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Great places for dogs and their humans

Dog Jaunt recently gave away three great Outward Hound pet carriers in giveaways that asked entrants to tell me about their favorite dog-friendly place. I loved the winners’ recommendations, but I also loved the suggestions that other entrants posted. It would be a shame to let them go to waste, so here are the ones that grabbed me, in no order at all:

“Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina [Berkeley, CA] has got to be the best dog park ever. It has a 360º view of water, rolling hills, and tons of room. Ruby and I adore it!”

“My favorite dog-friendly place is Woodside Intermediate School in Cromwell, CT, with its huge, grassy campus and driveway — all the dog people in the neighborhood walk their dogs there on weekends because they don’t have to worry about cars or other hazards. It’s my toy poodle, Jack’s, favorite place for a walk.”

“Sellwood Riverfront Park in Portland, OR: Open 5:00 am to midnight, large areas to let your dogs run off leash and an area where they can swim.”

“My favorite place with my dog – The Philadelphia Java Cafe (you know…the one from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Not only is it dog friendly, but they have little treats to hand out to the pups while you wait in line. Plus, great coffee and food. What more could you want???”

“Frankie and I love to walk along the Rillito River Park in Tucson. The river’s been dry for a long, long time and the park isn’t all that leafy, but the backdrop of the Santa Catalina Mountains is spectacular, and you share the trail with horses, bicyclists, bunnies — and, yes, the occasional coyote (which is why Frankie stays on his leash).”

“Great coffee shop in Carefree, AZ named Black Mountain Coffee Shop. Great food and very pet friendly which is great to enjoy because there are not many places around this area like that. Now I can have lunch dates with my puppy :-)”

“Bastrop Bark Park in Bastrop, Texas. It a great place to meet new friends both two legged and four legged. It has a side for big dogs and a side for the little one. They meet every Sunday at 11 for doggie play.”

“My favorite dog-friendly hotel is Loews in Philadelphia. When you check in, your dog is given a treat. They have a special menu for dogs. They hire dog walkers and pet sitters so someone can keep your dog company while you are at a museum or other place that isn’t pet-friendly. Loews’ employees also gives you maps of nearby dog parks and a list of pet-friendly businesses.”

“Not necessarily our fave – but certainly one of the cooler things GoPetFriendly has done with Ty and Buster. Carriage rides in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago are pet friendly!”

“Our favorite activity is to go paddle boating on Post Dispatch Lake in St. Louis, and then have a little lunch with the doggies at the Boathouse Restaurant. Great fun.”

Long Beach, CA dog-friendly hotel: Renaissance Long Beach

February means the TED conference for us, so off we went again to Long Beach. Last year we stayed at the Hilton Long Beach, which was pleasant, but this year we opted to be a little closer to the convention center and stayed at the Renaissance Long Beach. It’s not a dazzler, but it was comfortable — and the staff could not have been kinder. I should mention that we paid our own way at the Renaissance — I’ll always let you know when something I’m reviewing has been paid for by someone else.

Dog’s-eye view: Some hotels have snazzy dog packages that you get when you check in or first arrive at your room. The Renaissance is not one of those hotels. However, when I mentioned that we were traveling with raw food that needed to be kept cold, the hotel promptly sent a little fridge up to our room. The staff who saw Chloe most (the concierge and the valets) learned her name (and mine) almost instantly, and cooed over her in a heart-warming way.

There is a tiny patch of grass just outside the hotel on Ocean Boulevard, and there’s a very useful park/lawn just a short block to the east, so bathroom breaks were no problem even after dark.

Chloe and the view

What we liked: As I’ve already mentioned, the staff was very friendly. The room was a typical, pleasant, high-end chain hotel room. Ours had a fine view (here’s a picture of Chloe enjoying the view) and I’m always a sucker for Aveda bath products. The shower head was very good. The room service food, which is pretty much all I ate, was really excellent, with one exception (see below). I can highly recommend the Cobb Salad (they’ll swap feta cheese for the blue cheese), the hummus and pita, and the Eggs Benedict.

What we didn’t like: They charged $12.95 a day for wireless access, which I think is criminal. A hotel like this should offer free wireless. The bathtub was too small for a soak. And the breakfast potatoes were dire. In general, I would avoid the room service breakfast during peak breakfast hours. Hold off, if you can, until the rush settles down, and never get the breakfast potatoes.

