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Photo Friday: The giveaway continues!

Bribery works! Take a look at last week’s Photo Friday, and you’ll see that eight of you lovely, lovely people posted dog travel pictures of your own — earning you a chance to win a really fab Fab Dog raincoat, and bringing joy to me and many others. Now keep going! This week’s Photo Friday will take submissions until next Wednesday, at which point I’ll put last week’s wonderful eight in a pot with this week’s wonderful entrants, and randomly choose a winner.

For my part, I bring you a picture that @discoverourtown posted on Twitter this week. They sent it to my friends Amy & Rod Burkert (@GoPetFriendly), who wrote back “Now that’s a sign!” And indeed it is — how often do pet-friendly hotels make it this easy to find them?!

Residence Inn Sandestin at Grand Boulevard (photo by @discoverourtown)

Please send me links to your favorite dog travel photos! They’ll get listed below, for everyone to click on and view — and they’ll give you a chance to win. Here’s how it works:

  1. If you have a blog or a website, post a dog travel photo on your site on Friday and link back here to the current week’s “Photo Friday” post so that your readers can see other great dog travel photos. Please take a moment to make sure that you are linking directly to your photo post instead of your homepage.
  2. If you don’t have a blog or a website, simply post your photo to Flickr (or Facebook, Twitpic, etc.).
  3. Using the inlinkz button below, paste in the link to your photo or your blog post. That way, Dog Jaunt will link back to you. Please include a few words in the “Name” box describing where you took the photo (in this case, “Name” refers to the name of your photo, not your name!).
  4. Alternatively, heck, just e-mail me your picture ([email protected]) and I’ll post it for you!

Another dog-friendly Seattle restaurant: Poppy

Sunday's 10-item thali

Poppy opened in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood just over a year ago, in a blaze of glory. Chef Jerry Traunfeld had been at The Herbfarm, a legendary local restaurant, for years; had left The Herbfarm; his fans were on tenterhooks…and then Poppy appeared at the north end of Broadway, serving eclectic, delicious food in an unusual format. Each diner gets a “thali,” or tray, of small dishes — including a couple of entrées, maybe a soup, a relish, several salads, a tiny gratin — either seven or ten items, depending on your appetite, and all exquisitely chosen, flavored and prepared.

Fans (can you tell I’m one?) raved, while others complained that the food wasn’t sufficiently Indian (“thali” is a Hindi word, and that’s been throwing people off — the food is inspired by a variety of cultures, and by Traunfeld’s passion for herbs, but people seem to expect Indian) and that the thali format means that while you’re eating some of the dishes, others get cold. You do have to eat strategically (hot things first, then room temp/cool things), but that’s not a particular challenge.

Anyhow, Poppy started out with only indoor seating, but now has a back patio and several sidewalk tables flanking the front door. Diners with dogs are welcome at the sidewalk tables, and we ate there with Chloe this past Sunday. Dinner was outstanding, as always (I beg you to start with the eggplant fries appetizer — yes, I hate eggplant too, and I’m telling you that you’ll want two orders), and the service was, as always, attentive and polished. It is a tiny bit awkward eating right on Broadway, a street known for its colorful characters, but Poppy’s at the north end, where there isn’t a lot of foot traffic. Please note that the tables in front do not have umbrellas, so if you prefer shade, wait to eat until the sun drops below the buildings on the west side of Broadway.

Poppy
622 Broadway East
Seattle, WA 98102
T: 206-324-1108
Seatings from 5:30 to 10:30 pm

Dog jaunt: San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter

This is a guest post from Edie Jarolim, the blogger behind Will My Dog Hate Me? and the author of several travel guides and one dog book, called Am I Boring My Dog? And 99 Other Things Your Dog Wishes You Knew. She recently visited San Diego with her dog Frankie, and when she told me she’d been to a dog-friendly restaurant in the Gaslamp Quarter called Cafe Chloe, I asked her to tell me all about it.

Everyone tends to think of San Diego as a beach destination, and it definitely is that. You can find plenty of dog-friendly spots on and near the sand on the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau website. And not to be missed, if you can make it, is the annual Surf Dog festival, which my dog, Frankie, and I attended last year.

