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Photo Friday: Chloe and Cal at Woods Hole

Chloe and I have been driving around New England since last Friday (I’ll be telling you more about this trip in upcoming posts), and yesterday my friend Deb took us and Cal, her Border Collie, to Woods Hole, at the very beginning of Cape Cod. We found a tiny beach, in town, and let them play.

Cal and Chloe get along beautifully, but as you can tell from this photo, they’re complete opposites. Cal plunged into the water and demanded employment, while Chloe remained dry-footed on land:

The dogs look about the same size in this picture, but in reality, Chloe is about half as tall as Cal. Also, Cal is disturbingly intelligent, and Chloe…well, Chloe is a very good dog. ‘Nuff said.

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!

Pet relief area at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT)

Chloe and I flew in to Manchester, NH last Friday, and were totally charmed by this small airport. I was charmed, too, to find that the terminal map on the airport’s web site includes the pet relief area. As the map indicates, it’s located alongside the terminal. When you arrive at MHT, descend one level to the first floor and locate Baggage Carousel 5. Exit the terminal by the door across from Carousel 5 (another landmark is a metal sculpture of a giraffe), and turn right. You’ll see this sign:

Turn right, and you’ll find the pet relief area against the north side of the terminal:

It’s a large, semi-fenced area lined in soft mulch. Poop bags are provided. There are several signs imploring you not to let your dog eliminate on the landscaped area just to the north of the turn-off for the pet relief area, and Chloe doesn’t mind mulch, so I wasn’t tempted to disobey. If, however, your dog really requires grass, walk north around the landscaped area (that is, when you exit the terminal, turn right and walk past the landscaped area), then turn right again. Behind the landscaped area, there’s a strip of unimproved grass — as you can see from this picture, it’s directly behind the official pet relief area:

The off-limits landscaped area is to the left of this picture, behind the berm. I'm standing in the official pet relief area. The grass you see is fair game, in my opinion, as long as you pick up after your dog.

This post is part of an ongoing series of reviews of airport pet relief areas we’ve visited. To see others, visit Dog Jaunt’s handy guide to airport pet relief areas.

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

Lordy mercy. The oldest piece in this collection is from April 6, so this post is really a round-up of the best dog travel links from the past month. I have some excellent reasons for the delay, and even some excuses, but I’ll skip all of that and go straight to the good stuff.

Here is that oldest link, which turns out to be a good, thorough review by the bloggers behind According to Gus of the Solvit HoundAbout dog stroller. “Srsly?,” you say — but it makes perfect sense when you learn that Gus is a small dog, his owners are runners, and he gets a 45-minute walk before he’s chauffeured. (Dog strollers are also, of course, very useful equipment for a disabled or impaired or elderly dog.)

There’s more good info in this trio of links: One, from Pet News and Views, is about the hazards of driving with an unrestrained dog; the second is a look at the benefits of working in a dog-friendly office; and the third is a guest post on Take Paws by Lisa Trent about the logistics of camping with your dog.

As always, thank goodness, there is a clutch of links about tempting places to visit with your dog. I’ll lead off with a post from Will My Dog Hate Me? about author Edie Jarolim’s visit with her dog Frankie to The Lazy Dog Ranch, a B&B about two hours from Tucson. Edie and Frankie are the stars of another great link from Take Paws, this time about the Burkerts’ visit to Tucson, AZ. New Mexico, one state over, is the home of Travelin’ Jack’s Dog Blog, a blog I’ve praised in past Chloe’s Clicks. This week (alright, fine, two weeks ago), Jack was profiled on Fido Friendly‘s blog, and his tips are well worth checking out. Head west until you reach the ocean, and with any luck you’ll find yourself in beautiful Pacific Grove, CA — and if you’ve read this post from Have Dog Blog Will Travel, you’ll take yourself and your dog to the beautiful beach at Asilomar.

The last three links I have for you are new resources to check out. The Wet Nose Guide is not, in fact, new, but I took a fresh look at it recently, and found helpful its listings for dog-related resources in a number of U.S. cities/regions. The information provided about each is very limited, so you’ll likely need to follow up a lead (for a dog-friendly restaurant, for example, or a place to walk your dog) with supplemental Google searches.

I received an e-mail from Visa’s outreach team, telling me about a list the Visa team has compiled of pet-friendly hotels. If you have a Visa “Signature” card (I’ve just checked, and I do — the words “Visa Signature” are written in small white text underneath my card number) and you book a stay through the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection (there are currently 19 pet-friendly hotels in the collection, in locations around the world), you’ll receive the following perks:

• Guaranteed best available rate
• Automatic room upgrade upon arrival, when available
• Complimentary continental breakfast
• 3 PM check-out, when available
• VIP Guest status
• $25 food or beverage voucher
• Free in-room Internet or Valet parking

I haven’t taken advantage of this offer yet, but it’s worth a closer look — and I love seeing the effort that a major player like Visa is putting into reaching travelers with dogs. It heartens me.

Another thing that heartens me is seeing a new dog travel blog burst onto the scene. I have long enjoyed The Road Forks, a terrific blog from Akila and Patrick, who “travel, cook, and eat our way around the world with our two dogs,” and now Akila and Patrick have launched The Road Unleashed, focused on companions Chewy and Abby. I’ve added it to Dog Jaunt’s list of links already, and I’m looking forward to reading about the team’s adventures!

Snapshot Saturday: Tipper and family in Seattle

I’ve threatened to write a “Snapshot Saturday” post before, but this is the first time I’ve ever done it. Yep, I missed Photo Friday, and since it’s been a slim week for posts, I figure I’ll slip this one in today. Besides, you really need to see this picture:

Reader Brian and his family brought their dog Tipper with them to Seattle on their recent visit. I was particularly interested to hear how it went because I’d learned from an early e-mail that Brian had scoured the posts on Dog Jaunt. He’d bought the carriers and the travel crate I recommend. He made reservations at one of the Seattle hotels I recommended. Frankly, I was nervous. After all that, what if things didn’t work out for them?! What a relief to read that everything went smoothly — here’s part of Brian’s report:

Your advice made the trip wonderful. Really. Your advice on bags, airport security, airplane seats, hotels… made the trip. Tipper did great. I believe the confidence I gained from your advice helped to put him at ease. That Sturdi-bag is awesomely perfect. Under the airline seat in front of me I was able to zip the top flap open a bit and feed him bits of string cheese to give him something to do and make sure his ears were clear as we descended.

We have a light weight foam dog bed and seat belt harness that we use when he rides in the car. We brought him his own suitcase with his own wire kennel. Before we checked his bag, we threw in the seat belt and bed. They were right there on top when we got our rental car and were good to go.

The Alexis Hotel was fantastic. Super great service. Tipper’s name was on a special dog welcome board in the lobby when we arrived! When we got up to the room, there was a dog bed and bowl with a Milk Bone treat waiting for him. He LOVED it. We’ve never given him a Milk Bone before but he knew it was for him, picked it up and walked around showing it to everyone, even the maid that came in for turn down service. It was only a time or two of going up the elevator to our room before we could let him off the leash in the lobby and he’d lead us directly to the elevator and then right to our room. Pretty fun!

His Midwest wire crate was good to have. We left him in the room in his crate when we went to the ballet one evening with no problems. We even braved taking him out to eat! Citizen Coffee was wonderful. I picked it because they had outdoor seating. It was pretty cold out. When they saw we had Tipper, they invited him in without hesitation. Fantastic!

Phew! I can’t tell you how happy this makes me — these were Tipper’s first and second airplane flights ever, but Brian tells me they won’t be his last: “Now that we have this Seattle trip under our belts, we’re looking at an East Coast trip this summer. Our world has opened up before us!”

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!

