Best dog vacation ever!

Every year we go to this place called Glen Highland Farm. It's a Border Collie rescue (where we got Ben from last year), but part of what they do to fund the rescue is open up the property to dog owners for vacations. They have cottages, cabins, RVs, and tents that you can stay at and 175 acres to explore. Dogs get to be off leash the whole time and in a place where there are almost no places for dogs to be off leash legally, it's that much more amazing.

This was Ben's first time truly being off leash. We've done some recall training and stop training but we haven't had a chance to really see how well he'd do. And we were so amazed at just how well he did! He's not a dog I'd ever walk off leash where he wasn't allowed to be off leash because essentially he races off into the woods and comes back when we call or checks in every few minutes. (As opposed to Dahlia, who is a velcro dog and a leash is pretty much pointless as she tends to stay within a handful of feet of us anyway). As the weekend went on, he got even more response and started to come immediately, like somehow the trust we placed in him made him want to come to us even more.

I took TONS of photos but here are some of my favorites!

Dahlia, ever the good dog. She did so well the entire trip with all the walking we did! For those that don't know. she had vestibular disease last December and is probably about 95% recovered. She's a little wobbly at times and is done with her agility career, but she's doing quite well for herself!





It got raining pretty hard and I was stupid enough to not bring my camera bag, so we ended up under a tree while the dogs explored. I was thankful for it because it let me get some cool pics of the dogs in the rain.



Ben exploring the water. He won't swim, but he does enjoy splashing around in it.






Dahlia runs after Ben...the Golden Retriever was named Woody and he was SO submissive. Would not play at all. If any dog tried to, he'd just roll over. I kind of felt bad for him. But he was a super nice dog.






This area had a collapse due to rain the year before so they filled it with boulders and put up a fence to keep the dogs away from it. Ben was OBSESSED with watching SOMETHING in the rocks.






Ben ran so much, his feet got a bit sore.



Ben met a lot of new friends!



Dogs can go dock diving at this pond if they're so inclined. Ben...was not.



SQUIRREL!



Dahlia likes to wait behind us and I SWEAR she is posing.



Ben waiting for us to catch up!



This is Tux. Not my dog but how cute is he?



Ben with Whitley, a 9 year old BC.



Dahlia doing what Dahlia does best.



Whitley.

All lovely photos but that last but one of Dahlia is stunning, I'm so glad she's over the vestibular incident, our Rianna has had no re-occurance eiither, let us hope they both are clear for ever more.

Let's hope there are no more! It's been almost 6 months since Dahlia's and while she'll never be 100% again, I hope there's no more major recurrence of it.

That sounds like an awesome place to vacation! Wonderful pics, thanks!

Beautiful place to be. I was saddened to hear that in some places over there dogs are not allowed off lead or on public transport. I was chatting to two ladies from USA the other day and they were telling me about dogs not being allowed on public tansport or allowed off lead. We are very lucky over here that dogs are allowed on everything. Hope you get to go again. Lovely doglets. But then I am biased as I love Border Collies oh and other breeds to. Just looked it up and here is a web address. The fourth dog along could be my Tyto. bg!!
http://www.glenhighlandfarm.com/

O gosh Crysania - those are amazing photos of amazing dogs! I am totally in love with Dahlia, she is truly stunning and clearly loving her freedom! How wonderful that you have found this place. I had no idea that things were so bad in US re dogs off lead, I sort of always assumed that you had things so much better over the Pond.

On the whole I would say if anything that things are getting better here in the UK particularly in terms of hotels, pubs and self-catering places that allow dogs. Yes there are many restrictions on beaches as to when and where you can take dogs, but it is easy to find beaches without restrictions. All our public footpaths, bridleways and byways are open to dog walkers off lead, although rightly if you have a DA dog, like our Ben, you are expected to keep him leashed and therefore under full control.

Considering how crowded our island is, I think we are pretty lucky in the UK. Long may it last! Thank you for showing us your gorgeous dogs!

What fabulous photos Crysania
And what a great idea of the charity to have the holidays, brilliant idea for raising funds.

Beautiful photos. You can see how much fun the dogs are having. It is always a surprise that dogs are now allowed off lead in so many places in the US. I don't think I could get used to that. I love giving my dogs the freedom to run free every day. It is great you have some places you can go where they welcome off lead dogs though.

Amazing photos thanks for sharing

Thank you everyone!

It really is bad here in the USA regarding dogs. We have a dog park in my town but it's a small area that's fenced in, nothing interesting for the dogs to do, and too many people bring their untrained dogs there. And there are always SO many dogs. Dahlia does not do well at such a dog park (she needs to control ALL the fun and it stresses her out, plus she has a huge space bubble and doesn't like unruly dogs jumping on her). Ben would be fine, but I just can't bring Dahlia there. We do have ONE unfenced leash-free area (pretty much in the entire county) but it's not something we can get to very often. I'm thankful I have a decent-sized fenced in yard for the dogs to play in every day but otherwise they have to be on leashes for walks.

We also can't bring dogs on public transportation and even many taxi companies will not allow dogs (making it very hard for people to have dogs unless they have their own car). And they're trying to make new rules and laws all the time. It's super frustrating! I'm always very jealous of the way people relate to dogs in the UK.