Rosy loves going out in the car, in fact she will try and get into any car with an open door.
LEARNING CURVE
When we first got her, we drove to a park, parked in the carpark and had a lovely walk. She was still off her lead when we arrived back at the carpark. Suddenly she raced off and before we knew what was happening, she had jumped into the front of a car with an Asian family sitting in it, eating their picnic lunch. There was much hysteria, squealing, and upset food and drink. It had been such a shock, the poor mother had thrown her drink up into the air and was consequently covered in Coke.
We were so embarrassed... Still we learned a lesson.
As she was a mature dog when we got her, we've had a lot of lessons to learn!
Another of our very first outings was to Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. We had bought her a special car harness which meant she could sit on the backseat and wouldn't be too far away from us.
It was a lovely sunny summers day and we had the windows opened. It wasn't a long journey and she was being very good (well, she was being quiet).
What we hadn't realised was that whenever Rosy is out of her 'comfort zone' or stressed in any way ... she chews. Suddenly I realised the car was filling up with small white balls, which were floating around. I turned around and Rosy looked like she was frothing at the mouth. She had actually chewed through a neck pillow filled with tiny polystyrene balls. They got everywhere.... they were stuck all around her eyes and due to static we were also covered in them too. The drive home was like being in a Snow Globe, the tiny white beads swirling around us and getting into every nook and cranny of the car.
We never managed to get rid of them all.
When we changed our car, we got a dog guard for the boot. She seemed quite happy in there with a few of her toys to chew on, but then she started digging up the felt boot mat and having a chew on that instead. It's not as if she is ever in there for very long!
Last weekend we went to the local car-boot sale and I bought an off-cut of nice thick carpet for £3 which I am going to put into the boot. As it is quite thick, Rosy will find it much harder to 'dig up' and it will be much more comfortable for her to sit on.
Here Goes...
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| Rosy Supervises |
DIY: COMFY CAR MAT
First of all I removed the original mat from the boot of the car, complete with masses of dog hair.
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| Original Black Felt Matt |
Even though, it has been regularly vacuumed it's almost impossible to get the white dog hairs out of the black felt mat!
Tools Needed:
Medium Black Marker Pen,
Craft Knife (I use two, one is very sharp, the other isn't),
Scissors,
PVA Glue (To help prevent the carpet from fraying)
Glue Pot (I use the cut off bottom of a plastic bottle)
Paint Brush
As I have to do jobs like this on my living room floor, I have an old PVC backed table cloth which I use to protect the floor.
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| Tools |
I laid the mat on top of the carpet (making sure it was the correct way round), then I used my marker pen to draw around the edge.
Next I mixed my PVA with a little water and painted it on the marked line (to help prevent it from fraying too much when I cut it).
When dry, I used my least sharp knife to cut around the line, finishing the job with my sharp knife and scissors for awkward areas.
Finally, I went over the edges with a layer of PVA.
When it was dry, I fit it into the boot of the car.
Then Rosy came to check it out!
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| Checking it out. |
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| Nosey Rosy |
The Carpet, which as well as being more comfortable for Rosy AND harder to dig up, will not show up the dog hairs as much as the old one did.
Tomorrow we will try it out!
