Voxy – The Road trip Dog

The Road trip Dog

Travelling with a dog in India is not just an alien concept but something that is ridiculed upon. Pets in India are still viewed as means to entertainment, pass time at home, look at cute faces all day or impress the snobbish social pet owner community. Many at times due to this, the dog eventually loses its natural energy, activeness and mimics the owners laid back, over grown, couch intensive lifestyle. Dogs are naturally fast, aggressive and playful and your cute, cow-eyed, furry companion would be their best if raised this way.

Voxy off the Leash for the first time in her life

First taste of open water swimming

Meet Voxy, our spoilt brat with love overdose, who shares the passion to travel almost every bit as us. "Madam", as we call her, thinks of us as her Royal helpers who will take her around the world. She is playful yet intelligent, energetic yet retarded, curious yet dumb. She cannot say it but she looks upto us and knows that we are the ones who will help her realize her dream of exploring the globe.

All set for the next adventure

Voxy’s first Trip

Both I and Rimjhim have been avid travelers sharing a common passion of exploring places. The idea to take Voxy along came up when we bought our car. To start off, we took her to Makalidurga trek where she had her first taste of open water swimming. Both of us were pretty scared then, whether she will be able to swim, or if a snake bites her or she gets tangled in the plants and drown. We even had our first moment of scare when she ran away into the bushes chasing birds. I was getting pretty worried as this was the first time we unleashed her and we lost her the first time itself. I was even imagining putting up posters of her all around. But Rimjhim was acting cool and she knew voxy would eventually come back and she did.

Voxy at Makalidurga

Trekker Dog

So we gained confidence on our trekker dog and decided to take her to Nagalapuram Trek with couple of more friends. When Voxy travels with 4 people in the car, she loves to just stand on us as if we are soft pillows. The guys sitting behind have a hard time protecting their balls. Once we reached the base of the trek, we decided to catch some quick sleep. Our Madam had other plans in mind. Starting from birds to butterflies, she chased everything that flied above ground. Her energy management section of the brain was so poor that she spent 120% of her energy chasing birds even before the trek started. Her sense of cognition gave away as she jumped almost from 8 feet high rocks. And after a while, her Motor went bust and she was tired as a tortoise. We had to lift her for most parts of the trek since then. By the time we finished the 2 day trek, Voxy was exhausted slept all through the way back and for a week since then.

Conquering mountains 19 at a time

Leading the way all throughout

Sorry, got held up chasing a mouse downhill

Trekker Dog!

Beach Dog

Voxy was slowly getting used to the car and we decided to take her to Gokarna next. This was when we realized Voxy was a beach dog more than anything else. The joy of seeing her running into water, jumping like a horse is unparallel to anything else. We stayed in a shack in Kudle beach and almost the entire beach and every single person knew Voxy. Most of them were plain surprised that we brought her all the way from Bangalore. Looking at her love for beaches, we took her to Auroville next, where she didn’t mind the dirty beaches of Pondicherry and enjoyed no less. Another beach on her list was the Udupi where we stayed in a shack in Kundapura, visiting all the beaches on the west coastline. Voxy found a new hobby of chasing crabs but poor thing cannot learn that they are just too fast for her. When god gave her persistence, he must have been several folds generous as she never gives up chasing anything.

I love it here

Enough of photos you two, lets play!

I want my share

Mommy look, Cat up there!

Maybe I'll find more birds over there

Tired after chasing away all the birds

Now lets pose with my parents!