Product review: Timbuk2’s Muttmover backpack dog carrier

My friend Jennie, a loyal reader, made my day when she wrote a post on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook wall asking me to take a look at the new backpack carrier from Timbuk2. We must own three or four different Timbuk2 messenger bags, and we’ve given a couple of others away as gifts — the company does good work, and I looked forward to seeing what they’d done with their first dog carrier. I paid for my own Muttmover, by the way. I will always tell you when something I’m reviewing has been paid for by someone else.

The Muttmover is made of what looks like a pair of fused materials — a heavy, ballistic nylon fabric on the outside and a waterproof tarp on the inside. It’s about 17″ tall, 12.5″ wide, and 6″ deep. Chloe fit in it, but couldn’t turn around. She weighs 13 lbs. and is about 12″ tall at the shoulders. She wasn’t uncomfortable, but I think she’s at the upper end of what will fit in this carrier.

Someday Chloe's patience with being shoved into new carriers will come to an end...

Your dog travels sideways in the main compartment, and you have the option of letting her poke her head out of one side or the other, since the top section of each side panel can be unzipped (each has a Velcro tab, and you pat it flat against the back wall of the carrier). I was momentarily perplexed by a couple of grey straps that connect the top edges of the back and front walls, but finally realized that they’re there to keep the bag structurally sound when the side panels are zipped open.

Like all of the Timbuk2 products I’ve seen, this carrier is beautifully constructed. The clips, zippers, and mesh panels are very sturdy. Timbuk2 uses really enormous Velcro panels to supplement their bags’ clips, and this bag is no exception. Between the clips, the Velcro panels, and the most impressive sewn-in tether I’ve ever seen, I felt that Chloe was well-secured. I was happy to find a generous pocket, big enough to hold a wallet as well as your dog’s leash, poop bags, etc. It’s located outside the dog’s compartment, but the carrier’s outer flap covers it when the carrier is closed.

The Muttmover is much more comfortable than the backpack carrier we own (the Creature Leisure Carry Den XT). The Carry Den is boxy, and gives Chloe plenty of room to move around and curl up, but one of its long edges cuts across the middle of my back. I can stand it for about an hour or so, but a hike would be very hard, and biking with it would be out of the question. The Timbuk2 backpack does not have the structural beams the Carry Den has. On the negative side, that means that although its bottom does not sag, it does tend to tilt (looking at the picture I posted of the Carry Den, however, I notice that it tilts a bit too!). On the positive side, the Muttmover is soft across your back. The straps are big and well-padded, and the left strap has one of the company’s “Beer Candy” anodized aluminum bottle openers built in. I love that.

I bought the Muttmover because I plan to give it to my brother, who’s been looking for a backpack carrier for bike trips with his family’s new dog, a Chihuahua mix named Quogue. I think this carrier might work well as a bike backpack (I’ll ask him to report, once he’s given it a try), and I recommend it as a walking/hiking carrier. Keep in mind that the carrier is black, and although there are huge mesh panels on each side, your dog may heat up in the sun. Be sure to keep her hydrated!

Photo Friday: Biking with a small, fluffy dog

It’s spring for sure in the Washington D.C. area, where my friends took this picture of their son Paul heading out for a bike ride with Tip, their Papillon:

Tip is riding in the Solvit Deluxe Tagalong carrier

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!

Minneapolis, MN dog-friendly hotel: Kimpton’s Grand Hotel

Chloe and I stayed this past weekend at a new Kimpton hotel, the Grand Hotel in Minneapolis. I should mention that I paid my own way at the Grand Hotel — I’ll always let you know when something I’m reviewing has been paid for by someone else. I didn’t know quite how new it was until I inquired, on check-out, but I’d had my suspicions from the beginning. It has the Kimpton quirky chic in only a few places — really, in fact, only in the lobby bar. Apparently the new management is working its way upwards, renovating the guest rooms, and the plan is to keep the quirkiness under control — the Grand is a stately hotel, with a big athletic club component (which hotel guests have access to), and the Kimpton decorators plan to choose furnishings that play up its traditional feel.