Next time? We’ve already made plans to stay there next February, though I should add that the Westin Long Beach, a couple of blocks away from the Renaissance and directly across the street from the convention center, is also pet-friendly.

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

We returned to Seattle on a JetBlue Airbus 320, so once again I crawled around under my row of seats with a tape measure, and here are the results. 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).

JetBlue A320

An A320 is a good-sized plane, comparable in size to a Boeing 737 and holding about 150 passengers. JetBlue’s A320s have three seats on each side of the aisle. There is a bulkhead in front of the first row of seats, so you can’t sit there or in the exit rows. There is only one class of seats, so the following measurements apply to all of the rows.

Your best choices are the aisle seat or the window seat.  The middle seat has boxes for electronics on the top and on one side, leaving an available space of only 8″ tall and 16.5″ wide. By contrast, the aisle seat space measures about 9″ tall and 19″ wide, and the window seat space measures about 9″ tall and 17″ wide. All three under-seat spaces are about 17″ deep (that is, measured from front to back). [2/28/11 Perhaps there are different A320 configurations in the JetBlue fleet? Today we flew on a JetBlue A320, and although the result is still the same (choose an aisle first, window second, and there is no third), the measurements were slightly different. On this plane, the aisle under-seat space was 10″ tall and 19″ wide and the middle under-seat space was 7.5″ tall and 19.75″ wide. I couldn’t measure the window under-seat space, because my seat mate was already in place.]

However, consider stowing your carrier front-to-back, not side-to-side. I’m writing this note on 8/14/11, just after a recent couple of flights on JetBlue, in an A320. I chose an aisle seat, but because I wanted to pat Chloe during take-off and landing, I stowed her bag front-to-back (instead of my usual left-to-right). As you can see from the picture below, it didn’t stick out too badly (I was helped by the fact that my seat mate had a truly enormous pet carrier, so mine looked petite by comparison). I like having the option of stowing Chloe’s bag correctly, if a flight attendant makes a fuss, but given how well this worked, I might consider a middle seat next time. It would be nice to sit next to my husband on these flights, instead of across the aisle.

We chose the extra legroom option on these flights, so that’s why you can only see my feet, not my entire lap.

Dog-friendly hotels near Madison Square Garden

I was scrolling through The Westminster Kennel Club 2010 judging program to find out when the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are going to be on tonight, and noticed on pages 12-14 of the program a list of dog-friendly hotels (of course!) near Madison Square Garden. Here’s the program (pdf) — please note that the dog-friendly hotels are listed first, followed by hotels that are not dog-friendly (Affinia Dumont is the last listed dog-friendly hotel).

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

I’m happy to report that this week a favorite blogger posted an article about a favorite city. Travelling Pets is a Canadian couple traveling in Europe with their Miniature Schnauzer — I love their posts, and I love Stockholm, so an article from them about dog-friendly Stockholm gets my vote.

I write a lot about flying with small dogs, but you can get your dog to Europe on a cruise ship if you’re willing to hock the house and book a passage on the Queen Mary 2. In an earlier post, I highlighted a blog written by a woman who took the QM2 with her Schnauzer named Pepper, and it had some good info about the QM2 kennel, but check out this post from Cunard for even more information (it too refers to Nikki Moustaki’s blog).

On this side of the pond, I have two options for you. Heather Davis of Her Nashville wrote a fun post about a doggy Valentine’s Day in Nashville, TN and environs, and Petswelcome.com wrote about dog-friendly parks and restaurants in Columbia, SC.

If you find yourself in a pet-friendly hotel, you’ll want to take a look at a two-part article from Go Pet Friendly‘s blog Take Paws. Part 1 summarizes a collection of comments people posted about the idea of pet-friendly hotels, and Part 2 sets out Take Paws‘ responses and suggestions. Here again, the big point is that people can vote with their feet — if you have pet allergies or just dislike the idea of a pet-friendly hotel, you have a world of other choices — and that pet owners must (absolutely must!) train and exercise their dogs so that they are able to be excellent hotel guests.

