Road Tripping With Frodo — The Beta Test

When Nitish and I were contemplating a dog, we were warned of the “limitations” we were creating. We understood that getting a puppy was a huge responsibility, perhaps it would make us chained to our home. Perhaps it would give us another member to enjoy life with! We would not know till we tried.

I have often spent my afternoons day dreaming of backpacking with a dog, swimming with him/her, hiking or just lounging in the winter sun.

With these visions, we got Frodo home. And super soon my bubble burst. Frodo was a bundle of energy waiting to unleash. He was a power packed mouthy golden retriever.

“What on Earth are we going to do? Can we ever ever travel with him?” When I got frodo to Goa in the train, it was dreamy but not so easy. I knew that somewhere my dreams were misplaced. But Nitish is not the kind who gives up easily. Hence started Frodo’s training. Hence started our training.

We had a plan — of training ourselves and Frodo to travel as a pack, road-tripping! Last week was the beta test to our plan.

So we loaded ourselves, Frodo and the essentials in our Scorpio and set out along the beautiful Konkan coast. I must say we were nervous — Frodo’s current car capacity was 45 minutes. He was a 9 month puppy bursting with energy. He had a comfort zone in his home. Will he be able to sustain a week on the road? Or the bigger question - will we be able to sustain a week with frodo on the road?

The results surprised us and frodo passed the beta test in flying colours. Or rather I could say Nitish and I passed the test with a distinction. Frodo traveled in the car for long hours (his current comfortable capacity is almost 4 hours), slept peacefully in new rooms and even peed and pooped at appropriate places. In the process, he got to make new friends — human and dogs, he ran across the most pristine beaches and was spoilt silly by people queuing to pet him.

Frodo is a water baby, it is like he sees water and gives himself the command JUMP. All our trips to the beach have been about the ocean. The moment frodo would see water, he would whimper and whine and many a times tug and pull to get into it. But during this trip thanks to cyclone Ochki the ocean was out of bounds and that gave us a golden opportunity to get frodo used to walking on the beach. All of a sudden he realised the presence of star fish and crabs and sea weeds. He realises that he could run on the beach and play in the sand and just laze in the cool breeze.

Nitish and I have grand travel visions with Frodo. We realise that we have a long way to go in getting him ready for it. But we also know we are headed on the right path.