Barking Blondes: Robbie Williams, pooches on planes and sea travel

• By Joanne Good and Anna Web

Allow us to indulge a little. This week we interviewed Robbie Williams. He was at the BBC to do a sound check for his single CANDY on the Ken Bruce show in preparation for his live performance on Radio 2 later that night.
Unbelievably (actually, it was all down to a top bloke called Steve), we were invited into the radio theatre, as part of a select group, to watch the sound check followed by a chat with Ken, before going back to Robbie’s dressing room for our own interview.
As a pair of ageing rock chicks we were both wearing shorts with thick tights and were pogoing about to the band, on the same carpet where just a month before we’d been watching Radio 4’s Just A Minute!
Observing the smooth style of Ken Bruce and knowing we can appear to be a bit  “full on”, we went back to Robbie’s dressing room determined to behave calm and in control. And so we were. Until we got onto the subject of dogs. Robbie has seven, a whole pack and he speaks of each one of them with as much pride as he does his daughter.
Animated with his eyes lit up, he enthusiastically described how he has brought two of them over to London with him from LA. One is a Havanese, Wally and the other is a Maltipoo called Pupette.
‘Did they make them travel in the hold?’ we asked, knowing this is always a risk, what with temperatures etc.
‘No,’ he grinned, thanks to an Antipodean airline, they sat in carriers, on comfy seats next to him and his wife.
“How?” we asked, “did you  manage to swing that? Is it because you are Robbie Williams?”
He laughed, you need to prove that having dogs with you is essential for your mental stability he told us.
Well anyone who knows the two of us will vouch for that. Imagine what we would be like without our dogs by our side? As anyone will tell you who is fortunate enough to have a pack, Robbie gets to see the true personality of each of his dogs. One of them he calls “Studio dog” because he takes him to most of his recording sessions and another is a sturdy little Jack Russell who incredibly survived a rattle snake bite!
So on a wet, miserable Wednesday morning we indulged in live music and the most enjoyable and relaxed dog chat from Robbie Williams. None of that would have happened without our love of dogs. The dog world is a great big party. We think he enjoyed it too as later that day he tweeted: ‘Just had the best radio interview ever with BBC London, Barking At The Moon, about dogs’.
If you are planning on travelling with your dog this Christmas and you can’t get permission for them to sit next to you there is always sea travel. The Queen Mary has a dog deck with an exercise area, complete with a doggy lamp post. Or of course there is air travel and usually that means being put in the hold. But remember, temperatures along with air pressure can be very risky, especially to flat faced breeds. Don’t forget to micro chip before you leave – dogs abroad can easily get lost.
And finally, WE LOVE YOU ROBBIE! WOOF! WOOF!
‘Barking at the Moon’ is on every Thursday from 3pm on BBC London 94.9fm