the van and sleep! Could he be ‘getting it’?

Bing and Acacia are hanging out with the Sheriff of Tombstone Arizona. There were a lot of distractions in this little tourist town: horses, people with hats, hoopin' and a hollerin', and the inevitable "what kind of dogs are those?"

Just like the Eagle's song says, Ali, Bing and Acacia are "...standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona" after a stay in the beautiful La Posada Hotel.

Pete reported that he’s been using the crate more often in the van so he can take Bing with him on more errands. We’re all happy about this, but even more so because Bing will go directly into his crate with no argument at all, hang out there and relax until Pete comes back…no barking, no fuss. Yay for Bing! It helps him that he gets to sit next to Pete while he’s driving, but he also will tolerate short drives in the crate.

I knew I had missed out on a huge opportunity by not being able to take him cross-country when he was a youngster. Still, at 2 ½ years of age, he was able to learn some good stuff about traveling and sightseeing. Whew. What a relief!

Ali

Our second stop of the day was a gas stop as well as a pee stop, and while he still dragged us back to the car, he was only frenetic in the car for 5 minutes! Oh boy was I excited!!!!!

As I had hoped, Bing settled into the routine of long rides. We often would drive for 8 or 9 hours a day, with breaks in between. Our trip took us to Knoxville, Chattanooga, then down to New Orleans, across to Austin, up into New Mexico, and finally Arizona.

Bing had plenty of opportunity to learn a ton of new things. He learned that getting into the car means he’s going to get something to chew on. Sometimes we didn’t get it to him quickly enough, and he began to grab a pillow I had made for Acacia (an old pillow case stuffed with dog towels for her to rest her head on…don’t ask!). By the time we had arrived in Scottsdale, I was able to show my Rally friends the floor of the van, which had been completely covered in tiny shreds of pillow case and towel. I didn’t mind losing the old towels and pillow case or cleaning it all up, but it did seem that once he had the opportunity to shred something, it exacerbated his frantic behavior rather than calm it down.

Bing also learned that the space between our front seats was ideal for him to cram himself into. He’d smoosh himself in there, get petted for a while, then lie down and use my purse as a pillow. He had all sorts of other room in the van but preferred this tiny area between us. Over time, he’d try to get in front of us, under our feet. I realized that this is what he’s accustomed to at home. When we sit on the sofa, he’s under our feet under the coffee table. In Pete’s office, he’s under the desk, acting as a foot warmer. In the dining room, he’s under the table, taking up my foot space. It was impossible to explain to him that he couldn’t have this spot in this place, too. Poor baby.

We stopped for a potty break after about 1 ½ hours, and as the car stopped, Bing, of course, became frenetic again at the thought that we were stopping. He believed that he needed to hop out as quickly and as frantically as possible, and as our short walk returned in the direction of the car, he believed that he needed to get there as fast as possible, dragging as many people and dogs as necessary. This time, when we drove off, it only required him 16 minutes to calm!

At a rest stop on the way to Prescott, Arizona, Bing and
Acacia had the opportunity to stretch and admire the view.

As we pulled out on that October morning, Bing displayed his typical frenetic car behavior: hopping around, whistling, mouthing our hands and arms as a request for us to pet him, nudging us with his nose, and if ignored, the occasional bark. This lasted for 24 minutes until he settled down to a dull roar. By this time he was able to sit quietly and look out the front window without requiring one of us to have a hand on him. He did settle down to chewing a pig ear (he will more or less immediately settle down to chew something if given the opportunity, but on this first day, I wanted to test the duration of this time it would take for him to calm down, and then reward it with a chewie).

Situated between the two front seats, Bing used Ali's purse as
a pillow when he finally calmed down and went to sleep.

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By the time we reached New Mexico, Bing had discovered the joys of falling asleep in the car. We’d get in the car, he’d get his chewie, he’d come up to see us, lay down and fall asleep. Total amount of time for this was always within 10 minutes, depending on the size of the chewie. Ahhh….absolute heaven. For us!

A couple of side notes from Pete:

As annoying as Bing can be in the car, he’s an excellent hotel dog. Every night he’d find his spot in the hotel room and sleep through the night. He was also excellent in the tent in our campsite in Austin.

Bing’s first walk ever through a big city was in New Orleans. He did pretty well considering the 85° heat, street musicians, throngs of people everywhere, city traffic, lunch in a courtyard INSIDE a restaurant, and the unrelenting buzz of people asking “what kind of dogs are those?” After New Orleans, the other cities we visited were easy for him.

The dogs got their first big break from leash walking in Leasburg Dam State Park along the Rio Grande, near Las Cruces, New Mexico. They ran, swam, and chased balls for almost an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the dogs so happy…except when they had a chance to try lure coursing in Scottsdale AZ in 93° heat.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable vacation. Traveling with the dogs made it even better.

Pete

Bing and Acacia running and splashing through the Rio Grande north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The river is about one foot deep on average where we were.

Nothing like chasing a squirrel tail tied to a fast moving string while going over jumps and through hoops in 93 degree heat, according to Acacia. Bing did the same but his photo wasn't nearly as dramatic.

The Shredding. Since shredding cloth is one of Bing's favorite things, it seemed reasonable to let him work his way through the towels we used to stuff Acacia's "pillow." By the tell-tale
"r r r r r rip" sound, we knew exactly what he was up to.

Bing Blog 36