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Photo Friday: Ireland’s Malahide Castle

This week’s photo is of one of a pair of dog statues flanking the gate leading into the Craft Courtyard at Malahide Castle, just outside Dublin. The Castle, parts of which date from the 12th c., was the home of the Talbot family for nearly 800 years.

The Castle and its extensive (250 acres) grounds now host a myriad of cultural and social events and activities, from house tours to botanic gardens, a model railway, and sports fields. A Castle receptionist told me that although dogs are not allowed in the Castle, they are allowed “anywhere around our grounds outside.”

Photo by Qole Pejorian

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

  1. Every Friday, I’ll put up a post like this one, sometime during the morning (Pacific time).
  2. 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.
  3. If you don’t have a blog or a website, simply post your photo to Flickr (or Facebook, Twitpic, etc.).
  4. 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!).

Taking a road trip with a diabetic dog

You’ll know best what your diabetic dog can handle, and whether he would enjoy traveling. If you think he might like to take a road trip with you, the logistics of caring for him needn’t stop you, as I’ve learned from this guest post written by Natalie Karst.

When not tending to a dog, Natalie is a freelance publication assistant in Northern California. Chris, who was diagnosed with diabetes in 2003 and passed away in 2008, was a local ambassador for dogs with diabetes and the inspiration for Natalie’s website and forum, K9diabetes.com.

Chris and Jeff in Twin Falls, ID

The first thing that came to my mind when asked about traveling with a diabetic dog was that it would work better if the people involved didn’t need to bring any luggage! Or had a bigger vehicle than we did when we traveled 1,200 miles from California to Montana to attend my father’s funeral. We had long ago promised our dog Chris that we would never ever leave him home with a pet sitter again and his unusual regimen of four insulin injections a day, every six hours, meant it was practically impossible even if we hadn’t promised. So we packed up his stuff—he had a lot of stuff—and tucked in as much of ours as would fit and hit the road.

Chris at the time was 12 and about halfway through his 5 years as a diabetic. He had been blind for almost 2 years by then (thanks to diabetes-induced cataracts) so he was used to navigating in foreign places. He knew we would guide him around obstacles outdoors and was willing to find his way around indoors.

Chris’ luggage consisted of an ice chest for his insulin and food and two containers for all of his other supplies. Insulin being a delicate substance, we put the box containing his insulin in a heavy-duty plastic food container with a watertight seal and then put that inside a sealed plastic bag and always kept it above the level of any ice or water in the cooler so it stayed cool, but not cold, and dry.

One of the containers for his other supplies was a freestanding Sterilite plastic drawer, which not only gave us easy access at roadside stops but functioned as a work surface for mixing his food and for him to eat from, thus saving a lot of wiping bits of his food off of motel carpets.

Inside the containers were his food and water dishes, insulin syringes, his many medications (for arthritis, cataracts, and heart disease), a measuring cup so we could give him the same amount of food at every meal, spoons for scooping and mixing, a syringe for his Metacam, his fish oil supplement, his mini Milkbone injection rewards, dish soap, paper towels, wet wipes, and bottles of water. And lots of trash bags for dealing with whatever messes we made.

Then there were his testing supplies. Chris’ blood sugar was tested using a OneTouch Ultra blood glucose meter, once before three of his four meals and injections and any other time we were concerned. Chris got food and insulin at 4 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m., and 10 p.m. and we usually skipped testing him at 4 a.m. So we had a meter (two actually, just in case), test strips, lancets, and a lancing device, plus paper towels for drying his lip before each test. And a bottle of pancake syrup in case of low blood sugar. With extras of everything—more food, syringes, lancets, and test strips than we could possibly need.

Chris polishing off a meal

When meal and injection time rolled around on the two-day drive each way, we would find a roadside stop, preferably with water for washing dishes, but always with a trash can. Over the course of that trip we stopped at a couple of parks, one cemetery, and a few gas stations.

