Experience traveling with a dog so far

When it comes to travel reports, you read a lot and often have to think about something, but let's just give a quick summary about traveling with a dog in general, and then about Morocco.

When we set off, it was clear that in some countries it would be difficult to take your dog to a café or restaurant. Loki is much more chilled out than Nerone, but we haven't really practiced that in the last few years. This is also because Christian and I think that going to a restaurant is not relaxing for most dogs.

At home we usually don't have the two of them with us, so they sit in the hallway or on their beds in the living room. When we travel, they wait quietly in the bus, because they know that well from training, or sometimes in the caravan. The latter is sometimes a little funny with Nerone, because he always sits on a cushion from which he can look out. You can see this in the drool marks on the table, while Loki usually lies under the table until we get back. But once the god of practical jokes also claimed his people's bed as his own, it was difficult to convince him that it was ours...

We always make sure that both dogs have access to fresh water, in Morocco this also means purchased water, because I don't want to boil several liters of water every day. Both dogs are used to the cage in the car and can stay alone. When we travel in a city, we drive into a parking garage unless the temperatures are low. The two black people are familiar with it, we've slowly gotten them used to it, and it's more comfortable for them than walking through crowds of people in a city.

We had different experiences with our dogs on the trip, because they aren't necessarily small, plus the black color is quite intimidating for some people.

In general, Loki is a bit more relaxed, but if a person reacts strangely to him, he can sometimes respond by barking, which is not so funny for both parties. I usually get him out of there with a treat, it's working well now, you can see it too.

Nerone is a little more suspicious; he reacts to people's fear with "I'll have to see why she's so strange." and then goes to the people concerned, which of course they don't like very much, although he just likes to sniff the adrenaline... The little emperor would like to have no restrictions on his worship, but he is usually good at taking things and then leaves them The intimidated one shrugged back.

In France you can usually only take animals onto the terrace, in Ireland it is usually the same as in France, in Spain we only saw dogs on the terrace. It is not necessarily common practice there for dogs to be taken everywhere. BUT I should also differentiate between lap dogs and, in my eyes, “real” dogs. The little ones slip through almost everywhere, they are more tolerated, the big dogs only if they are assistance dogs. Spaniards drag their little Fifis everywhere, it's almost embarrassing!

In Great Britain you don't have anything against your four-legged friends accompanying you, BUT here they should behave calmly in the pub. So if this hasn't been practiced, or the dog is dishing it out to every other four-legged friend, then it's not that great, as you'll quickly be asked to please put the dog in the car or to control it better.

In the UK and Ireland, dog encounters are usually problem-free; they are kept on a leash when another dog appears on the horizon, at least most of the time. In other countries it depends more on the dog owners, it varies, but so far it has always worked well for us because Loki is just a good-natured guy. Unfortunately, he and Nerone are a pack together and the fat one decides on sympathy...

In Morocco, we have only ever experienced one real dog owner in Chefchaouen who then defended his curious, leashed four-legged friend against an angry street dog because the young dog had gotten too much into the street dog's comfort zone.

There are quite a few street dogs, some of them are now caught and castrated, then they have a button on their ear as an identification mark, Christian calls them Steiff animals. Unfortunately, there are still enough of them running around without any restrictions, which is why, according to the travel guide, on the one hand they are often poisoned with specially prepared minced meat, and on the other hand they multiply more and more if there is no regulation here.

I have a little respect for the street dogs, who are still a little overwhelmed with four-legged friends on a leash. Some observe our two blacks from a distance, others are completely detached and unabashedly sniff our four-legged friends' bottoms. Most of the time I just keep walking, but if it's too intrusive I'll turn around and blow at the street dogs. Christian had to be a little louder recently because the interest was already rather tense.

The smaller street dogs are barkers, at least so far, the bigger ones usually behave like a pack of wolves. If the boss doesn't show interest, they won't come any closer. However, there is still a dog category here that doesn't fit into any of the drawers.

In Akchour it was a little different, what appeared to be street dogs accompanied us on the hike to the waterfall, but there were several reasons for that. The first reason is that our dogs were in their territory, the second reason was simple curiosity, after a word of power they kept their distance, the third reason is the most important, because there are a lot of cafés along the stream, so the dogs can go there dusted off and are obviously fed too.

Nothing happened with the strange dogs on the hike, but you have to keep looking around so that the dogs aren't too intrusive, because our black dogs are actually at a disadvantage thanks to the leash.

During the hikes we saw the dogs at the rubbish dump on the one hand, but on the other hand some dogs are probably eager companions of the goat and sheep herders, so I prefer to keep my distance. The shepherds called their dogs back as best they could, then we were able to pass each other.

The question of whether dogs are kept in Morocco is a mixed blessing. Family dogs are rare, hunting dogs or guard dogs are more common. The farm dogs are often on a chain, which isn't great for me, but that's just a different opinion than mine.

You can't take dogs into restaurants and cafés here, and I wouldn't expect that in a Muslim country.

In general, traveling with a dog has been problem-free so far, considering that in many countries dogs are not humanized in the way we know from Germany. I sometimes wonder whether the dog really has fun in the restaurant, café or on the overcrowded dog beach, but everyone can decide for themselves.