This last link makes me want to go to NYC right now: The New York Times published a delightful article about Xoom, a smoothie shop in the East Village that offers a “paw shake” to its customers’ four-legged companions. The picture alone, of a very happy pit bull named Henry Hudson, is worth the click!

Photo Friday: Laguna Beach, CA

Today’s photo is one I took just a couple of days ago at Laguna Beach’s main beach boardwalk, next to the adorable vintage lifeguard stand. It turns out that gulls won’t stand still to be caught, so Chloe’s puffed (but happy!). Leashed dogs are allowed on Laguna Main Beach at any time during the off-season (Sept. 16 to May 31); during the summer, they’re allowed on the beach only before 8 am or after 6 pm.

Chloe and hubs on Laguna Main Beach

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.
  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.

Off-leash dog parks in Long Beach and Costa Mesa

We spent a few days in Irvine with friends who are U.C. Irvine faculty members, and were spoiled rotten by the UCI faculty neighborhood dog park three blocks from their house. It was blissful — huge, grassy, equipped with ChuckIt throwers and a water fountain (also a picnic table) — but it was also just for UCI folks who have the magic UCI key.

Boy, did we miss it yesterday. We went to dog parks in Long Beach and Costa Mesa, and here’s our report.

Long Beach (Recreation Park Dog Park)

Small dog area (Long Beach dog park)

This got four paws from The Dog Lover’s Companion to Los Angeles, so we arrived in high spirits. We quickly learned, though, that it’s the big-dog side of the park that deserves the raves. The small-dog area — and at least they had one! no complaints there — is large enough for modest ChuckIt hurls and has a water fountain for the dogs, some chairs and benches, and plenty of shade. Otherwise, it’s a pretty bleak place, and, not to put too fine a point on it, it smells badly. Also, the very fine gravel covering the ground coats a ChuckIt ball, and after a while I started to worry about Chloe’s teeth. Off we went to…

Costa Mesa (TeWinkle Park Dog Run)

Small dog area (Costa Mesa dog park)

This too got four paws from The Dog Lover’s Companion, and this time even the small dog side was a pleasant place. Things we liked: It was thoroughly fenced and gated, there were plenty of trees and benches, it was quite large, and although it is heavily-used, there are still largish patches of grass. We didn’t stay, however, because recent rains had turned the middle of the park into a mud pit. You just couldn’t throw a ball without landing it in a swampy patch, or sending your dog through a swampy patch to get it. The regulars knew this, and were all sitting around the edges with their dogs by them, but we learned the hard way.

Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies

On the bright side, Costa Mesa is home to a branch of Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies, with stores as big as a Petco or a PetSmart, but way, way better. It has all of the healthy, high-end dog and cat food you could want, including several brands of raw food, and plenty of good-quality toys, grooming supplies, carriers, crates and beds. There are thirteen Centinela stores in Southern California, and they’re worth seeking out.

Recreation Park Dog Park
4900 E. 7th St.
Long Beach, CA 90804
(the dog park is on the north side of 7th, next to the park’s maintenance sheds)

TeWinkle Park Dog Run
970 Arlington Dr.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(the dog park is at the corner of Arlington and Newport Blvd.)

Which seat works best with an in-cabin dog? [JetBlue E-190]

I started this series in December 2009, when I wrote a post about the space available under seats in Southwest’s 737 (-700 series) planes. Southwest had published its under-seat dimensions, but I felt that more info would be helpful. Here’s the second in the series, for JetBlue’s Embraer 190 planes.

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).

JetBlue Embraer 190

An Embraer 190 holds about 100 passengers, so it’s a smallish plane. Knowing that, I was worried about using Chloe’s large SturdiProducts carrier, and chose instead to use a new carrier that I’ll be reviewing soon. The new carrier was great, but I shouldn’t have worried. It turns out that the SturdiProducts bag would have worked fine.

There are two seats on each side of the aisle. There is a bulkhead in front of the first row, so you can’t sit there with a dog, nor can you sit in the exit row. The rest of the rows are the same, and they all have a shared underseat space measuring 9″ tall by 37″ wide by about 16″ deep (that is, front to back). The 9″ height is quite fixed in the middle portion of the underseat space, since it’s defined by a metal bracket; for about a foot on each side of the bracket, however, you can squeak in another inch or so.

