A Happy Dog is a West Coast Pet Boarded Dog!
Morf’s Musings
Travelling safely
Hey all my furry pals,
This is my second post on travelling around the country with my human friend, if you missed the first one, check it out here.
So we are still on the road and we are having a great time too.
But how do we ensure our safety while travelling?
Most humans instinctively understand that some places are more dangerous than others, and some places are actually locked down at night for the safety of visitors, but what if you are alone with your human in an area that isn’t well pullulated and you have an issue. Depending on the issue there are a number of things you can do to help you and your human.
Ensure people know where you and your human are, where you are going and when you will be in/out of mobile reception. Check in with family or friends regularly so that they will call the appropriate people if they can’t get hold of you, and know where to send help as needed. For those ultra-organised people a full itinerary is great, but if you are just winging it and seeing where the wind takes you, then whenever you move from one area to another let people know where you plan on going and approximately how long you will be travelling.
It is so easy for your human to keep in touch with others nowadays, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, not to mention email, text messages, and phone calls, or the old fashioned letters and postcards.
If you are alone, outside mobile coverage and you are concerned about some other humans that come near you and your human, and you can’t drive away it is essential you get your human into the car/caravan/motorhome so you can be locked in safely. Get your human to get out their mobile phone (they all have these nowadays and love using them ALL THE TIME!), take pictures of the people, if possible their car registration and model, anything they can see that will identify them then send these pictures by message (text, facebook, etc) to close family or friends that will follow up on the pictures, add in your location if known. While this may not help you immediately, if these humans do the unthinkable and take off with your humans valuables, as soon they are in mobile range the message will be send out and those that care about you and your human will send out help if they can’t reach you to confirm you are okay.
Always carry a good, well stocked first aid kit, for both you and your humans, ensuring the gear in the kit hasn’t expired. Also, keep the first aid kit in an easily accessible location, you don’t want the humans to spend 15 minutes getting to the gear in an emergency.
First aid training is also a great idea, particularly if you will be spending a great deal of time in the outback. Training is available for both pets and humans, both would be helpful to ensure your human can cope with any emergency or outcome while on the road.
When travelling away from towns and people ensure you always have your humans pack plenty of water for each person and pet travelling, food, essential medication and maps of the area you intend to travel. Some people and their pets (or people alone, poor things) break down in the outback and can’t make it to their intended destination. If this happens to you, this is where your itinerary or regular check in’s come in handy, you don’t check in and turn up at your planned destination and help is sent out to you.
Essential information here, some humans like to try and walk to help, this is a very bad idea. If your human wants to try this act injured, you can’t possibly walk, and ensure they stay with you. Stay with your car, your food, water and shelter and wait for help to arrive.
Do you have other helpful hints and tips for safety while travelling? I’d love to hear your ideas and share them with my human so contact me on our Facebook page or email me on reservations@west-coast.com.au
Stay safe, have fun with your humans and I’ll catch you next month,
Paws up, Morf
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