First excursion out of Berlin, first time on public transport. We took the S-Bahn from Anhalter Bahnhof to Bernau bei Berlin – a 42 minute train ride (and actually 26 km from Anhalter Bahnhof – not ten km from Berlin as Wikipedia claims). I can’t say Max was at ease on the outward journey, he remained standing and very alert all the way, and only sat for a second whenever I asked him to sit, but he only tried to remove the muzzle once, briefly, and there were no drama or theatrics.
We crisscrossed Bernau inside the city wall and in part of the park area on foot (in total, we walked about 12 km today), and stopped for lunch. I had brought one of the “hard” treats from the Natural Treats Box, and that kept him busy while I had my lunch. And of course this time I made sure he had water at regular intervals too.
He was a lot more at ease on the return journey and even spent much of it lying down, although he got up each time the doors opened and was generally very observant.
All in all, it was a super pleasant trip. I feel a great sense of relief and I hope Max feels three times the sense of achievement I feel :-). He must be quite excited still – for better or for worse – because we have been home for almost an hour, he has had most of his dinner, and he is still awake, although fighting to keep his eyes open. One of my hopes for him is that with time, he will be able to relax and even go to sleep both during and just after having mastered new situations with a lot of new experiences with flying colours.
I am considering spending a long weekend with Max in Bernau bei Berlin some time soon. It is a pleasant and quiet little place, with not a lot of traffic (especially not on the pavements ….) and we could do with a few days away from the insanity of the Berlin traffic on our doorstep. In addition to being easy to reach on the S2 from Berlin, Bernau is well placed for regional trains and also buses going out in all directions for walks in villages and in nature. And enough restaurants to keep me interested for two or three days – I even spotted an Indian one :-).
One thing I am going to have to work on is an aspect of Max’s separation anxiety: Sometimes, if I want to concentrate on making a photo, I secure his leash around a pole or whatever I can find, but I then cannot take even two steps away from him, before he starts “panick-barking”. I know I should just ignore that, as long as I stay close and definitely in his line of vision, but that is hard when there are other people around who think I am being cruel to him.
A couple of photos from Bernau:
