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Shortening the large SturdiBag carrier for in-cabin airplane travel

As you will soon learn, if you read back through this blog’s entries or glance through the posts on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page, I’m a big fan of the large SturdiBag carrier for in-cabin airplane travel. It’s officially too large for many (most?) airlines, but because its top is so flexible, it’s worked on every flight we’ve taken with it. The part of it that isn’t flexible, however, is the base. It’s a solid 18 inches long — and because I typically choose to orient Chloe’s carrier left-to-right under the seat in front of me, I have to choose my seat carefully.

Here

Why left-to-right? The front-to-back depth of most under-seat spaces is about 17 inches, and I haven’t wanted to vex the flight attendants, focused as they are on the “area around your feet.” On recent trips, I’ve turned Chloe’s bag front-to-back, so I can pat her more easily during takeoff and landing, but if I’m called on it, I want to have the option of being able to tuck her carrier away properly.

When you look at the under-seat measurements I’ve collected, therefore, you’ll see that I’ve gravitated towards the seats that provide the most under-seat width. A while back, a reader sent me a note with a fine idea: Why not saw off an inch of the foam board that stiffens the base of the SturdiBag? Chloe would never notice the loss, and it would have the happy effect of (1) making the carrier closer to an airline’s official maximums, should you meet an airline agent with a tape measure, and (2) allowing the carrier to fit in more under-seat spaces.

Here’s what you do: Unzip the compartment that holds the foam-core base, located just below the carrier’s mesh front door. Pull out the base and, using a box cutter and a straight-edge and a self-heal mat (or a layer of scrap cardboard), slice an inch off one of the short ends. My husband assured me that he’d really need to buy a circular saw to do the job right, but I’m on to his tricks.

Photo Friday: Chloe and the lacrosse game

On a gorgeous day like today, it’s hard to remember that two weeks ago, Chloe and I were huddled up together on the sidelines of a lacrosse game in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Yep, that’s her on my lap — the game field prohibited pet dogs, but I reasoned that in the open air, silent in her stealth bag, Chloe couldn’t possibly irritate or injure anyone else. Plus, she was warm, and you can tell by the way I’m clutching that mug of tea that I was looking for warm.

I’d love to see how you and your pup spent your time together this week — please post your photos on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page so we can all see them!

Reader’s report: Victoria, B.C. airport pet relief area, Air Canada under-seat spaces, and keeping Truffles content in her carrier

This should have been in this past week’s Chloe’s Clicks, but mistakes were made. Remember Truffles, featured (with a chunk of coconut) in a Photo Friday post a short while ago? She and reader Patty made their way from the Bahamas to British Columbia recently, and I want to share three things from their report.

Victoria, B.C. airport (YYJ) pet relief area

First, they sought out the pet relief area at the Victoria, B.C. airport (it’s actually located about 15 miles north of Victoria, near Sidney-by-the-Sea) and posted a great description of how to find it, along with useful pictures.

A picture from Patty’s post, of the Victoria, B.C. airport pet relief area

Be sure not to miss Patty’s picture of the “Animal Relief Area” sign, which threw me into hysterics — particularly given how reluctant Truffles was to use the facilities at all, at any time during her journey.

Improving Truffles’ in-flight experience

Please note Patty’s brilliant idea of comforting Truffles by sticking her foot into Truffles’ carrier during flight. (Truffles does fine in her carrier when she can poke her head out, but otherwise “had delusions that she was hog-tied and suffocating.”) Cheese bits, provided on some, but not all, of their flights, also helped. I passed on to Patty another reader’s suggestion to bring string cheese packets along for en route comfort.

Under-seat space on Air Canada flights

Finally, Patty posted some helpful pictures and notes about the under-seat spaces she and Truffles encountered on their flights — specifically on an Air Canada Dash 8 (-300 series), an A319 and an A321.

I’ve added this to Dog Jaunt’s collection of under-seat plane measurements and to Dog Jaunt’s collection of reviews of airport pet relief areas. Thanks, Patty and Truffles!