Leaving my mark all over

Mountain Dog Voxy

Rimjhim was more of a Beach person and we knew how much Voxy loved the beaches. Now it was time for the mountains. With increasing confidence we took her to more treks like Makalidura (second time, we managed to the peak), Madhugiri, Anthargange and Kodachadri. Remember when I told you this one had GigaJoules of Energy stored inside, we got to see that when she climbs. If we walk 10m uphill, Voxy climbs 100m uphill, turns back, realizes that we are so slow and comes back to us. So effectively, for each 10m we climb, Voxy climbs 190m. So if we are climbing 1 hill, she climbs 19. Such is the magnitude of the powerhouse stored within her. We often think about getting her shoes for the trekking. She burnt her paws in Madhugiri due to the heat, got leaches in Kodachadri but eventually heals herself in a day or two. All this will just slow her down but cannot stop her. Maybe she is thinks of grieving in pain as a waste of time and she can run instead! She is fearless to run at full speed behind a mouse downhill and then climb all the way back up. She can navigate through the caves of Anthargange balancing on the rocks. She is truly, the queen of mountains.

Voxy on top of Madhugiri

Humans Climb so slow

Photo bomb! Doggy style

Time to get a lift

I'm not going back home

Shall we measure who has the longer tongue?

Voxy at Anthargange Caves

The Sailor dog

So last week we decided to go for Scuba diving and we thought why not take voxy along. The instructors were dog owners themselves and loved the idea of bringing her along the boat. Interesting thing about dog owners is when they see voxy, they see her as a kid and start missing their own dog and regret not bringing their pets along. Incredibly Voxy was extremely well behaved all through the 40Km boat journey through the Arabian Sea. Although she did give us a scare or two when she tried jumping off a running boat but she listens to us most of the times. In fact we have noticed that she listens to us more when she’s on a trip than at home. And she had the most amazing time in the sea swimming doggy style with a life jacket. The three of us even did snorkeling and swam through the waves together. She loves the water as much as the beach or the mountains.

Dont you Hoomans worry when I'm on Lifeguard Duty

Hi-Paw

Maybe thats where the food is

Here Take my Candid Photo

What did I tell you about scratching my butt

It’s very hard to determine whether she likes travelling with us or not. But being with her for this long, we know that she wants to do it more and more, with extreme levels of enthusiasm. She is the first one to sit in the car when we start and first one to get out and run when we stop. Some people on the way ask why do you bring her. It’s very hard to answer these people, as usually, we are busy chasing her to the top, testing our limits of affection for each other. Be it race down the coastline or up the hill or swim across the currents; Voxy always maintains 2 feet ahead of us, making sure we are following, making sure she makes the trip amazing for us.

Trips with Voxy
- Makalidurga
- Nagalapuram
- Gokarna
- Makalidurga Peak
- Auroville
- Madhugiri
- Anthargange – Kolar
- Udupi beach
- Kodachadri Trek
- Scuba Diving – Boat ride

Experience and Learnings

• ·        Most of the hotels on the highway are friendly towards dogs. Don’t look for pet friendly hotels as they will charge a premium for accepting dog
• ·         Accomodation – Never book it. Always check with the lodges, bargain and then tell them you have a dog
• ·         Taking dog food is a waste. Better to feed it on the way
• ·         Dog toys, another waste. Dog has many other things to be interested about
• ·         Car is absolute must as its very hard to negotiate with Public transport in case of larger breeds
• ·         Meet a lot of Dog owners who remember their dog and wish they could’ve brought them along
• ·         Pet will ensure that you are the center of attraction always. You will be known everywhere
• ·         You will never be tired of her. Being a couple we never felt we are losing a moment or privacy. All the memories will be beautiful with her
• ·         The dog will mostly never trouble you if you take care of her properly. Give her good exercise and food, she will sleep sound all night even in a new place
• ·         Ensure that your dog is fit and healthy
• ·         Ensure that you have taught your pet the basic training for restraint and behavior with strangers
• ·         Remember the after trip cleanup along with Tick removal
• ·         Dog will mostly love being in the car except for nature calls. But mostly, they will hold back their urge all through the travel. So keep looking for signs
• ·         Be prepared for a lot of Fur in your car
• ·         Dog will keep its head out of the windows most of the time. Be sure to clean the dirt off her eyes after the trip