Traveling with a dog can pose some dangers as four-legged friends are not allowed everywhere. Mélanie Poulin and her partner Francis Perron decided to take their daring to the extreme during a five-week trip to Western Canada with their six pets.
In the vastness of Banff, Jasper and Waterton Lakes National Parks, the six French spaniels walking on a leash were sometimes the “tourist attraction” that attracted the most curious glances.
The six French spaniels and their owners have rarely gone unnoticed. Several people took photos of them as they passed them. Photo provided by Mélanie Poulin
“You can’t go unnoticed with them! Everywhere we go with our pack, people call out to us and smile at us,” notes Ms. Poulin.
She and her partner adopted their first puppy in 2012. They fell in love with the breed and, as one thing led to another, have since incorporated five others into their daily lives.
“We often say that we live with our dogs,” jokes the woman, who has also started breeding them for a few years now. Our home is completely adapted to their needs and they are part of the family.”
“Tetris”
Last summer, the couple swapped their home in Estrie for their semi-trailer and crossed the thousands of kilometers that separate Quebec and the Pacific Ocean. There was no question of leaving without their “communists.”
Mélanie Poulin and the person who shares her life have arranged the back seat of their truck to accommodate their 30-pound furry friends.
Charlot, Romeo, Camey, Ivy, Meya and Molly have traveled thousands of kilometers dozing in the back seat of the family truck. Photo provided by Mélanie Poulin
“They're used to being very close to each other, so sleeping cuddled up like Tetris blocks didn't bother them too much. It worked really well and we definitely want to do a trip like this again,” she says.
The freezer in the family trailer also looked like a level from the popular 1980s video game.
“Charlot, Roméo, Molly, Meya, Camey and Ivy eat exclusively raw meat and we therefore had to make space to transport as many of them as possible during the week-long journey,” says Ms Poulin. Several stops were required along the way to refuel and avoid running out of food in the middle of nowhere.
Warm welcome
Mélanie Poulin and her partner were pleasantly surprised at how friendly the rest of Canada was to their dogs.
“We were walking down the street and the waiters invited us to their terrace with a big bowl of water. We had the six dogs under the table, lying still and no one said a word. It was really nice to feel so accepted. We’re not used to that in Quebec.”
Mélanie Poulin, Francis Perron and their six French spaniels took a five-week trip through Canada and discovered several national parks. Photo provided by Mélanie Poulin
The founder of the Sorties de chien du Québec group reiterates on social networks that she “will never give up taking her dogs with her on her next trips.”