But for those who want an urban experience that also includes water views — and as a former New Yorker, I’m all over that — the area in and around San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter can’t be beat. In addition to everything else — great places to play, eat and stay, detailed below — dogs are very welcome in this area. I noticed bowls of water and dishes with dog biscuits in front of several shops, restaurants, and hotels. You won’t find that in downtown Manhattan.

Play

What’s a ball field financed by a pet store chain without a place for dogs to romp? There are several welcoming grassy areas for dogs to play in front of PETCO Park, also known as home to the San Diego Padres. Proof that the pups take advantage of the facilities: yellow patches mar the otherwise lovely green lawns. Luckily, dogs like to pee on other dogs’ pee so the spots aren’t that large — plus they help humans know where to avoid sitting. Note: The park is closed for several hours before and after Padres home games.

Frankie and I sitting in a non-yellow spot at PETCO Park

Scenic places to stroll with your pup in the area include the beautifully landscaped Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade, a rails-to-trail park with inspiring public art. At the Embarcadero Marina Park South, you can walk or run with your dog (on leash) while watching boats bobbing in the San Diego Bay.

Eat

With its French inspired menu — pates, tarts, mussels, steak frites, for example — and dog-friendly outdoor patio, Cafe Chloe wouldn’t be out of place in Paris. The place for dog people to sniff each other out at Sunday brunch, Cafe Chloe is named for the eight-year- old daughter of two of the partners. More reasons this place has got good vibes: The feng shui practitioner who was brought in to assess and bless the place said that the stone greyhounds guarding the entrance were very good feng shui.

Frankie near a feng shui-friendly greyhound

I can’t think of any other places in the U.S. where dogs can dine indoors (can you?) but at the Phi Bar & Bistro in the lobby of the Hotel Indigo (see Stay, below), your pup can lounge by your feet while you eat. The food, using lots of fresh, local produce, is really good too (that’s my, not Frankie’s, review).

Stay

The only things I liked about the Hotel Indigo were: its location near PETCO Park and the Gaslamp District; the service, the lobby restaurant; the room; the pet policy; and the dog bathroom facilities.

Service: The staff couldn’t have been more helpful. I forgot to call ahead to request a refrigerator to put my diabetic dog’s insulin in but I was provided with a minifridge minutes after I called the front desk and asked for one. Everyone was pleasant — and appropriately enthusiastic about Frankie’s cuteness — during my stay.

Rooms: Cheery and comfortable. Frankie, who has short legs, thought the bed was a little high for him, but I helped him up.

Pet policy: No limit on size and number of pets accepted, no extra fee.

Bathroom facilities: There’s a rooftop deck with a grassy area designed for dogs to do their business. I walked Frankie around the neighborhood and couldn’t get him to go, but as soon as he got upstairs — instant success. He was no doubt inspired by all those who had gone before him.

Frankie using the Hotel Indigo's facilities

What we’ll do with our dog in Paris

Photo by Paola Bonfadelli

I’ve been making a lot of noise about our upcoming trip to Paris with Chloe this fall, and it finally occurred to me that maybe you’re wondering why we’re taking her with us at all. What do we plan to do with her? Will having a dog with us prevent us from fully experiencing what the city has to offer? Will it add to our understanding and appreciation of Paris to have Chloe with us? They’re fair questions, particularly since it does take extra effort (and money) to bring a dog to Paris.

If we were visiting Paris for the first time, we’d consult lists of things to see and do in Paris and we’d create our own must-see list, which would include several museums (at least the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musée de l’Orangeries), a trip up the Eiffel Tower, a visit to Notre Dame and to Sainte Chapelle, a ride along the Seine on a bateau mouche, and a lot of walking — certainly along the Champs-Elysées, and through Montmartre and the Latin Quarter and St. Germain-des-Près. That’s a classic first trip to Paris, and you can do nearly all of those things in the company of a small dog — I’d have no hesitation about tucking Chloe into her stealth carrier while we visited the Eiffel Tower and the two churches, and she’d be welcome everywhere else except the museums (we’d have to visit them while she napped after her morning walk).

