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

I have a huge number of dog travel links to tell you about this week, so I’ll plunge in and hope that order emerges from the chaos:

It’s warming up in Seattle, but if you’re still shivering in New York, NYDailyNews.com has an article you’ll want to see about indoor dog-friendly activities in the city, including indoor play groups, classes, and lounges — and even an indoor dog-friendly pool! Alternatively, you could travel across the world to Australia’s Sunshine Coast — check out this report, with tons of great pictures, from Honey the Great Dane about Honey’s day on a dog-friendly beach and at dog-friendly places in Mooloolaba (north of Brisbane).

Down the U.S.’s East Coast, in Easton, MD, you’ll find dog-friendly graciousness at The Tidewater Inn — check out this intriguing report from The Chestertown Spy. And nope, I have no idea what an olfactory data transfer is.

While we’re on the topic of dog-friendly hotels, check out this useful overview from Paw Nation of the ten “most easily found pet-friendly hotels in America.”

Liberty Mutual’s website/blog, called The Responsibility Project and focused on what “responsibility” means, asked this week whether it’s “irresponsible to bring your cat, dog, bird or rabbit along in the cabin of an airplane when you travel?” This question typically yields a lot of comments from people who loathe the idea. Surprisingly, the responses here are uniformly pro-pet.

In a similar vein, Go Pet Friendly posted an inspiring piece describing a proposed pet travel code of conduct. No question about it — if dog owners followed these guidelines, a lot of the negativity dog owners sometimes encounter when traveling (or making plans for travel) would…just…disappear.

Speaking of making plans to travel, PetRelocation.com posted an important article describing changes to the National Veterinary Accreditation Program (NVAP) that will affect your ability to get a proper health certificate for your pet. Check with your vet and make sure that they are updating their accreditation!

And here’s how the other half does it: The Daily Echo reports that David Beckham paid PetAir U.K. some £2000 to have his new pet bulldog flown from London to Los Angeles, and that before departure the lucky pup was cared for by gourmet chef and family friend Gordon Ramsay. AZCentral.com, not to be outdone, reports that the Ramsays fed the dog “Aberdeen Angus mincemeat with Lincolnshire sausage.”

The last link knocked me sideways — how times have changed! Stetson University, about 35 miles from Orlando, is about to open its first pet-friendly dormitory this fall. Under the new policy, 36 students will be able to live with the (non-exotic) pet of their choice under 30 lbs. Why? According to the WESH.com article, “studies prove students with pets are more likely to keep higher GPAs.”

Photo Friday: Dog travel photos wanted!

This week’s photo is one of mine, taken shortly after we installed Chloe’s Snoozer car seat in the back of my station wagon. The picture says it all — the dog just loves road trips.

Please send me links to your favorite dog travel photos! They’ll get listed below, for everyone to click on and enjoy. 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.

Taking a dog in-cabin to Hawaii: Not on WestJet

[8/15/11 I’m thrilled to report that this post, and its two companion posts, are now out of date. I’ve just learned that Alaska Airlines isnow allowing small dogs and cats to travel in-cabin to Hawaii, as of today’s date.]

A few days ago I wrote a post about flying with an in-cabin dog to Hawaii — nearly impossible, I said, but I had found a couple of airlines that would allow it. Alas, one of those airlines, WestJet, has just written to me saying that the information their customer service representative gave me was incorrect. In fact, WestJet does not allow pets to travel in-cabin or as checked baggage to Hawaii.

The correct information is provided on WestJet’s web site, but finding pet info on airline sites is tricky, and I never found WestJet’s. I’m so sorry, travelers.

Now, of course, I’m worried that the Korean Air representative I spoke to also gave me the wrong information, so I’ve asked again, this time by e-mail, and I’ll let you know what I learn. Korean Air’s pet policy says nothing about traveling to Hawaii, so I remain hopeful.

Winner of the Outward Hound “Backpack Pet Carrier” giveaway

Thanks so much to everyone who entered Dog Jaunt’s giveaway for an Outward Hound Backpack Pet Carrier, and thank you to The Kyjen Company for sponsoring it!

Photo by The Kyjen Company

The randomly-selected winner is Jen, who recommends Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lodge in Minneapolis, MN. Here’s why:

It’s a tiki-themed, very kitschy, very fun bar in NE Minneapolis. Their patio is dog-friendly. There’s nothing quite like being able to relax and sip a beverage out of a tiki mug on a beautiful patio with great music playing in the background while the servers bring out dishes of water and lots of attention for the four-legged patrons.

Jen, please email me your mailing address, and I’ll send you your prize! My address is at the bottom of Dog Jaunt’s “About” page.

Didn’t win this time? I have another great giveaway starting soon. Be sure to check back — or click on the “subscribe” link at the top of the sidebar, so that you don’t miss a thing.

WalkyBasket: Biking with your small dog

It’s probably too soon to be thinking about spring, but yesterday was a truly glorious day in Seattle — one that called out for a bike and, yes, a small dog. Last spring, I wrote a post about several bike carriers (and, alternatively, carrying your dog in a backpack carrier). One of the most intriguing carriers I found was the WalkyBasket, but I couldn’t find a supplier that would send one to the U.S. Now it’s available (I bought ours from Canine Concepts), and here’s what I think.

Photo by Bice

The WalkyBasket is, relatively speaking, a large carrier (15.7Lx13Wx10H). That’s good news for me, because Chloe’s a big small dog. The carrier is made of a sturdy PVC fabric, and it’s nicely put together. It has several outer pockets, two of which will be occupied with the optional zip-in mesh top and the rain cover. Still, you’ll have room in the others for a water bottle and some treats and a leash. There is a tether to attach to your dog’s harness, and the bottom of the carrier is lightly-padded and removable for cleaning.

