Last week, we had a series of firsts for our little clan. We went to Wildwood for the weekend and, while that is not unusual for us, this time we took the dog.
Now for those of you who don’t know, we have a 6 year old Basset Hound named Bentley. His favorite hobbies are eating, sleeping, shedding, drooling and going to Petco for his “mini-makeover”. Sounds like he is a complete mess, but he’s a good protector and loves us with every ounce of his being.
This trip was the longest Ben has experienced. His first big hurdle was sitting in the backseat. When hubby takes him to the Dog and Bull or on errands, Ben rides up front. He feels like he belongs there. He looks cool sitting there with the top down and ears flapping in the breeze. But being lower in seniority, he had to relinquish his front row seat to me. The backseat of the Camaro is perfect for him. Not having long legs, he fits nicely on the bench seat that was clearly designed to be comfortable if you were an amputee. Buckled in, yes he has a seatbelt, he proceeded to rest his head in between the front seats and make little dying sounds…for two hours. It was the saddest (funniest) thing you’ve ever
Upon arrival, the next big thing was steps. We live in a ranch style home. The only steps this dog has encountered were the steps helping his shortness up on to the sofa. Overcoming the great pull of gravity, he managed to climb up reasonably well. Going down was a bit more challenging. Bassets have a lot of extra “basset” on board. Going down steps allows this extra to shift to the front creating a deeply wrinkled forehead and a badly distributed pile of dog. Ben slowly navigated the stairs and managed to avoid face planting at the bottom. I’ve never been so proud.
At the house that we rent, Ben discovered another exciting thing that we don’t have at home. Wall to wall carpeting. This is the equivalent to discovering that the place you are staying is one big bed. He promptly proved this point by laying down in a random high traffic area and starting to snore loudly as he was exhausted from his long journey.
We paid attention to dog friendly areas and businesses when we were there before. Breakfasting at the Bagel Time Café was fun. Bentley was so well behaved as he was served water and ate his share of bagel. I was worried that he would try to mooch from the large part on the deck with us, but outside of watching them, he minded his business nicely. The trip to the farmers market gave Ben the chance to see and smell a lot of new things. They even had a custom home made dog biscuit company there. In reality though, the big coupe at the market were the seasons first tomatoes. They taste like heaven.
Ben got to visit the sea wall and the dog park before leaving. Unimpressed by the sea wall, probably because there was nothing to eat, Ben preferred his trip to the dog park. Interesting smells and so many places that needed to be peed on highlighted the romp. The sand proved to not be an obstacle. Bassets have large, alligator foot shaped paws that allow him to walk on the surface without too much sinkage. The only drawback was his timing. He wanted to go out early that day. And by early, I mean “wake everyone at 5 in the morning to go out and do something”. Dog park at dawn does have its benefits. It is cooler at that time of day and the park is pretty empty. Just one other early rising soul had their pup there.
Dog park at dawn.
All in all, our “weekend with basset” went amazingly well. The new smells and large seagulls were an experience that proved older dogs can learn new things…like the boardwalk smells like pizza lives there and hot dogs tastes extra good by the beach.