This trip is more relaxed. We don’t feel compelled to re-visit Paris’s must-see sights, and are instead looking forward to spending our time walking and eating — activities that are better with a dog. Here’s what we plan to do:

  • We’ll walk. We always bring books of walking tours with us for inspiration, but we’re also happy setting off without a guide and just wandering through the central arrondissements. At every turn we find a building or a pocket park or a view or a shop or a sign — or even graffiti — that catches our attention. On this trip, we’ll make a special effort to visit the dog cemetery (Le Cimitière des chiens) in Asnières-sur-Seine, and we’ll walk along the Promenade Plantée, Paris’s version of New York’s High Line park.
  • We’ll eat. We’ll get the world’s best croissants for breakfast, we’ll go to the tiny Marais restaurant my husband loves and have a slab of côte-de-boeuf on wooden trenchers, and we’ll picnic on fresh baguettes and jars of rillettes and cheese made from unpasteurized milk. We’ll get another bottle of the homemade raspberry eau-de-vie we found on our last trip and soldier through another helping of aligot (an astonishing Auvergnois specialty involving mashed potatoes and Tomme cheese). If we wake up early with jet lag, we’ll get onion soup at Les Halles. We’ll find places to eat that we haven’t yet been to. And we’ll do all of that with Chloe. She’ll come right in the door and sit with us and it will be awesome.
  • We’ll cook a couple of meals. I always bring a collection of tiny French cookbooks with us, because they don’t take up much space and sometimes it’s a welcome break to cook something simple in the apartment. Besides, bringing a shopping list to the Franprix across the street and walking home with groceries, or getting a roasted chicken at the neighborhood farmers’ market, makes me feel, fleetingly, like a local.
  • We’ll visit a couple of museums. There are only two museums on our list this time (the Musée Jacquemart-André and the Musée des arts décoratifs), and we’ll go to them while Chloe’s snoozing in the apartment.
  • We’ll visit some shops we like, and seek out a few more I’ve read about since our last visit. While my husband is working, I’ll check out some dog supply stores and daycare centers, because I can’t help myself (also, there’s nothing Chloe likes more than a store full of dog food, treats and toys).
  • We’ll check out the dog-friendly parts of Paris’s parks — more out of loyalty to Dog Jaunt readers than to exercise Chloe, I have to say, since I expect that she’ll get plenty of exercise walking with us around the city. Still, it’ll be interesting to visit the Tuileries, or the Luxembourg Gardens, and figure out which parts of them are dog-friendly. It’ll also be a great excuse to visit the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, neither of which I’ve ever seen.

Pretty low-key, right? But that’s what we’re looking forward to — and we’re really looking forward to sharing all those activities (except the museums) with Chloe. As I’ve said before, walking a dog is a marvelous way to see a new neighborhood and to meet new people. You’re forced to take things slowly and to interact with passers-by and other dog owners (we’ll get a chance to practice our new French dog-walking phrases!). Like shopping for groceries, having a dog with us, and dealing with her everyday needs, will let us pretend that we’re locals rather than tourists. And I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to eating meals in restaurants with Chloe — how civilized that will be, and how fun.

Portland, OR dog-friendly hotel: Hotel Monaco

The Kimpton Hotel Group just gets it. Every Kimpton hotel I’ve stayed in has been centrally-located, quirkily attractive, friendly, clean and packed with thoughtful details — and Portland’s Hotel Monaco is no exception. We spent this past weekend there, and I can’t think of a single negative comment. I should mention that we paid our own way at the Hotel Monaco — I’ll always let you know when something I’m reviewing has been paid for by someone else.

Chloe's name is on the front leg

The experience starts at the door, where you’re greeted with a chalkboard bearing your pet’s name, and never stops. I would say that the front desk staff is freakishly kind and cheerful, except that every staff member we encountered was equally cheerful and equally ready to lick Chloe on the nose. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon wine tasting (since it’s Oregon, there is also beer) in the gorgeous front room — a cheerful hubbub of guests, plus a handful of guest dogs — but whenever there wasn’t wine, there was complimentary sangria, or complimentary coffee, or complimentary Arnold Palmers (an unexpected and particularly well-timed offering after a long walk in the heat).

