Dottie does the Three Peaks

Our dog Dottie is strange. From the moment we got her we knew she was going to be a nightmare. She basically had the personality of a deeply miserable cat that barked. Unlike what you'd expect from most dogs, in the early days when she was a puppy she wouldn't even acknowledge us when we walked into the house. She'd sort of look down on me, even though she was about 20cm tall at the time and I'm much, much taller than that. She seemed to dislike people almost as much as she disliked other dogs and she absolutely 100% hated other dogs, and cats and squirrels and hedgehogs and basically anything alive. She probably hated trees and other generally harmless living things such as earthworms and watercress. 

Eventually, after wondering what was wrong with this evil little creature, she started to like us and other people for some reason. She definitely drew the line there though and still hated all the other things, but she became a people person or a people dog or whatever. Certainly not a dog dog or a squirrel dog though. 

The thing with dogs is that you really do have to walk them, unlike with cats. Although I did once see a bloke walking along a footpath with a clear box strapped to his chest containing a confused and distressed looking cat. I think he was probably just a bit mental though. With a dog (or more specifically with our dogs) if they haven't already brutally shaken the entire contents out of the very last undamaged pillow in the house, they definitely will get to it if they don't get enough exercise. 

Having dogs got us into walking and walking got us into to finding more challenging places to walk. In 2017 we thought we'd give Snowdon a go. I heard it wasn't too difficult. A bloke at work told me that it's so easy to climb that some people just go up it in their stilettos after a day in the office. I'll briefly skip to my thoughts after reaching the summit and confirm that he was definitely talking bollocks though. It's pretty tiring, even on the "tourist path" which is certainly not known locally as the stiletto path. I saw lads much younger and fitter looking than me struggling with it. Yes I also saw lads much younger and fitter looking than me not struggling with it at all, but there was definitely at least one (almost certainly hungover) lad that wasn't enjoying himself up there. 

Regardless of your personal opinions on how difficult or easy Snowdon is to climb, it is undoubtedly a good feeling reaching the top and the scenery is extraordinarily beautiful. You'd have to be some sort of sad robot to not feel some level of achievement or joy in reaching the summit. 

For Dottie, it wasn't a problem at all. I reckon she'd have walked it another two or three times if there was a guaranteed custard cream at the end. She seemed focussed, happy and not bothered by other dogs around her. She wasn't a dog dog yet, but was still a people dog and definitely a walking people dog. Tongue out, with a huge smile on her face and just pleased to be going somewhere new. Thinking about it, I'm not sure if dogs can smile and she was probably just gasping for air, but it looked like a big smile. 

Snowdon had been a success. We'd really enjoyed it. We'd have to do Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike now with Dottie. We went for a holiday in Nairn in 2018 and booked to spend 2 nights near Ben Nevis on the way up. In the pub the night before our planned day to go up there, we were talking to a bloke who had a lot of experience on the mountain. He looked at his apparently always reliable weather forecast for us. He then looked at our dogs and said "don't go up there tomorrow". We were like "Really? That bad?" and he said "Yes, please don't go up there. Just don't do it. It's not worth it". We took his advice and unfortunately had to give it a miss. We went a little of the way up, but didn't have time on day 2 to go up to the summit so we had to move on to Nairn.

It turned out that Nairn was an absolutely amazing place. Almost pure white sand on a huge, quiet beach. We fell in love with it and in 2020 with a window between covid lockdowns, we visited Nairn again and got to the summit of Ben Nevis on the way. That is considerably tougher than Snowdon in my opinion and I felt more of a sense of achievement reaching the top. It was properly knackering. Again, Dottie was fine with it though.

In 2021 after another lockdown, Bristol Rovers were playing away at Barrow which was a new ground for me to visit. We booked a weekend in Haverigg just up the road from Barrow and finished the three peaks with Dottie by reaching the summit of Scafell Pike that weekend. I found that harder than Snowdon but not as hard as Ben Nevis. Yet again, Dottie was absolutely fine with it.

Our dogs have given us a longing to explore new places. None of them more than Dottie. They have made us healthier and happier. We've had some great adventures and now have stories to tell about them. They are members of our family and have helped us get through some really tough times after failed rounds of IVF and wondering if it would ever work for us. I will always be more of a dog person than a cat person or a squirrel person for that matter. Cats are great and if you like cats more than dogs I've got nothing against you. Just please don't put your cat in a plastic box and take it for a walk. It's weird. 

Snowdon, April 2017

Ben Nevis, August 2020

Scafell Pike, August 2021