Reader’s report: Which seat works best with an in-cabin dog? [US Airways partner flights on CRJ-200 and CRJ-900 aircraft]

Reader Kristen recently traveled on two regional US Airways flights (an Air Wisconsin partner flight and a Piedmont Air partner flight). She posted a report on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page about the under-seat space she found on both CRJ planes, and kindly agreed to let me re-post it here on the blog: “I searched high and low for info on CRJs — I’m happy to share it with others :)”

Just flew US AIR — first a CRJ-200 (Air Wisconsin partner flight) then a CRJ-900 (Piedmont Air partner flight). Sherpa medium fit under the seat with no problem, but not much room to spare, so I’d venture to guess the under-seat height is about 11-11.5 inches. Also, the under-seat area is not divided, so if you are traveling with a friend, you have tons of room to situate your dog. Final thought — Seat C is the best option if traveling alone. Seat Guru says that Seat D has an equipment box, making the under-seat space smaller. I didn’t see evidence of this on my flights, but wouldn’t want to chance it. The window seats are ok, but not great because the plane curves in towards the ground, meaning there is a little less width to the space, plus it got drafty by the wall and I had to block it off to keep my dog warm enough… All of those factors combined make seat C optimal…

Thanks, Kristen! I’ve added this to Dog Jaunt’s ongoing series recording under-seat plane measurements. Keep in mind that most domestic and international airlines have rules about the maximum size of in-cabin pet carriers they allow on board (see Dog Jaunt’s handy charts under the “Taking your pet on a plane” tab above).

Chloe’s Clicks: This week’s best dog travel links

This week’s collection of links is largely about destinations — check out these tempting posts from the Take Paws team about Austin, TX and Prescott, AZ (yes, tempting, though I have to say that Austin is bone-headed for not allowing pet dogs on its public transit); from petswelcome.com about Victoria, B.C.; and from K.S. Brooks and Pish, guest-posting on Have Dog Blog Will Travel, about dog-friendly Arkansas.

The Kimpton Crawl team wrote rapturous posts about the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, MA — Chloe and I were there too, just a few days earlier, and we loved walking along the Charles River (the river walk is just steps from the front door of the hotel). We didn’t have time to take out one of the hotel’s kayaks — but Sara, Marty and Oscar did, and here’s their report. Which leads, more or less, into my next link, a very helpful article in the Seattle Times about keeping your dog safe on or around the water.

Speaking of staying safe while doing stuff, here’s a good, basic post from petswelcome.com about keeping your dog comfortable and healthy on a camping trip.

I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting, miscellaneous links: Ashley Porter drew my attention to her article listing her “top 10 dog walking blogs,” and I caught sight of a review of “A Pug’s Tale,” a new book by author Alison Pace about “a plucky pug named Max on a crime fighting jaunt through the Upper East Side.”

Photo Friday: The scoop law sign collection grows

In the past, I’ve posted scoop law signs from Paris and Seattle — and now I bring you New York City (specifically, Brooklyn, in the Clinton Hill neighborhood):

It cracks me up, partly because the dog looks so noble, and so completely disconnected from the pile of poop, and partly because I cannot figure out what his owner is using to clean up the mess. There’s a sort of bent spatula in his left hand, and a toothed, half-moon comb in his right hand, and neither seems like a good idea.

Were you out and about with your dog this week? If you have a picture, please post it on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page — we’d all love to see it!

Taking a pet dog on a Metro-North commuter train

Chloe and I took planes, trains, and automobiles together on our recent trip around New England — and when I say trains, I mean Metro-North commuter trains, since Amtrak doesn’t allow pet dogs on board. After driving around Massachusetts and New Hampshire and New York and Connecticut for a couple of weeks, I planned to meet my husband in Brooklyn, and since I will not drive anywhere near Manhattan, I opted to drop off the rental car in New Haven and catch a Metro-North train to the city. A couple of days later, the two of us (well, three, including Chloe), took a day trip to Danbury for an appointment in southwestern Connecticut.

I’d known for a while that pet dogs, either in a carrier or on a leash, are welcome on Metro-North trains, but this was the first time I’d put theory into practice. Both trips were easy — our fellow passengers and the train personnel didn’t turn a hair over Chloe, and she seemed perfectly comfortable. Here she is in her carrier, waiting in New Haven for the train to start moving:

Chloe stayed in her carrier on this trip, but during part of our second trip, a day trip to Connecticut, she sat (leashed) on my husband's lap

The other thing you see in this picture are the two enormous suitcases I was traveling with, and putting them on the seat and floor next to me was only one of the many newbie mistakes I made. If you’re traveling with big suitcases, put them in the train car’s vestibule. To look like a pro, extend the handle of your roller bags up behind the railings that line the vestibule:

The grey suitcase on the far wall belongs to a seasoned Metro-North traveler. Chloe's red suitcase, on the near wall, was sometimes in that location, but more often elsewhere....

Tragically, the handle of Chloe’s big red suitcase doesn’t fit behind the railing. Her suitcase also has wheels on the bottom, and those two facts meant that it shot around the vestibule whenever the train suddenly slowed or turned. I’ll just say that my fellow passengers were very patient and understanding, and I got a lot of exercise.

I should also mention that while Chloe’s carrier was on the seat next to me when the train was empty, I put it on my lap as the train filled up.