This is not a good picture. Trust me, the room was nice.

The rooms are clean, cheerful and well-decorated. We had a king suite, so ours was large, but I’ve stayed in a regular-sized room (the “queen deluxe”) in this hotel in the past, and it too was spacious. Take a moment and sign up with the Kimpton InTouch Guest Loyalty Program — it’s free, and you’ll be rewarded with free wi-fi, the pillows and newspaper of your choice, and a $10 coupon for the mini-bar (plus a variety of other perks, but those were the ones we enjoyed on this trip). Other things we liked? The bed was comfortable. There was a coffee maker and Starbucks coffee (we left our Do Not Disturb sign up all day Saturday, but the staff, undaunted, taped packets of replacement coffee to our door). The shampoo, conditioner and body soap (Gilchrist & Soames) were in dispensers attached to the shower wall, which is so much less wasteful than mini-bottles. There was a stocked mini-bar — so rare these days — and a tray of tasty snack foods. Sure, they were crazy expensive, but they were there.

Dog bed and other goodies

Although I did not spring for the “Portland Unleashed Pet Package” (doggie makeover, trail mix, maps of local pet-friendly attractions, beer for you and your dog, a public transit ticket for your dog, and a leash), we were still provided with a heap of dog goodies, including a dog bed and bowl for use in our room, a packet of poop bags, a copy of a local pet-friendly newssheet, and a brand-new chew toy. The Hotel Monaco does not charge a pet fee or require a deposit, and there are no restrictions on pet size or number of pets. While we were there, there were between six and ten pets staying in the hotel simultaneously — we saw them from time to time, in the lobby or in the halls, but we never heard a peep out of them.

Please note that the pet-friendly rooms are located on the third floor, which I believe is the guest room floor closest to the front door. Once you exit the hotel, however, there aren’t a lot of good choices for nearby bathroom breaks. The closest park, O’Bryant Square (two blocks away, at Park and Washington) is pretty bleak, but it’ll work if your dog finds mulch chips inspiring. Your best choice for a (tiny) patch of grass is four blocks away, at the southeast corner of 5th and Burnside (look for the “Car Wash Fountain“). Your best choice for a really nice park is the long park, officially called South Park Blocks, that stretches along Park between Salmon and Jackson. The nearest corner of that park (Salmon and Park) is eight blocks away from the Hotel Monaco.

Chloe’s Clicks: Dog travel links we liked this week

Egads! I’m barely squeaking this in before the weekend ends! Let’s start with a fine idea from the folks at Raleigh Pop, who have found a way to make the summer concerts in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park dog-friendly. Good thinking, ladies!

Also in the “good thinking” category? The Hiway Dog program, created by Wisconsin resident Mary Gensen and promising to become a nationwide phenomenon. The idea is that dog-friendly businesses located along highways will post the Hiway Dog symbol on their highway exit signs, so that drivers will know where to exit for the services they and their dog need. It saves drivers time and exasperation, and it channels business to dog-friendly providers. Love it!

Last week, I told you about a dog-friendly casino hotel in Reno; this week, Dogtipper publicized GR88.com‘s list of the top eight pet-friendly casinos in the U.S. (including the one I mentioned, plus another one in Reno, three in Las Vegas, two in Atlantic City, and one in Williamsburg, Michigan).

Other dog-friendly getaways? Check out a post from Gracie’s Bark about Gracie’s romp on the dog-friendly beach at Gooseberry Island, near Horseneck Beach State Reservation in Westport, MA. On the other side of the continent, CanadianRockies.net has a really helpful page about bringing your dog with you to, yes, the Canadian Rockies — including info about dog-friendly lodging, dog parks, and access to Jasper and Banff National Parks.