My room, high in the hotel, was solidly traditional, and a little dated:

The bathroom, however, was huge and appealing:

It was stocked with good toiletries and stacks of towels, and the shower was outstanding — great water pressure, and instant hot water.

This is the first Kimpton hotel I’ve encountered that didn’t have a chalkboard in the lobby, listing visiting pets’ names, nor was there the usual Kimpton water bowl by the front door. However, the staff fell over themselves patting and praising Chloe, and nearly every staff person went out of his or her way to help and welcome me. Highlights included a front desk person who raided the staff first aid kit for a Band-Aid for me (when will I learn not to travel with new shoes?), and David, the evening front desk person, who made it his personal mission to find my misplaced car rental key.

Because I signed up for Kimpton’s InTouch guest loyalty program (which I recommend — it’s free, and they don’t heckle you with relentless e-mails), the wifi was free, and they gave me a $10 “raid the minibar” coupon. I had room service one evening, and my Greek Salad with grilled chicken was fresh and good, and featured plenty of feta cheese (chintzing on the feta is one of my pet peeves). Valet parking was pricey, and really, I shouldn’t have rented a car. Next time, I’ll take the light rail from the airport to the hotel and then take taxis to see my family in St. Paul.

The hotel is very much downtown, but there are a couple of good, nearby places for bathroom breaks. Turn left out of the hotel, left at the corner, walk to the next corner, and cross 3rd Ave. S. Directly ahead you’ll find a well-lit park with plenty of grass (bring your own poop bags). Across 7th St. S., to the right, there is also a big lawn in front of the Accenture building, but it’s not as well-lit at night.

Product review: Two car booster seats for small dogs

As you may know from earlier posts, we have a Snoozer car booster seat for Chloe (specifically, the Snoozer medium Lookout, without the optional drawer). It works perfectly for us and for Chloe, but a couple of readers have written to me and mentioned that their dog has learned to hop over the side of the Snoozer onto the car seat (the Snoozer harness strap loops through the same seat belt strap that holds the back of the Snoozer to the back of the car seat, so a motivated dog can drag her harness attachment along the seat belt past the corner of the booster seat). That’s not tragic, because their dog is still strapped in safely, but it’s annoying. I was happy, therefore, to be nudged by reader Jen, who wrote to me and asked what I thought of the Bowsers car booster seat for dogs.

Bowsers Booster Car Seat

Frankly, I hadn’t given it a thought, but a wonderful Seattle pet store called Fido & Scratch (a bit off the beaten track, in the Mt. Baker neighborhood, but well worth the trip) had one in stock for me to inspect. In person, the booster seat is just as attractive as it looks on the company’s website. It’s the same size as our Snoozer, and holds a dog at window height, but it’s more refined-looking — it’s covered in pretty, micro-fiber material, and it’s secured by discreet straps rather than the car’s seatbelt.

A closer look at the Bowsers’ straps (the car seat is tipped onto its front for this picture)

To me, however, the straps seem too low-keyed. They are attached at the lower, back corners of the structure, and they end in two toggle clasps. If you’re installing the booster seat in a car seat that has a back (like the back seat of a mini-van — you’d never put your dog in the front seat, right?), you stretch the two straps from front to back and clasp them together. If you’re instead dealing with a seat whose back is part of the car, like the back seat of a sedan, you’re supposed to clip the toggle clasps onto the latch bars you’ll find near the doors and next to the seat belt buckles (they’re mainly meant to secure baby seats). I’m just not convinced that those little toggle clasps would hold up in an accident. I prefer our Snoozer, homely as it is, because the booster seat is held to the car by the car’s seat belt. And that leads me to…

L.A. Dog Company’s L.A. Rider Car Seat

Fido & Scratch had another car booster seat I hadn’t seen before, from the L.A. Dog Company. It wasn’t nearly as pretty as the Bowsers car seat — it’s covered in a simple cotton/poly twill fabric — but I really like its design. I may, in fact, like it better than our Snoozer. It’s secured to the car by the lap part of one of the back seat belts, which passes around the belly of the booster seat, in a channel that keeps the belt from slipping. That’s solid — arguably more solid than our Snoozer’s system.