The SturdiProducts bag has a very flexible top, so it could have bent to fit under the bracket. It will just fit, lengthwise, in your half of the available 37″ width. The bag I was using doesn’t flex as much, height-wise, and it’s 10.5″ tall, so I chose to put it under the seat front-to-back, just to the side of the metal bracket, and that was acceptable.

Shock and electrocution: Leaking voltage is a dog-walking hazard in cities

Photo by fotogail

This is a year-round topic, but it’s particularly relevant in the wintertime, and I feared I had waited too long to write about it. No worries, it turns out — even though spring is on its way on the West Coast, the second major snowstorm in a week is about to engulf the mid-Atlantic states.

Stray voltage is a real but relatively unknown hazard for humans and dogs in urban environments. It’s a problem year-round, but it’s especially worrisome when snowy sidewalks are sprinkled with salt, since slush and salt increase the chances that even normally non-conductive surfaces will carry electric current to your dog’s feet. Unfortunately, it’s one of those problems that sounds too sensational to be believed, and I myself was a bit dubious until I read these articles from Examiner.com (“New Yorkers and dogs risk electrocution on city streets; how to be safe“) and Chicago’s CBS2 (“Victim Describes Electric Shock from City Streets“), among others. Take a look at them and at Street Zaps!, the leading resource for information about leaking street current.

The current comes from poorly-installed or maintained underground cables (and in New York alone, for example, there are over 90,000 miles of underground cables). Escaping current migrates to street level by way of the metal fixtures we’ve all seen, walked on and never thought twice about: service boxes, manhole covers, grates, lampposts, phone booths, and fire hydrants. The most dramatic incidents occur when a male dog urinates on what turns out to be an electrified lamppost or fire hydrant, but humans and dogs alike have been shocked and electrocuted when they walked on — or even near — manhole covers, metal plates, and lampposts that were carrying electrical current.

The kind of shock we’re talking about is strong enough to incapacitate or kill a good-sized dog or a human, much less a dog Chloe’s size. The effects of that kind of voltage on a body are extreme, and descriptions of these incidents are hard to read.

What’s the solution? Neither rubber-soled shoes for humans nor rubber booties for dogs will keep their wearers safe, it turns out. All you can do is be aware of the hazard and avoid walking on or near metal elements. We’ve all seen lampposts with a panel in their base missing and visible wires — that’s a sign that someone has been tampering with the light and it should be avoided. However, even a light that’s functioning properly may be carrying loose voltage. To be safe, do not tie your dog to a lamppost if her collar or leash contain any metal (and they nearly all do), and keep your male dogs from urinating on lampposts, phone booths or fire hydrants.

Nearly all of the articles you read on this topic talk about New York City, but it should be considered a problem in any large city. Street Zaps! is tracking incidents in many cities worldwide, so be alert and aware of your surroundings in any urban environment.

Laguna Beach dog-friendly restaurant: Madison Square Café

We were prepared for rainy and cool, but Southern California shook off its recent weather and presented us with perfection. We celebrated with brunch at Madison Square Café in Laguna Beach, featuring excellent food for humans and the heartiest of welcomes for dogs.

Owner Jon Madison and a devoted fan

You place your order at the counter in front, then walk through the shop area (charming home decor and lots of great patio/garden decorations) to the patio in back. Choose a table in the sun, or shade, or under an umbrella, pour yourself some water and coffee, and wait for your order to arrive. The café is on the Pacific Coast Highway, but you’d never know it — all you hear is the splash of fountains and the clink of forks and knives. And dogs are sincerely welcome — towards the end of our meal, the owner stopped by all of the tables, greeting human visitors and pampering the furry visitors with treats. The picture I took shows one length of the café and the owner being mobbed by a Golden Retriever.

Otherwise, however, the dogs kept a low profile, sacked out at their owners’ feet. The ones who were there when we visited were all well-behaved and interacted nicely with Chloe. In the owner’s opinion, the dogs make it pleasant for everyone, and we think he’s right. This place is a keeper.

Madison Square Café
320 North Coast Highway
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
T: 949-494-0137
Open Weds. to Mon. 8 am to 3 pm