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Good dog treats that pack well

Photo by FootAJ

It occurred to me this morning, as I was looking through Chloe’s pantry for treats that would work well on a walk, that we have a wide variety of treats but only some of them pack well. Chloe loves Etta Says! meaty treats, PureBites freeze-dried treats and Stella & Chewy’s Carnivore Crunch treats, for example, but none of them breaks into smaller pieces well (they crumble instead) — and for the same reason, they don’t travel well. She also loves New Zealand Real Meat jerkey treats and Wellness Pure Rewards jerky treats, but they’re borderline — they break apart into small-dog-sized bites, which is great, but they’re a bit fragile for packing.

When I’m packing treats for Chloe, I reach for Merrick lamb lung filet squares (be sure to get the flat filets, not the lamb puffs, because they can easily be broken apart into small bits). I also reach for Zuke’s Mini Naturals (which are really a bit too big for Chloe, but can be broken in half with your fingernail) and Zuke’s Z-Filets, which are excellent. Finally, I always pack some flavor of Buddy Biscuits (the Soft & Chewy ones, though Chloe also likes the crunchy Itty Bitty Buddy Biscuits).

Have I missed your dog’s favorite treat? Let me know — no doubt Chloe will want to check them out!

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

There’s something for everyone in this week’s Chloe’s Clicks! Let’s start with dog-friendly dining. ZooToo posted a cheerful report about an increase in the number of communities that allow restaurants to welcome dogs to outdoor patios (including Newport, RI and Panama Beach City, FL). Across the country, downtown Santa Cruz business owners are considering a repeal of the current dog ban, in an effort to reap the same benefits that downtown Carmel and Los Gatos merchants are enjoying. The vote is due on Tuesday, March 16th — fingers crossed!

A couple of links highlight dog-friendly spots in New York City: Glenwood, a real estate site, posted an article with some useful links to NYC dog resources, and offManhattan tracked down five excellent dog bakeries in Brooklyn.

Here’s the kind of link we love to see: Brampton Inn, about an hour from Annapolis, MD, posted an entry in the inn’s blog that describes its pet-friendly cottage as well as some local pet-friendly trails and attractions. As a bonus, it includes a recipe for Cheesey Dog Biscuits.

Speaking of local pet-friendly attractions, Avenue K9 posted its list of the top ten dog parks in North America. Unlike some top-ten lists I’ve seen, this one highlights parks sprinkled around the U.S., and includes one in Ontario. I was happy to see Seattle’s Magnuson Park, one of Chloe’s hangouts, on the list.

Still speaking of local pet-friendly attractions, I’m happy to report that Rod and Amy Burkert, our friends at Go Pet Friendly, received their specially-wrapped Winnebago and have set off on the first of many trips to investigate and report dog-friendly locations and activities around the country. Keep an eye on their travels through their blog Take Paws — and check out the fabulous new vehicle!

And speaking of the Burkerts’ blog, take a look at Take Paws‘ new series of guest posts from Dog Spelled Forward‘s Eric Goebelbecker about training dogs to be good travelers. The series starts with a post describing how to capture your dog’s attention (don’t miss the video and the handout).

Photo Friday: Dog travel photos wanted!

This week’s photo was taken last October in Amsterdam’s Oosterdok area, and I just love it. I don’t know for sure, but it looks to me like this dog is living on a houseboat — which prompted me to look for Oosterdok houseboats you can rent. Here’s one: The M.S. Atalanta has recently been redecorated and looks absolutely charming. I wrote to the owners, Brad and Marieke, and they told me that they welcome house-trained dogs on board. How soon can I get there?!

Photo by ricardo-pereira

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. Enter a link to your photo or your blog post in the form at the bottom of this post. That way, Dog Jaunt will link back to you. Please include a few words in the “Link Title” box describing where you took the photo.

Sarasota, FL dog-friendly hotel: Hotel Indigo

We visited Sarasota, FL last week for a marathon opera weekend. No, Chloe is not an opera fan — but neither is my husband, so they cocooned together at the Hotel Indigo Sarasota, one in a chain of boutique hotels sprinkled around the country (with some outliers in Shanghai, London, Costa Rica and Mexico). It’s located only a couple of minutes away from the Opera House, and it’s a delightful place, so all three of us were happy. I should mention that we paid our own way at the Hotel Indigo — I’ll always let you know when something I’m reviewing has been paid for by someone else.

Dog’s-eye view: This is not a hotel that makes a big fuss about dog guests — no doggy welcome basket here — but the receptionist came out from behind the desk to collect kisses and distribute pats, and the staff generally beamed on Chloe. There are a couple of useful patches of grass directly across from the front door, and a large grassy lot just across the driveway, so bathroom breaks were a breeze.

Hotel Indigo Sarasota room

What we liked: It’s a small hotel with a charming personality. The lobby is inviting and friendly, and the rooms are large and well-appointed. The decor in this Hotel Indigo is Nantucket-with-a-twist — cheerful, oversized, white-painted wood furniture, lots of blue-and-white linens, and truly enormous beds. The hotel is located a heartbeat away from the most interesting part of downtown Sarasota, and even though it’s on Tamiami Trail, we had no problem at all with street noise.