First I’d test his blood sugar—usually with him lying down in the SUV—and then I’d mix up his canned dog food and lowfat cottage cheese in his bowl on top of the Sterilite drawer. He’d eat and get all of his meds and then my husband would take him for a little walk so Chris could do his business while I cleaned up his dishes. We collected all of his used syringes in a container and disposed of them when we got home.

At the motel, we would go through the same routine, just in warmer and more comfortable surroundings. Well, at least his meals were in more comfortable surroundings. Definitely one of the main challenges of traveling with a blind dog was finding an appropriate potty spot. In some cases we had to scrounge around among snow and weeds that were not easy for a blind dog to navigate. Like a lot of dogs, he had his rest area preferences and the motel did not always provide what he liked. Having a motel in a secure area was important as he liked to go out after each meal, including the ones at 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

The main things, I think, are protecting the insulin, planning carefully for all meals and injections, and, most important, planning for the unexpected. Take enough insulin that you don’t have to worry if you drop a bottle. Take enough syringes that you can throw a few away. Take an extra meter or bottle of urine test strips (most people who test blood sugar wind up owning several meters) in case something happens to the main one. Take a ton of food and be absolutely sure you have syrup for low blood sugar. Which is why we had no room for our luggage!

Chris did wonderfully on that trip. Though I was freezing cold the entire time and whined to anyone who would listen (you’d never know I was from Montana), the temperature was just about right for him to be able to spend time in the car when we had family duties to attend to. And he enjoyed playing in the snow and exploring during our roadside stops. I would give anything to have him here with us to take another road trip.

Frontier Airlines now allows pets to fly in-cabin

Frontier Airlines announced today that small pets (including dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, or small household birds within the U.S. — only dogs and cats to international destinations) may travel in-cabin with their owners. There is a $75 (each way) fee, which makes the policy competitive with Southwest’s policy. Also like Southwest, Frontier had the good sense not to specify a maximum carrier size. Instead, it has provided customers with the dimensions of the under-seat spaces on its various planes (see below), and allows them to choose a carrier that maximizes the space available. Bravo, Frontier!!

Maximum dimensions are based on aircraft type:

  • Airbus A318/A319/A320: 24″ length x 15. 5″ width x 10″ height.
  • Embraer E170/E175/E190: 18″ length x 13.5″ width x 10″ height.
  • Embraer E135/E140/E145: 17″ length x 12″ width x 10″ height.
  • Bombardier Q400: 17″ length x 15.5″ width x 12.4″ height.

To compare the new Frontier in-cabin pet policy with that of other airlines, take a look at Dog Jaunt’s handy guide. Please note that Frontier continues to allow larger dogs to travel under the plane as checked baggage.

Finding a dog-friendly vacation rental apartment in Paris

Photo by boltron-

We’ve decided to spend a couple of weeks in Paris this fall, and we’re bringing Chloe with us. I’ll be writing a series of posts about our trip; this one focuses on finding a dog-friendly apartment to rent. (We’ve enjoyed the hotels we’ve stayed in in Paris, but for a longer trip — anything, really, over just a few days — we recommend renting an apartment. It’s cheaper and way more fun.)

Given how open Parisians are to seeing dogs in restaurants and shops, I thought finding a dog-friendly apartment would be a piece of gâteau. In fact, it takes a little effort, even if you don’t (as we did) create trouble for yourself by insisting on staying on a favorite street in a favorite neighborhood.

We began by contacting the rental agencies we’ve rented from (or nearly rented from) in the past. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll likely do a Google search for Paris rental apartments and end up with a list that includes the companies we’ve worked with, and a few more. Here are the pet policies for sixteen of Google’s favorite agencies (in alphabetical order). I’ll indicate which ones I’ve worked with, but you should research travelers’ reviews before you commit to any agency.

