What a fun bunch of links this week! First up: Two blogs I hadn’t seen before — Raoul’s Travels, featuring Raoul the pug (currently in Paris) and The Vagabond Adventures, featuring Lucie, Lachlan and Bow Wow (currently traveling across Africa for the charity Back to Africa).

Hiking is clearly on people’s minds, because three separate sites posted useful articles this week about hiking with your dog. Check out this interactive map of dog-friendly trails in North America, posted by Ruff Wear’s Blog for Active Outdoor Dogs (and check out other posts on the site as well, while you’re at it!), this interactive map of dog-friendly hikes in Southern California from the L.A. Times, and an article from the Travel Oregon Blog about the Good Dog! trail system in Central Oregon (and nearby dog-friendly lodging ideas).

I’m less of a hiker and more of a lounger, so I was drawn to a guest post on Fido Friendly’s Blog about the dog-friendly Cambria Shores Inn in California, just south of San Simeon (best known as the town nearest Hearst Castle). It sounds divine, as do the nearby restaurants, wineries and beaches mentioned in the article. Be warned, though — Cambria looks like it’s near Big Sur, but it takes a surprisingly long time to drive up Highway 1 to Big Sur. Don’t rush it — the drive is a gift from God — but do plan on spending a couple of hours each way en route.

Here’s an inspiring post from upstate New York: Saratoga Springs, which launched a Dog-Friendly Downtown initiative last fall, now has thirty businesses on board. “Under the program, dog-friendly businesses sign up to be listed at the Dog-Friendly Downtown Web site, which has a map of all participating stores. Businesses will also be issued decals…that identify them as members.”

This week’s collection also includes a handful of really useful how-to posts, including a nice overview of pet travel by Pet Connection, a very thorough set of tips for choosing a pet-friendly hotel from RoadTrip America, and a slightly off-topic, but too important not to mention, reminder from Doggy Bytes that we all need to prepare an emergency kit and plan that considers the needs of our dog in the event of disaster.

My favorite how-to post of the week, however, is a tutorial from Doggie Stylish (guest posting on Take Paws) about how to convert a plastic jug into a useful hanging water bowl for travel, using a pen, scissors and a lighter. Love it! Take Paws also had a great post reminding readers that ball parks across the country host dog-friendly baseball games that sound like a total hoot. There are still several games left to enjoy!