What we didn’t like: We slept poorly the first night we were there because the hall door between the first floor rooms (where the management prefers to lodge pet owners) and the lobby slammed loudly. When we spoke to the front desk in the morning, we were moved to the third floor, which was perfectly quiet. All well and good, but we would have been satisfied with a sign on the door asking guests to close it quietly. It was our impression that the sign idea would never be implemented, so when you visit, mention the problem and ask to be given a room on another floor. It will not help to have a room far from the door — ours was nearly at the far end of the hall, and we heard it clearly.

The hotel has a café that serves breakfast, but both the menu and buffet choices were mediocre. The bar, however, was a pleasant place to sit and chat with a drink in the afternoon.

The shower is large and enjoyable, but there is no bathtub — and after an opera double-header, I yearned for a soak. I could have soaked in the hotel’s outdoor hot tub (there is also a small plunge pool of cooler water), but I failed to pack a swimsuit.

Next time? We will happily return to the Hotel Indigo, as long as we are assured a room on an upper floor. Our room was in the $200/night range, and we felt that it was worth the price. Please note that there is a non-refundable one-time $125 pet fee.

Chloe’s car harness: Keeping your small dog safe on a road trip

Chloe in the van

Driving from Sarasota to Tampa this weekend, I realized that although I’ve described my preferred away-from-home car safety set-up for Chloe (a 3-in-1 vest harness plus the strap from a PetBuckle kit), I’ve never given you a picture of it in action. So here’s a picture of Chloe in my father-in-law’s van, just after a very satisfying trip to one of her favorite dog parks. It’s already hot in Florida, so she’s resting on the Zentek pad I bought a while ago. Please note that the strap is long enough to let her lie down comfortably, but short enough to keep her from being slung around the car in an emergency.

The only downside of this set-up is that she can’t quite see out of the window, which she loves to do (at home, our car is equipped with a booster seat). The tidiest collapsible booster seat I’ve found, though, only works on seats you can pass a belly-band around, and you can’t always be sure that the rental car you’re getting will have free-standing back seats. It also takes up more room than I currently have in Chloe’s suitcase, so we settle for the very compact harness-and-strap option.

Which seat works best with an in-cabin dog? [United 757-200]

No room for a dog in First Class

This is only a partial report because you board a 757 (in this case, a -200 series) from the side, and hoi polloi never see First Class. I hope that someday I’ll travel First Class on a United 757 or (more likely) that a kind reader will post the measurements I couldn’t get for you. [10/3/10 My husband recently traveled on a United 757-200 in First Class, and although he didn’t have a tape measure with him, he was confident that no dog, however small, could fit in the First Class under-seat space. He said it was only about 6″ tall.]

The rest of the cabin is divided between Economy Plus (sincerely recommended, as I’ve said before, for the five extra inches of leg room) and Economy. Both have three seats on either side of the aisle. The exception is Row 8, which only has two seats, and only on the right — but it also has a bulkhead, so you can’t sit there with an in-cabin dog anyway. There is also no under-seat space under the left side of Row 9, the first row you encounter as you enter the plane, so that’s not an option either.

The under-seat measurements are the same for both Economy Plus and Economy. On this plane, the clear winner is the middle seat, followed closely by the window seat. Although there’s a place for a life vest, the packets are empty (per the safety video, use your seat cushion), so the under-seat height is a roomy 12 inches. The window seat space is 18.5 inches wide, the middle seat space is a glorious 20 inches wide, and the aisle space is a dire 12.5 inches wide (curse those rails). The depth (measured front to back) is about 17 inches.

[10/20/14 I’m editing this post to add a link to a later post I wrote, including a picture of Chloe’s large SturdiBag in place under a window seat in Economy Plus on a United 757-200, and also to add comments first posted on Dog Jaunt’s Facebook page by reader Heather. She too flew on a United 757-200 with her pup in a large SturdiBag, but her flight was domestic, not international. Heather reports that “there are electrical outlets between all the seats, so there is a big chunk from both aisle and middle seats. A good 5-6 inches is taken up. I think the window is unaffected.” She sat in row 36, in the Economy section, and she sent this picture:

Given the light, it looks like Heather took this picture from the aisle seat, facing towards a port-side window seat — you can see the obstruction under the middle seat, and the fact that the window seat's under seat space is unobstructed.

Given the light, it looks like Heather took this picture from the aisle seat, facing towards a port-side window seat — you can see the obstruction under the middle seat, and it looks like the window seat’s under seat space is unobstructed.

Actually, looking back at my earlier posts, I’m a little bewildered: My photo was from an international flight on a United 757-200 (those yoga pants mean hours in a curled-up position), but my written report was from a domestic flight (no one is sending a plane across the Atlantic with only seat cushions as a flotation option). On both of my flights, the middle seat was workable, though the window seat was also an excellent option. I can well believe that United’s international 757-200s have different under-seat configurations than its domestic version of the same plane, but what explains my measurements from 2010? I suppose it’s not unlikely that things might have changed in four years. Whatever the explanation is, thank you, Heather! And heads-up, Dog Jaunt Nation — on domestic United 757-200 flights, choose a window seat.]