One suggestion: I recommend getting an apartment that is on the third floor (or second floor, if you’re British) or higher. Many apartments don’t have air-conditioning, and you may want to keep the windows open while you sleep. My sister-in-law lost a purse to a burglar who shinnied up to the open windows of our second-floor apartment during the night; when we reported the loss to the rental agency and the police, we learned that it was not an uncommon occurrence.

A La Carte Paris (www.alacarte-paris-apartments.com) — No dogs allowed. We liked this agency, but we won’t be renting from them this time.

At Home in France (www.athomeinfrance.com) — No dogs allowed. This company has a great e-mail newsletter that you should sign up for, but we won’t be renting from them this time.

Bienvenue à Paris (www.bienvenueaparis.com) — No dogs allowed

Casamundo (www.casamundo.co.uk) — British agency with worldwide rental properties. Select “France,” then “Paris/Île-de-France,” then “Paris,” and click on “Pet” under “Extras.” You’ll get a list of 60 properties.

Chez Vous (www.chezvous.com) — Apartments available if your dog is small. A dog-less (but otherwise intelligent and discriminating) friend uses Chez Vous for her Paris visits, and thinks well of the company.

HomeAway and VRBO (www.homeaway.com and www.vrbo.com) — A related pair of U.S. agencies with worldwide properties. It’s fairly easy to find dog-friendly properties on both sites. VRBO currently lists 181 Paris properties where pets are “considered.”

Parisaddress (www.parisaddress.com) — A customer service representative told me that about half of their apartments are pet-friendly. He recommended that I give him a list of apartments I was interested in, and he would check with the owners.

Paris Attitude (www.parisattitude.com) — Some of the owners do allow pets. The customer service representative I corresponded with encouraged me to give her my preferred dates, budget and location, and she would help me find a pet-friendly apartment that fit my needs.

Paris Bestlodge (www.parisbestlodge.com) — No pets allowed

Paris for Rent and France for Rent (www.parisforrent.com and www.franceforrent.com) — A related pair of sites. Pets are officially not allowed, but because we had rented from them before, and because one of their owners has a dog and is willing (sometimes) to allow a dog in the off season, we were able to get permission for Chloe to come with us. Call, and expect to be turned down, but you may be happily surprised.

Parisian Home (www.parisianhome.com) — This company’s pet policy is that “pets are not allowed in any apartment, unless prior authorization has been obtained,” which suggests to me that it is possible to obtain prior authorization in at least some cases.

Paris Net (www.parisnet.com) — This seems to me not so much an agency as a kind of Craigslist for French apartment owners. You’ll need to raise the topic directly with the owners of the apartments you’re interested in.

Paristay.com (www.paristay.com) — Some properties have a dog symbol that has not been barred through, indicating that dogs are acceptable, but there is no obvious way to search for just dog-friendly properties. The company also does not encourage information-gathering calls or e-mails (they want to hear from you only after you have filled in a request form). Apparently, you’ll have to scroll through all of the choices in your desired location, and see which ones have the pets-OK symbol.

Rentapart.com (www.rentapart.com) — This company’s pet policy is as follows: “Pets are allowed but only with a prior written permission of us. You may be asked for additional deep cleaning service and security deposit.”

Have I missed your favorite agency? Let me know, and I’ll add it to the list. And stay tuned for the next installment of Chloe Goes to Paris!

Book review: Am I Boring My Dog? And 99 Other Things Every Dog Wishes You Knew

Full disclosure: I know and like Edie Jarolim, the author of this book. We met through Twitter, and finally laid eyes on each other at the BlogPaws conference in April. This review, therefore, might be tinged with affection for a smart and funny lady with an adorable dog — or it might not. I was an English major, and when I get a book in one hand and a pencil in the other, I become unrecognizably stern.

Am I Boring My Dog? is a book every dog owner, or wanna-be dog owner, should have. My husband and I stumbled through the process of finding our spaniel Chloe, bringing her home, finding food she’d tolerate, training (and house-training) her, and learning to spend our days together. It was fun, nearly always, but it wasn’t pretty. I’d bought some books that stood us in good stead (the Idiot’s Guide to Positive Dog Training, and the entire Patricia McConnell oeuvre), but I didn’t see this one. That’s a pity, because Jarolim steps you through the trickiest bits of dog ownership with precision but also with humor and understanding.

