When Things Go Wrong on Holiday (And They Will)

Dog-friendly holidays are planned with enormous optimism. You have the accommodation booked, the walks researched, the dog bed wedged into the boot. What you have not planned for is the specific, slightly absurd sequence of small things that will nevertheless go wrong.

This is not a piece about disasters. It is a piece about the gap between 'everything will be fine' and 'I need dog eye drops delivered to a B&B in the Lake District by tomorrow morning.' That gap, it turns out, is much shorter than expected.

Jazz features heavily here, for reasons that will become clear. We have already covered the first day of a dog-friendly holiday, surviving the car journey and the considerable challenge of keeping a dog awake all day in the articles linked below. This one covers what happens when things go slightly sideways — and what to have in place before they do.

The Holiday You Planned vs the Holiday You're On

Dog holidays involve a great many variables you did not account for when you were sat at home feeling organised. The accommodation is lovely. The dog has other ideas. The walk that looked straightforward on the map involves a stream crossing that takes twenty minutes of negotiation. These are not emergencies. They are just the texture of travelling with a dog.

The useful preparation is not the sort that prevents all of this. It is the sort that means when something specific does go wrong — and something specific will — you are not standing in a car park in Cumbria trying to Google the nearest vet on a poor signal.

If you are still planning the holiday itself, our guides on how to plan a dog-friendly summer holiday, why the first day is feral and being awake all day are a reasonable place to start. Come back here before you pack.

Find a Local Vet Before You Need One

This is the single most useful thing you can do before you leave, or failing that, on the first evening when you are still calm and the dog is still fine. Find the nearest vet to your accommodation. Note whether they have an out-of-hours emergency service or whether emergencies are covered by a separate practice. Save the number. That is genuinely it. You will probably not need it. The value of having it is not that it prevents anything — it is that when something happens, you already know the answer to the first question.

Jazz ran headfirst into a headstone in Hawkshead. The headstone won by a considerable margin. Jazz did not appear to notice, which was both reassuring and slightly baffling. She simply trotted away as though she had somewhere important to be. Having the vet number already saved meant the follow-up question — do we need to go? — could be answered calmly, from a position of knowing who to call and where to go if the answer was yes. It was not yes. But it was very useful to know.

Most areas of the UK have an emergency vet service, but coverage varies. In rural areas particularly, the nearest out-of-hours option may be further away than you expect. Five minutes with a search engine before you travel is considerably better than the same five minutes at midnight.

The Things You Forgot (And How to Get Them)

Forgetting something does not mean going without it. Major online pet retailers deliver to most UK addresses, including rural ones, often next day. It is worth checking with your accommodation that deliveries can be accepted and confirming the correct address before you order, but in most cases this is straightforward.

Jazz got grit in her eye on holiday. Dog-specific eye drops were ordered, delivered to the accommodation and the problem was sorted without a vet appointment. Unglamorous, completely resolved and the sort of thing that would have been considerably more stressful if we had not known that ordering was an option.

Many everyday pet supplies are available over the counter without a prescription — eye drops, skin creams, ear cleaners, mild digestive supplements — as long as they are products made for dogs and used as directed. They do not require a vet visit. If something is beyond that category, or if you are not sure, that is when the vet number you already saved becomes useful.

Regular prescription medication should travel with a small extra margin in case the holiday extends unexpectedly or something is lost. If your dog is on a prescription, make sure you have enough. Everything else is largely sourceable once you arrive.

The Everyday Things That Go Slightly Wrong

Beyond specific incidents, dog holidays produce a reliable assortment of minor friction that nobody really warns you about.

Upset stomachs appear with some regularity when dogs travel. Different water, unfamiliar treats, the excitement of a new environment and the general chaos of a changed routine are all capable of causing digestive complaints that are not serious but are inconvenient. A small supply of plain, easily digestible food and something gentle for an upset stomach — dog-formulated and used as directed — is worth including.

Cuts and scrapes from unfamiliar terrain are common. A basic dog first-aid kit takes up almost no room in a bag and covers most minor incidents: antiseptic wipe, small bandage, a tick remover if you are heading somewhere grassy. You do not need a full medical kit. You need enough to deal with the walk home.

Sleep is also, frequently, a problem. New places mean new sounds, new smells and a dog who has decided that 2am is an appropriate time to investigate them. This is covered in more detail elsewhere, but it is worth knowing that it is extremely normal and that it tends to settle within a night or two. Probably.

Before You Go: The Short Practical List

None of this requires a great deal of effort in advance. The list is short.

• Save the local vet number and note the nearest out-of-hours service before or on arrival.

• Pack any prescription medication with a small extra margin for unplanned extensions.

• Know the delivery address of your accommodation in case you need to order over-the-counter supplies. Check that deliveries can be accepted.

• A basic dog first-aid kit — small enough to carry, useful enough to matter.

If you are still in the planning stage, our guide to planning a dog-friendly summer holiday covers the broader preparation. This piece is for everything that happens after you arrive.

Dog holidays go wrong in small, specific, often retrospectively funny ways. Being prepared does not prevent the headstone incident. Jazz was going to run into that headstone regardless. What preparation does is mean that you can watch her trot away completely unbothered, and laugh instead of panic.

That is a reasonable ambition for most dog-holiday mishaps. Keep the number saved. Know where the parcels go. The rest tends to sort itself out.

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