In other news, Ohmidog! posted a list of dog-friendly restaurants in Santa Fe, NM, and the Daily Mail‘s MailOnline.com published an article about the K99 van, bringing ice cream just for dogs (ham and chicken sorbet!) to parks around London this summer.

And finally, how could I not mention Pug-man, which went viral this week: It’s ridiculous, but also strangely addictive….

Photo Friday: Seattle Light Rail

The extension of Seattle’s light rail line to the airport has been open since mid-December 2009, but we took our first trip on it this past weekend. Chloe and I left the car in downtown Seattle and rode to the airport to meet my husband, who was returning from a few days in the Bay Area. As you can see, Chloe traveled in her Creature Leisure Carry Den XT (the backpack was a good choice, since there’s a bit of a walk from the Seatac station to the airport proper; a wheeled carrier would also have been a good idea).

(I let her head poke out for the picture, but we were otherwise law-abiding!)

Not a long journey, but it felt like an adventure — I loved the city views and the station art, and I loved not driving. It won’t work for all of our trips — for one thing, the train cars don’t have any place to put the heaps of luggage we typically travel with (which is odd, given that the train goes, you know, to the airport) — but it’s a wonderful option when we’re in streamlined mode.

Remember that this week’s Photo Friday marks the beginning of my Fab Dog raincoat giveaway, and send me links to your favorite dog travel photos! They’ll get listed below, for everyone to click on and view — and they’ll give you a chance to win. Here’s how it works:

  1. If you have a blog or a website, post a dog travel photo on your site on Friday and link back here to the current week’s “Photo Friday” post so that your readers can see other great dog travel photos. Please take a moment to make sure that you are linking directly to your photo post instead of your homepage.
  2. If you don’t have a blog or a website, simply post your photo to Flickr (or Facebook, Twitpic, etc.).
  3. Using the inlinkz button below, paste in the link to your photo or your blog post. That way, Dog Jaunt will link back to you. Please include a few words in the “Name” box describing where you took the photo (in this case, “Name” refers to the name of your photo, not your name!).
  4. Alternatively, heck, just e-mail me your picture ([email protected]) and I’ll post it for you!

Have you left the house this summer with your dog? Prove it, and win!

Every Friday I post a dog travel picture that’s caught my eye — either one that I’ve taken, or one that I’ve found on Flickr. A dog on a Venice barge, a dog in a powerboat, a dog cooling off in a Milwaukee fountain — even a statue of a dog from an Irish castle. And every week I invite you to post your dog travel photos too, to create a weekly photo album of our dogs enjoying themselves. Several faithful readers have answered the call (shout-outs in particular to @SarniaKid and @GoPetFriendly, and their marvelous dogs Francie, Ty and Buster!), but I’m a greedy girl, and I want to see more of your dog travel photos.

Subway Map Print raincoat

So here’s what I’m going to do. Submit a dog travel photo during one of the next two Photo Fridays (tomorrow and July 30). On August 5th, I will randomly choose a winner, who will receive the following prize: A Fab Dog warm-weather rainjacket for a medium-sized dog (the jacket measures 17.5″ from the base of the neck to the base of the tail) in my favorite fabric — printed with a map of the NYC metro system. This brand-new jacket (a $38 value) is unlined, so it’s perfect for summer rainstorms, and it folds up into its own storage pocket, so it’s easy to carry and pack.

How to enter

Send me your dog travel photos, using either the Inlinkz linky form I provide or e-mail (the directions for both of these options are provided in my Friday posts). Pet bloggers should consider turning their photo into a post on their own blog, and sending me the link to their post; it’s not required but it will give you the benefit of a link from my blog to yours.

You can respond to tomorrow’s Photo Friday post or to the July 30th post — or to both! Your photos don’t have to be professional-quality, nor do they have to be set in exotic locations, but they should be taken by you and show your dog traveling, or enjoying himself somewhere away from home.

Deadlines

Tomorrow’s Photo Friday post will stop taking submissions at midnight on Wednesday, July 28th. There will be a gap of a day, and then next Friday’s post will take submissions until midnight on Wednesday, August  4th. I will choose a winner randomly, and announce the results in a Dog Jaunt post on Thursday, August 5th.