[May 2012: We took another trip on Metro-North, and this time Chloe traveled on my lap — allowed, as long as she stays on your lap and doesn’t ooze down onto the seat next to you. So pleasant — I do wish Amtrak would follow suit. Please note that on this trip, I lashed the handle of the big red suitcase to the vestibule’s railing with the detached strap of Chloe’s carrier. Worked like a charm.]

Chloe out of her carrier, and on my lap, in May 2012

The Metro-North trains are not luxurious, or even particularly comfortable, but they are perfectly serviceable, and I’d travel again on them in a heartbeat. The system is remarkably large, extending to New Haven in the east (with the option of connecting to Shore Line East trains, which allow pet dogs in carriers on board, and continuing to New London, CT), and Wassaic, Poughkeepsie and Port Jervis in the north. There is no pet fee. The station stops are brief, so do not count on them for bathroom breaks (for you or your dog!). There are no bathrooms on board [I’m wrong, there are — please see Emily’s comment below], nor is food available, but you are apparently welcome to bring food and drink onto the train — moments after I took the pictures for this post, a woman sat down across from me with a bottle of white wine and a gigantic prosciutto sandwich, finishing both, with perfect timing, as we pulled in to Grand Central.

Product review: Sherpa to Go Pincheck Folding Car Seat

Normally when I drive with Chloe in a rental car, I keep her safe with a combination of a CanineFriendly 3-in-1 vest harness and the strap from the PetBuckle seat belt harness kit. The two components fit tidily into the PetBuckle kit bag, and occupy almost no room at all in Chloe’s suitcase. When we reach our destination, it’s easy to grab the kit and click her strap onto the rental car’s latch bar.

On this trip, however, I reconsidered. I knew I’d be driving long distances with her, over the course of a couple of weeks. She doesn’t mind the harness and strap combination, but she’s not able to see out the window when she’s wearing it (in fact, she tends to ride spreadeagled across the back seat, anticipating the next sudden curve or stop). She really prefers her car booster seat, but I’ve been unable to find a booster seat that fits her, satisfies my safety requirements, and can fit in a suitcase. So I was intrigued to see a link to a new Sherpa product, the Pincheck Folding Car Seat. The dimensions looked good, I liked how it appeared to be secured to a car, and the marketing blurb said “Folds down for storage and travel.” On the other hand, although I love how the company’s founder pioneered the use of soft carriers for in-cabin air travel, I have never yet found a Sherpa product that I’ve liked (wondering why? to see my reviews of the Sherpa products I’ve considered, please visit my other blog, Pet Carrier Reviews, and click on “Sherpa” in the Manufacturers list).

I made that weighing motion you do with your hands when you can’t decide which option to choose, and ordered the car seat. Chloe and I have been using it now for the past two weeks, and here’s what we think. From Chloe’s point of view, it’s a smash success. It’s a little smaller, and a little shorter, than her own Snoozer Lookout car booster seat, but she fits comfortably in it (and, indeed, spent much of our trip curled up and snoring), and she can see out the window when she wants to.

From my point of view, it’s a mixed bag. I love how happy Chloe is in it, and for once I have nothing bad to say about the quality of a Sherpa product’s design or construction. The car seat is solidly made and downright attractive, and is held firmly to the back seat of a car with the help of three sturdy clips (one on each short side, and the third on the front). Strangely, these clips don’t appear in the product photo on the company’s web site. The lap portion of the seat belt passes around the car seat, and the three clips hold the seat belt in place. Here’s a close-up of how it works:

I used Chloe’s existing harness and buckle combination to clip her directly to the car, via a latch bar, but the booster seat also comes with a strap that can be used to secure her harness to its back panel. I don’t love that option, because the back panel isn’t stiff, and in an accident would pull forward. I think a lot about whether I’ve left the right amount of slack in her harness/strap combo, and a flexible anchor point throws off my calculations. The attachment is there, however, and can be used in a pinch.

My only complaint about this car seat is that it doesn’t fold up particularly compactly for travel. Here’s a picture of how it arrived from the seller, with an iron next to it for scale (hey, it was the only thing I could quickly lay my hands on that’s pretty much a standard size):

This photo is of one of the short ends of the car seat — I should have taken the photo at an angle that also shows one of the longer sides

As you can see, it consists of a thick foam pad, with a removable and washable faux sheepskin cover, which fits into a fabric- and sheepskin-covered, padded, five-sided box, essentially. You open up the box, drop the thick foam pad inside, and the seat is ready for action. However, it takes up a huge amount of suitcase room. We already travel with an enormous suitcase just for Chloe’s gear — to carry this car seat with me, I had to dig out the suitcase we’ve only used twice, for trips to Antarctica and the Arctic.

