Dovedale is a little place in the Peak District in the center of England. Living so close to the Peaks has to be one of my favourite things about being in the UK. The British countryside is just full of adventures waiting to happen. For my boyfriend’s birthday he decided he’d like to go out for the day somewhere, and take the hounds with us. Usually that idea stresses us both out, what with Harley being an emotional wreck around people and dogs, and Mila being an excitable little shit! But we went out none the less! The troops were gathered and we packed up last nights leftover lentil curry and rice, and headed for the hills.
Deja Vu…
It wasn’t until halfway through our adventure that I realised I had actually been to Dovedale before! In 2009 on an overnight trip with my Art Foundation Course. The adventures had on THAT particular event shall be saved for another time however!!!
Sometimes you can completely forget something until a small, seemingly insignificant event jerks your memory. A smell, a viewpoint or a sign post? In this case, it was the famous Dovedale stepping stones where we had been set a task to build boats out of leaves and twigs to race down the river. I managed to dig out a photo of dinky boat just for you guys hahah. Super cute! (That includes you Bayliss <3 haahha)
Disaster Strikes…
Dun dun duuuuuun! Mila starts overheating and the sights we saw that day will forever be engraved into our brains. It was not pretty. Honestly. If I could bleach out this section of they day I would jump at the chance! We already knew from past experience that Mila doesn’t do so well in the heat. She has a small snout and ends up hyperventilating and overheating quite quickly. Scares the absolute life out of us as she starts to sound like Darth Vader on life support, and we cant get her to calm down. We made it to the top of the hill just fine. Until it wasn’t.
Mila couldn’t breathe. She drank a GALLON of water so quickly that she then of course threw it back up and she wouldn’t sit down despite being clearly exhausted. THEN.. the most DISGUSTING liquid volcano poop shot out of her butthole like you just could not imagine. This hose pipe of shite ran down her tail and up her belly.. it was EVERYWHERE. Unable to do anything we just cried and watched in horror! What were we going to do now!?
One of the Pack
It was so great to have the whole pack off the lead and running around doing their doggy thing. Harley never gets to have any time off the lead as we can never risk running into other dogs and have him either get A. defensive, or B. want to play rough and go too far. He’s such a softie that most of the time he tries running away from little yappy dogs hahaha.They were so in their element. Chasing each other, sniffing every twig, leaf and flower. They even went for a little swim before we made it to the cave!
On Reflection
After the horrendous poop incident of 2018 we have decided Mila is no longer allowed to be out in the heat for longer than 30 minutes. She gave us an absolute heart attack and in all seriousness, dogs can die from overheating. Her stumpy little legs and her short little snout are not built for climbing hills in the mid-day sun. So, from now on there will only be limited trips out in the heat and plenty of swimming to cool her down!
Does anyone have any tips on how to keep their doggos cool in the heat? Please share in the comments below!