This post is part of an ongoing series recording under-seat measurements of the various planes we fly on. 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: Dog travel links we liked this week

Each week is a roll of the dice, of course, as far as interesting pet-friendly links go — this week is heavy on pet-friendly hotels, in the U.S. and abroad.

NileGuide posted a delicious article about eight luxury dog-friendly hotels around the world, from Crested Butte, Colorado to Rome, Italy. A new (to me) blog called Gotta Visit NYC: My New Yorkie Blog is about Yorkies Schmitty and Pudge and pet-friendly fun things to do in New York City — I found the blog by way of a post reviewing the pet-friendly New Yorker Hotel, near Madison Square Garden.

An unexpected source (the New Haven Railroad Blog) posted an article about pet-friendly places to stay in Ayr, Scotland, and a couple of now-forgotten links led me to the sites for a couple of attractive hotels — one a group of holiday cottages in Cornwall, and the other an apparently rare pet-friendly hotel in Istanbul.

On to posts about dog-friendly getaways! The first is offManhattan‘s post about seven weekend-worthy, pet-friendly hotels within easy reach of New York City. I particularly appreciate the paragraph at the end of each entry describing how to reach the hotel using pet-friendly public and alternative transit. The other link I have for you describes four dog-friendly beaches in Florida.

On the lighter side of pet travel, People Pets posted a delightful collection of pictures of celebrities traveling with their pets — celebrities don’t always follow the rules about keeping pets in carriers inside airports, it turns out, but many of them appear to own carriers, so I call that a win. Hilary Duff and Ashley Greene set the best example.

And finally, even I realize that there are times when you just can’t bring your dog with you. Take a look at a recent post from Will My Dog Hate Me about choosing the best petsitter for your beloved pooch.

Photo Friday: Neptune Beach in Jacksonville, FL

Today’s photo was taken about two years ago, at Neptune Beach in Jacksonville, Florida. Who doesn’t love an English Bulldog? Who can resist two English Bulldogs?? Leashed dogs are allowed on Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. They are allowed on Atlantic Beach anytime.

Photo by DeusXFLorida

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. Enter a link to your photo or your blog post in the form at the bottom of my post. That way, Dog Jaunt will link back to you. Please include a few words in the “Link Title” box describing where you took the photo.

Travel tip: Practice ahead of time with pee pads

Photo by jpcorreacarvalho

In an earlier post, I passed on a tip about surviving a long plane trip with your in-cabin dog: If she starts sending signals that she really, really has to go, carry her to the plane’s bathroom, spread out scented pee pads, and be sure to clean up afterwards. Finally I had to take my own advice — after a six-hour flight, we had only a half hour in Dulles to make our next flight, and there was no possible way to make it out to Dulles’ pet relief area and back. Off Chloe and I went to the handicapped stall. I laid out a couple of scented pee pads, let Chloe out of her carrier, uttered the magic command word, and…nothing. Poor dog had no idea what I was talking about.

Happily, she had sufficient bladder control to last another three hours until we reached Tampa — but the take-home lesson for me is to practice a bit with pee pads (and with the not-so-magic command word) before springing them on her again….

Which seat works best with an in-cabin dog? [United A320]

In case you need a reminder that different airlines configure a plane differently, here’s another A320 to tell you about. We flew on a United A320 today, and on this plane, your best choices with an in-cabin dog are an aisle or middle seat.

The cabin is divided into three classes: First, Economy Plus and Economy. First Class has two seats on each side of the aisle; the rest of the plane has three seats on each side of the aisle. Economy Plus has five more inches of leg room, and if you can, I urge you to choose Economy Plus. Reaching down to pat your dog or give her ice cubes during the flight is way, way more comfortable with the extra space.

There is a bulkhead in front of Row 1, in First Class, and in front of Row 6, in Economy Plus. You can’t have an in-cabin dog if you’re sitting in Row 1, and although there is a big cut-out in the bulkhead in front of Row 6, only service dogs are allowed in that row.

The under-seat space in Economy Plus and Economy is the same in all rows. The seats support a life vest packet, but it’s in a soft package, so it presses up against the seat bottom. That gives you 10 inches of height under all the seats. The aisle seats are 18 inches wide, the middle seats are 19.5 inches wide, and the window seats are 17 inches wide. Measured front to back, the under-seat space is about 17 inches deep.

I only caught a couple of fleeting glimpses of the First Class seats — someone traveling First Class will have to post a comment with measurements! — but the First Class under-seat space is also divided into three sections. The largest, middle section is hopeless — it’s almost entirely occupied by an enormous electronics box. The space closest to the window, however, looked pretty promising. The space closest to the aisle looked very narrow. If you plan to travel First Class with an in-cabin dog on a United A320, go for a window seat.

This post is part of an ongoing series recording under-seat measurements of the various planes we fly on. 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).