The red suitcase is Chloe’s normal suitcase — usually we don’t also travel with the Blue Behemoth

It occupied half of that suitcase, and I packed my clothing and hostess gifts for a three-week trip in the other half. When I tell you that I hoisted those bags into and out of a rental car, onto and off of trains, and up and down friends’ staircases, you’ll understand that I resent how much space the car seat takes up. On the bright side, it is very light — and Chloe did love it. The next time I take this kind of trip (a long driving journey, starting away from home), I will certainly bring the Sherpa car seat along with us.

One note of caution: You’ll find that your dog’s fur isn’t the slightest bit contained by the car seat. You could bring along a car seat cover and install it under the car seat (I didn’t, because I was already panicking about suitcase space), or you could do what I did and buy one of those sticky rollers. You’ll want to roll all the loose hair off your rental car seats before you turn it in, so you don’t get charged a cleaning fee by your rental company.

Photo Friday: Chloe at the regatta

The epic driving trip I’m currently taking was planned around the New York State High School Rowing Championships, held outside Saratoga Springs last weekend. My niece and her teammates were rowing in a Junior 4+ boat, and a passel of relatives showed up to cheer them on in the drizzle and, then, rain. Here’s Chloe, in her NYC subway-patterned rain jacket; behind her, I’m wearing a cowboy-patterned poncho.

Poor dog. It's hard to say which she likes least -- the rain, or her rain jacket. On the bright side, my niece and her teammates came in first, so they'll be heading to Nationals in a couple of weekends. Congratulations, girls!!

As I mentioned on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page, it was great to have Chloe at the regatta — she was patted and fussed over, and enjoyed walking around (when it wasn’t raining), and she’s a warm little dog, so she got passed from lap to lap as we waited for the girls’ next race. Here she is, warming my sister-in-law’s father’s lap:

I’d love to see how you and your pup spent your time together this week — please post your photos on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page so we can all see them!

Dog jaunts: Dogs are welcome at many of Massachusetts’ Trustees of Reservations properties

From the ocean to the woods — last week, visiting my friend Deb, Chloe played on a beach at Woods Hole, MA, and took two long, beautiful walks in the woods. In this post, I want to tell you about the walks, and point you to a great resource for finding other places to visit with your dog.

The Trustees of Reservations manages over 100 properties across Massachusetts, and we visited two of them: Whitney and Thayer Woods (locally known as “Turkey Hill”) and World’s End. Both happen to be wooded properties, but the Trustees also manage a number of beaches, working farms, historic homes, gardens, and even a handful of places to stay overnight. Of the places to stay, alas, only the Tully Lake campground (in northern MA, near Royalston) allows dogs.

Here are Chloe and Cal the Border Collie on one of the carriage trails at Turkey Hill:

There is so much wrong with this picture -- the dogs are off leash, and Chloe is blurry -- but I've seldom seen her happier

Yes, they’re off leash, which is wrong and bad, but it was only briefly, and both dogs stayed, pretty much, on the path (Chloe certainly did, but Cal is drawn like a magnet to muddy ditches, and came away from the walk looking like his legs had been dipped in chocolate). Part of the reason that going off leash is a bad idea, as well as not allowed, is that the carriage trails are also used by local riders — we hastily put the dogs back on their leashes when we saw two horses approaching.

As you can see, though, the Turkey Hill property is beautiful. The terrain includes a large meadow and a webwork of forest trails, as well as carriage trails like the one in the picture. Deb told me that even after walking for an hour or so, we’d only seen a fraction of what’s there.

World’s End is also on the South Shore. It’s a crazy combination of beaches, marshes, meadowed hills…and careful landscaping by the Olmstead Brothers (a previous owner had plans to turn it into a subdivision, in the 19th c., but only the landscaping part of the plan was implemented). It’s lovely, and features distant views of Boston, and would be an awesome place for a picnic someday. When we visited, it was a little chilly for picnicking, but believe me, I’ll be back.

And those are just two of the places that come up when you type my friend’s zip code in to the locater on the Trustees of Reservations home page. Mind you, not all of the properties welcome dogs — be sure to look at the string of icons for a property, when you retrieve one, to make sure that there is a dog symbol, and that it doesn’t have a bar across it. To find a complete list of properties that allow dogs, go to the Advanced Search page, and under “Activity Type” select “Dog Walking.”

Both properties we visited provided poop bags at the entrance, but bring your own in case the container is empty. There are no trash cans, so you’ll need to take your dog’s waste away with you. The Trustees’ site provides PDFs of trail maps, and I recommend printing one before your visit and bringing it with you. World’s End was easy for a stranger to navigate, but I would have become lost rapidly at Turkey Hill if my friend hadn’t been with me.