Dougal's Dog Blog - Design & Drive

Hello again Dog Blog Fans!

Apologies for the long absence. I had to take a year out to consider all the offers that had flooded in, from film offers for the latest Disney movie to becoming a Life Coach for celebrity chefs.

However, it was the lovely Rowena's winning smile (and the king-sized Dentastix she was brandishing) that has brought me back to the warm and friendly folds of Club Together.

Right now, The Human That I Own and I are touring Scotland in the Tin Can on Wheels, and we can barely move on site thanks to my being mobbed by members clamouring for my pawtograph. Apparently I'm something of a celebrity since my important judging job for the Club, and my subsequent appearance in the latest issue of the Club Magazine.

On our way up to Scotland we stopped for a week at the Newark Showground to help with the judging at Design & Drive 2014. The Human That I Own went off during the day with a clipboard and a checklist that was so long,  it made the pre-flight checklist for the Space Shuttle look like a raffle ticket. He joined swarms of other people with clipboards jumping up and down on things, opening everything that could be opened, crawling underneath, peering at the engines, reading through handbooks, driving the vans around a variety of roads, making up and breaking down every bed, measuring things, plugging things in, and basically testing each and every aspect of each and every vehicle to within an inch of its tolerances.

Watching all this from the comfort of my crate while keeping company with Lucie, who crunched all the numbers when the judges gave their sheets in, was exhausting stuff. What struck me as I watched all these people swarming about was that ALL the judges and most of the scrutineers, drivers, ballasting team, and general cogs in the complex and well-oiled machine of Design & Drive were unpaid volunteers, just ordinary members of the Club (some of whom are committee members) just 'doing their bit' for the club, their fellow members, and for the industry as a whole. I think that's what I love so much about our pastime, it's the sense of community and the way that everybody helps everybody else out, whether it's on site lending your neighbour a cup of washing up liquid because they forgot theirs, or giving up a week of your time to organise Club Events like a rally.

Anyway, I digress. I was sitting in my crate looking out at all that was going on, and casting my eye over all the checklists and the list of judges I noticed that nobody was representing the canine members of the club. Given the whopping number of club members owned by their dogs, I decided that it was time to redress the balance. The Dougal Award for Dog-Friendliness was born.

Together we sat down and decided what the criteria should be. My checklist, unlike all the others, was only five points long:

Interior finish to be practical: easy-clean flooring, cushions that wouldn't show every paw mark, that kind of thing.

Space to strap in a travel crate when on the road, to keep the precious pooch safe and of course to prevent any distraction to the driver.

Space to put an average-sized dog bed out of the way even when the main bed was made up at night.

Space to place feeding/water bowls where they would be accessible to the dog but not in the way of the humans owned

An exterior shower or shower that would reach the outside. I for one insisted on that. If I'm going to be subjected to having the mud washed off me, I like warm water, thank you.


There's an important note to add here. Vehicles in the competition are judged exactly in the spec that they are entered. Therefore, if something is on the options list but not included on the actual vehicle that it is in the competition, it is not included in the judging. Therefore many of the vans that failed to make the grade could have made the shortlist if only the option of an exterior shower was taken up. So don't disregard those that didn't make it.

Anyway, very quickly the Shire Conversions Phoenix  2XL emerged as a clear winner. It ticked all the boxes, and did everything very well. A worthy winner indeed.

So that's what I was up to in April. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a queue of people at the door clamouring for pawtographs again. Pass me the ink pad…

Dougal