The L.A. Dog Company seat also solves the problem I mentioned at the beginning of this post. On our Snoozer, you fasten the harness attachment around the lap portion of the back seat belt, and your dog is discouraged (or not) from jumping overboard by the pressure of the seat belt against the booster seat. On the Bowsers car seat, you fasten your dog’s harness attachment around the nearby seatbelt. It’s secure, but there’s really nothing stopping your dog from hopping out of the car seat. The L.A. Dog Company seat, by contrast, includes a small loop through its back, and you attach your dog’s car harness to that loop.

The black loop is nearly invisible against the charcoal fabric, but if you can make it out, you’ll see that it’s small enough to keep your dog’s harness anchored in the middle of the booster seat, preventing her from hopping down onto the car’s back seat

My thanks, as always, to Dog Jaunt’s readers, who keep me on my toes. In the process of looking at these two car booster seats, by the way, I noticed a new, collapsible car booster seat from Sherpa. I haven’t yet found a Sherpa product I’ve liked, but I’ve ordered this one, and I’ll let you know what I think of it when it arrives.

Pet Airways announces service to St. Louis

I’ve mentioned this already on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page, but Facebook posts disappear from view, and Dog Jaunt is forever. I got an e-mail from Pet Airways, hard on the heels of its Texas announcement, saying that the airline is expanding its service to include St. Louis, MO. Flights to and from St. Louis will begin this summer, and the airline will start taking reservations for St. Louis later this spring. Much as I’d like Seattle to be on the list, I do approve of adding flight cities in the hot, central part of the country.

Alaska’s passenger trains allow pet dogs on board

Photo by Len@Loblolly Photo

Amtrak doesn’t currently allow pet dogs on board, but there is one U.S. passenger train system that does: The Alaska Railroad Corporation allows you to bring your pet dog with you, with some important caveats. She must travel in “an airline-approved kennel,” and only in the baggage car. I called the ARRC for more details, and learned that they charge a $20 fee per pet. The baggage car is not heated, nor does it have air conditioning. It is insulated, and it’s located next to the engines, but you’ll want to call the railroad and talk about the kinds of temperatures your dog is likely to encounter. You may collect your dog at the train stops and take her outside for a bathroom break — you’ll need to talk to the conductor as you’re boarding, and work out the logistics of collecting and returning your dog (the train stops are brief — in Talkeetna, for example, you have a 20 minute stop, but you only have 10 minutes in Denali).

The rail line stretches between Fairbanks in the north and Seward in the south, with possible stops at Denali, Talkeetna, Wasilla, Girdwood, Whittier, Portage, Spencer and Grandview. If you’re simply trying to get from one location to another, check out this overview of the available trains.

The ARRC also offers several vacation packages, involving railroad travel, rides on buses, rafts, dogsleds and “flightseeing” planes, and hotel stays (in various combinations). The customer service representative I spoke to told me that nearly all of the hotels included in the vacation packages are not dog-friendly (the exception is Anchorage’s Comfort Inn). However, if you are able to locate dog-friendly hotels in the locations you want to visit, the ARRC will help you create a vacation package incorporating their transportation and sightseeing options and your hotel choices. Keep in mind that you will have to research whether the bus/raft/dogsled/flightseeing side-trips they offer allow pet dogs on board.

This is not, of course, how I’d prefer to travel by train with Chloe. It doesn’t begin to compare with how pet dogs are treated on European trains. I’m not even sure that I consider this much of an improvement over Amtrak’s no-pet-dogs-at-all policy — to be honest, I’d likely choose instead to rent a car and drive. However, the option is available, and I wanted you to know about it.