The book is organized as 100 questions-and-answers, grouped into sensible categories (starting with “So you think you want a dog” and ending with “Loose ends — and endings”). It’s short — under 250 pages — and can be read during a long plane flight or over the course of a few evenings. It is, however, remarkably thorough. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year and a half traveling with Chloe and writing about dog travel, so I paid particular attention to Chapter 8 (“Fun and games on the road”). I was truly impressed with the amount of information Jarolim packed in to the chapter, and the good sense of her answers to the questions we all have about vacationing with our dog (and about identifying a reliable caregiver for our dog, when she just can’t travel with us).

I also loved how Jarolim presents even the most tedious and painful dog-care issues with humor and wisdom. She has a deft hand with puns, and a down-to-earth sense of what’s appropriate and what’s ridiculous that leavens even the heaviest dough (like getting health insurance for your dog, or learning how to brush your dog’s teeth — or ensuring that your dog is cared for in the event of your incapacitation or death).

My only complaint is trivial, but since I am a stern critic I’ll say it: I wish this book had a different cover. I love the cartoon of the bored dog, and the book titles are a hoot, but they’d be better suited to a book of knock-knock jokes than to what Jarolim has written — a really useful, sensible, and intelligently funny guide to dog ownership.

Amazon link:
Am I Boring My Dog: And 99 Other Things Every Dog Wishes You Knew

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

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!

Photo Friday: A dog jaunt on Stockholm’s historic tram

This week’s photo was taken almost three years ago from Stockholm’s Strandvägen, an elegant waterfront street stretching from Nybroplan to the English Church and the embassy quarter. What a gorgeous boat! No wonder the dog on deck is keeping a watchful eye on the photographer.

Walk along Strandvägen, or take the historic tram (No. 7 Djurgården line) to Djurgården, the island home of a wonderful collection of museums, parks and historic buildings. Pet dogs are allowed on Stockholm’s buses, trains and trams if they are leashed or in a carrier. The customer service rep I corresponded with told me that on modern trams, there is a symbol on each door telling you if pet dogs are allowed in that part of the tram (a dog x-ed out with a red line means that pet dogs are not allowed in that car). On the historic trams, which are smaller, an allergic passenger may require you to wait for the next tram (if the tram has more than one car, change cars).

Get off soon after you cross the Djurgårdsbron bridge, just past the huge Nordic Museum, and walk up Rosendalsvågen to the Ulla Winbladh restaurant. Dogs are not allowed inside, but they may sit with you while you eat at the outdoor patio. Stockholm is full of marvelous restaurants, but Walter and I returned to Ulla Winbladh again and again for delicious food in comfortable, lovely surroundings.

Photo by Let Ideas Compete

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

  1. Every Friday, I’ll put up a post like this one, sometime during the morning (Pacific time).
  2. 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.
  3. If you don’t have a blog or a website, simply post your photo to Flickr (or Facebook, Twitpic, etc.).
  4. 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!).

Pet2O water bottle adapter: A possible Gulpy alternative

Graphic by Pet2O

It has become strangely difficult to find the Gulpy dog water bottles I’ve praised in a number of past posts, so when I saw the Pet2O clip-on dog waterer, I snapped it up. What a clever idea, I thought — just sell the flip-down part of a dog water bottle, and structure it so that it attaches to any disposable water bottle with a squeeze top.

It is a clever idea, but I can’t love the product. When it’s not being used as a bowl, the lid hugs the water bottle; in its working position, the lid hangs below the water bottle spout and collects water for your dog to drink. All well and good — great, in fact — but the lid doesn’t easily flip from one position to the other. Instead, you have to pull the lid out of one location on the neck adapter and fit it into another location, each time inserting two plastic tabs at the top of the lid into corresponding slots in the adapter. It’s awkward, requires a bit of muscle, and repeatedly puts a good deal of pressure on two small plastic tabs.