The fine print

To enter, you must be a U.S. resident, age 18 or older. Please make sure that the email address you provide is valid (be assured that your email isn’t shared with anyone, and I will not send you email unless you win). Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A winner’s failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered a forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, an alternate winner may also be selected from the pool of eligible entries. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state and local taxes on the value of their prize. Employees, partners and vendors of Dog Jaunt and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter.

Upcoming Paris trip: Chatting with other dog owners, in French

Photo by fachxx00

As you know, we’re taking Chloe to Paris this fall. It occurred to me recently, as I went on my morning walk with her around the neighborhood park, that we’ll meet other dog owners in Paris. How are we going to have The Conversation with them, given that we don’t know a scrap of French dog vocabulary?

You know what I mean by The Conversation — anyone who walks their dog and meets other dog owners does. It goes something like this:

Hello! Is your dog friendly?

She sure is — how about yours?

[The dogs meet.]

May I pat her?

Please do — I’ll try to keep her from jumping on you. Chloe, SIT.

What a cutie, her ears are so soft! What kind of dog is she?

She’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. And yours?

[They answer.]

What a cutie, his/her ears are so soft!

How old is she?

Oh, about a year and a half — she’s full-grown, but she’s still pretty foolish.

They stay puppies for a long time, huh?

They sure do.

Would it be okay if I gave her a treat?

Absolutely — she’d love it. Thanks so much! Good-bye!

There are many variations, but this is the basic conversation I have, oh, about five times a day. I can get by in French, but none of my classes included phrases like these. Yikes! So I wrote to my friend Melanie, who’s not only French but is also one of those people who learn languages with ease and grace (her English is as good as mine; she speaks Portuguese and Japanese, no doubt with the same facility; and she’s currently learning Swedish for fun). If she weren’t such a lovely person, I could really dislike her. I sent her The Conversation, and here’s what she sent back.

“Is your dog friendly” was actually the trickiest part: I asked a colleague who has experience owning and walking dogs for help. I am still slightly concerned that “votre chien” might seem a bit aggressive (accusatory) when associated with dog friendliness in a sentence, so I would use “il” instead. Of course “il” could also be a “elle”, in which case the dog’s sex will be hinted in the answer: “il est gentil?”, “oui, elle est gentille”. Gender neutrality has yet to reach us and masculine is still widely used for neutral.

Hello! Is your dog friendly?
Bonjour. [So far so good…] Il est gentil avec les autres chiens? [or] Votre chien s’entend bien avec les autres chiens?

She sure is — how about yours?
Bien sûr. [or] Oui, elle est gentille. Et votre chien?

[The dogs meet.]

May I pat her?
Est-ce que je peux la caresser?

Please do — I’ll try to keep her from jumping on you. Chloe, SIT.
Bien sûr – je vais essayer de faire en sorte qu’elle ne vous saute pas dessus. Chloé, ASSISE. [For the sake of efficiency, you might want to keep to SIT here.]

What a cutie, her ears are so soft!
Comme elle est mignonne. Ses oreilles sont toutes douces!

What kind of dog is she?
C’est quelle race de chien?

She’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. And yours?
C’est un épagneul Cavalier King Charles. Et le [“la”, if previously identified as a she] votre?

[They answer.]

What a cutie, his/her ears are so soft!
Comme il/elle est mignon/mignonne. Ses oreilles sont toutes douces!

How old is she?
Elle a quel âge?

Oh, about a year and a half — she’s full-grown, but she’s still pretty foolish.
Un an et demi, à peu près. Elle a atteint sa taille adulte… mais elle fait encore pas mal de bêtises!

They stay puppies for a long time, huh?
Ils restent jeunes longtemps, hein?

They sure do.
Oui, tout à fait.

Would it be okay if I gave her a treat?
Je peux lui donner une friandise? [You might want to be more specific about what kind of treat you have in mind, e.g, “un biscuit”]

Absolutely — she’d love it. Thanks so much! Good-bye!
Bien sûr, ça va lui faire plaisir! Merci beaucoup! Au revoir!