On the bright side, it’s lightweight, inexpensive, and it does deliver water to your dog in a shallow bowl that Chloe is comfortable drinking out of. The bowl is held far away from the spout of the squeeze bottle, so there is no chance that backwash will contaminate the mouth of the squeeze bottle (which means that you too can drink out of the bottle).

Amazon link:
Pet2O Clip-On Water Dish

Another great travel toy: PurrfectPlay.com’s felted toy balls

Almost a year ago, I reported that Chloe was enjoying her new felted wool ball — and that it was a perfect travel toy, because it won’t harm hotel walls and doesn’t make noise when it bounces and ricochets. More recently, I told you that my love was fading, because Chloe had learned to settle down with her felt ball toys and chew off bits of the wool she’d managed to tease off the surface.

Then I went to the BlogPaws pet bloggers’ conference and met the owner of PurrfectPlay.com (Pam Wheelock, who describes herself as “head honcho, cat soother & dog walker”). I’d mentioned PurrfectPlay.com’s felted balls in my first post, because it was the only felted toy ball I could find on line, but I’d never given a PurrfectPlay.com ball to Chloe. We’d been buying felt balls made by A Cheerful Pet, which are carried in our local high-end pet shops.

I told Pam that Chloe loved her felt balls, but I’d retired them from play because she was ingesting too much felt. She handed me a PurrfectPlay.com ball, refused my cash, and told me to try it out on Chloe.

Photo by PurrfectPlay.com

I’m not a felting expert, so all I can tell you from personal experience is that the felt balls sold by A Cheerful Pet are engagingly colorful (PurrfectPlay.com uses dye-free wool, which has a brown-to-beige appeal of its own) and they’re a bit squishier than the PurrfectPlay.com balls. The stiffness and solidity of the PurrfectPlay.com balls make all the difference: No matter how hard she’s tried, Chloe has not been able to pull any of the ball’s wool off its surface to chew. (Should she succeed, the ball comes with a cotton cover and instructions telling you how to use it and your washing machine/dryer to restore the ball to smoothness.)

Even though it’s heavier and less squishy than A Cheerful Pet’s product, the PurrfectPlay.com felt ball is still soft enough to be quiet and safe for walls and furniture. And Chloe loves it. It’s the one toy that she’s deeply reluctant to drop, even in the face of top-quality treats. She’s a fairly big small dog (about the size of a Jack Russell Terrier or a Boston Terrier), and she’s happy with a 2″ diameter ball.

Finding dog-friendly B&Bs in the U.S. and abroad: Three more resources

Last September I told you about Bed & Breakfast Inns Online, a database of B&Bs in the U.S. that you can search for pet-friendly properties. Since then, I’ve come across three other sites you should know about:

California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns (www.cabbi.com) — This site focuses (surprise!) on B&Bs in California. To identify dog-friendly inns, click on “Advanced Search” in the orange square. Select the region you’re interested in (and the city, if you have one in mind) and then click on “Facilities.” A list of options will appear; check “Pets Allowed” and then click the “Search” button.

Pamela Lanier’s Bed & Breakfast Inns (www.lanierbb.com) — Use this site to find B&Bs in the U.S. and around the world. In the menu bar at the top of the page, click on “Search.” On the next page, click on “Search by Amenity” (in the right-hand column). Choose your destination, scroll down and check the box next to “Pet Friendly,” then scroll back up and click on the blue arrow to the right of your destination name.

BedandBreakfast.com (www.bedandbreakfast.com) — This site too collects B&Bs from around the world. At the top of the home page, you’ll see six orange tabs. Hover over “Search” and click on the menu item “Detailed Search.” Check the circle next to “Pets Welcome,” choose your search area, and click on the blue “Go” button.