Thank goodness for Melanie. Other helpful phrases:

Little doggie
Petit toutou

Where may I walk my dog?
Où puis-je promener mon chien?

Can I give you one of my treats to give her? She’s allergic to corn/wheat.
Est-ce que je peux vous donner l’un de mes biscuits pour que vous le lui donniez? Elle est allergique au maïs/au blé.

Peer-to-peer vacation rentals: Any dog-friendly ones?

Remember when VRBO was kind of edgy? When you wondered whether it was really a reliable way to make your vacation plans? VRBO and HomeAway now feel like solid, dependable resources, and their sites reflect their maturity. Among other things, you can search for properties using a variety of parameters (including whether a property is pet-friendly) to narrow your choices. To find edgy now, you need to look at a new crop of sites offering couch space, floor space, rooms, and apartments and homes for short-term rental (or not so new — CouchSurfing, for example, has been around for over ten years).

Photo by donjd2

Prompted by a recent New York Times article (“Europe Without Hotels”) about “peer-to-peer hotels” or social B&B networks, I took a look at all the peer-to-peer sites I could find to see how easy it is for a traveler with a small dog to locate pet-friendly places to stay.

Here they are, in alphabetical order. Have I missed a favorite resource/site? Let me know in a comment, and I’ll check it out!

Airbnb — Find a shared room, private room or apartment/home in 150 countries. No way to search for pet-friendly properties, but you can see if a property you’re interested in is pet-friendly by clicking on “Amenities” and seeing if “Pets Allowed” is checked or barred out.

CouchSurfing — Find a couch, or just share a coffee or a drink with a host, in countries around the world. No way to search for pet-friendly properties, but the listings typically say whether the host has a pet or not, and you can ask if yours would be welcome.

Crashpadder — Find a sofabed, a room or an apartment/home in 64 countries. No way to search for pet-friendly apartments, and pets aren’t typically mentioned in descriptions. Contact the owner directly. [7/21/10 As you’ll see in the comments, Stephen from Crashpadder suggests that you send an e-mail to hello [at] crashpadder [dot] com asking for a list of dog-friendly options in the location you’re interested in.]

HouseTrip — When I first wrote this post, the choices available from HouseTrip were limited, and there was no way to search for pet-friendly properties (individual listings sometimes stated, under “Suitability,” that dogs are unwelcome). Inspired by a recent Facebook post from a friend staying in Rome via HouseTrip (she has a front-row view of the Colosseum), I checked the site again today. Now, you can type in your destination (I chose Paris, naturally), ignore the dates query, and hit “search now.” On the page of results, click on “Pets allowed” in the left sidebar (under “Facilities”), and you’ll learn that there are 357 Paris properties that are pet friendly. I call that progress. (4/30/12)

iStopOver — Find a room or an apartment/home in cities around the world (as with HouseTrip, there’s no easy way to browse all of the available properties; look at the bottom of the iStopOver home page for “featured destinations,” or type in the city you’re interested in). There is no way to search for pet-friendly properties, but in a property’s description (under “Amenities include”), you’ll sometimes see a note saying that pets are not allowed. If pets are not mentioned, contact the owner with your query (this site, at least, makes it easy to contact the owner).

Roomorama — Find a room or an apartment/home in cities around the world — all of which, glory be, are listed and browsable from the home page. You can search for properties that are pet-friendly (really, I’m loving this site) by starting with a basic search (say, all available properties in Paris) and then refining your search (click on “Pets Allowed” under “Conditions” in the left-hand column).

Second Porch — Find vacation homes for rent or trade across the U.S. You can search for properties that are pet-friendly by starting with a basic search on the home page (e.g., “New York”), and then using the “Advanced Search” button at the top of the resulting page to request specific features (check the “Dog friendly” box under “Property Amenities”). [Second Porch was bought by HomeAway in May 2011.]

[Wimdu — As with Roomorama, start with a basic search, and then, at the resulting screen, ask to “Show more” Amenities and click on “Pets allowed.”]