The zip-in mesh top is presumably meant to keep your dog contained, but it’s very lightweight. The tether is a more reliable restraint. The rain cover, by contrast, is very sturdy — if it covers the carrier completely, it’s hard to see where your dog’s air would come from. Happily, you can adjust it so it leaves a section of the top open, like pushing a shower cap to one side of your head (consider carrying a couple of clothespins or binder clips to ensure that the cover stays on the carrier and doesn’t get popped off by its elastic).

The WalkyBasket would, I think, be a good choice for someone who wants to travel somewhere else and then go biking. The sides of the carrier are unstructured, so the carrier collapses into a packable oval about 2″ deep. It comes with a shoulder strap, and once the carrier is unhooked from the bike, it functions well as an over-the-shoulder carrier. It mounts to a bicycle with a KLICKfix handlebar adapter, which is pretty easy to install (remember to bring a Phillips-head screwdriver with you). Please note that KLICKfix also makes an extender that attaches to your seat post; I prefer to have my dog in front of me on a bike, but the extender might be a good option if you need to carry two dogs.

H2O4K9: A fling with a water bottle

In one of my earliest posts on Dog Jaunt, I praised the Gulpy dog water bottle as a simple product that does its job really well. It does, but, you know, nothing is perfect, and when I caught sight of H2O4K9’s exciting new dog water bottle I lost my head and ordered one. For one thing, I really love dog gear I have a clear duty to my readers to report on new products. And the Gulpy does have a flaw, which is that its bottom is rounded, so you can’t actually rest it upright on a flat surface. (The bewitching H2O4K9 bottle has a flat bottom.)

Photo by H2O4K9

What else? The new bottle comes in this amazing “Tree Frog Green” color, which I defy anybody to resist (it comes in five other colors as well). Unlike the Gulpy, it’s made of stainless steel and it has a wide mouth, so you can put ice in the bottle on hot days and it’s easier to clean. It comes attached to a sturdy carabiner, while the Gulpy only has a plastic clip that slides onto your waistband. Also unlike the Gulpy, it’s a costly little item — currently just shy of $19 on Amazon.

I liked its pretty face, I’ll just admit it, and the flat bottom is a nice feature. On balance, however, I’m happier with our Gulpy bottles. They’re lighter, I never do put ice in a water bottle, and the flip-down lid/bowl is much more convenient than the H2O4K9 lid, which must be unscrewed and held in a second hand while water is poured in from the bottle. The final blow? The sides of the H2O4K9 lid are high enough that Chloe finds it daunting to stick her head between them to drink — but she laps happily out of the Gulpy’s shallow bowl.

Amazon link:
H2O4K9 Water Bottle for Dogs

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

Photo by www.dogmt.com

It’s been a sad week for so many people, not least the family and friends of dog lover and acclaimed artist Stephen Huneck. Here’s an article from ohmidog! about Huneck, describing his most famous creation, Vermont’s Dog Chapel, his artwork, and his lifelong devotion to dogs.

One way to celebrate his life is to savor the kinds of dog-friendly opportunities that are available now but weren’t just a few years ago. Here’s one: Writing a guest post for GoPetFriendly, Leila Peverett of And A Small Dog describes the very dog-friendly TradeWinds Island Grand Resort in St. Pete Beach, FL. And here’s another: In a throwaway line about visiting Sutter Creek-area wineries, a post by The Wineries of California references the “mega-dog friendly Drytown Cellars.” The winery is in the heart of Amador County, CA, and its wines are getting some nice awards.

I look forward to traveling to the U.K. with Chloe, but it’s not yet on the cards. Until I come to grips with the PETS scheme, other people’s experiences will have to do — and here’s a good report from American Gal’s Survival Guide to Life in England about bringing her dog George from Los Angeles to Heathrow.

But say you can’t bring your dog with you — take a look at this short video from Peter Greenberg Worldwide about borrowing a dog for hikes or companionship from some hotels and from dog shelters in the locations you’re visiting.

Photo Friday: Dog travel photos wanted!

Dog Jaunt’s giveaway of an Outward Hound backpack carrier is still underway, so I have backpacks on my mind. This week’s photo charms me, not only because the guy loves his dog enough to bring him biking, but also because the dog is wearing Doggles dog goggles (love ’em!), AND also because the owner has kluged up a regular backpack with carabiners and a short strap (look closely) to create a tether-like restraint that passes through his dog’s harness. Ingenious! But wouldn’t a backpack designed to carry a dog be easier?

Photo by MoBikeFed

Please send me links to your favorite dog travel photos! 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.

Taking a dog in-cabin to Hawaii

Playing fetch with a coconut (Photo by grenade)

[8/15/11 I’m thrilled to report that this post, and the two posts that followed it, are now out of date. I’ve just learned that Alaska Airlines is now allowing small dogs and cats to travel in-cabin to Hawaii, as of today’s date.]

Impossible, you say! Well, just about — but I think I have three options for you. A couple of days ago a Dog Jaunt reader posted a comment asking for help with her move to Hawaii — she’d worked out all the complicated vaccination and paperwork requirements, but dreaded putting her dog in the cargo hold, especially given the extreme difference in temperature between Denver and Honolulu.

I hadn’t dug deeply into the issue, since Hawaii, for me, is the home of some really enormous tropical bugs. Now I have, and here’s what I’ve learned. According to Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture website, the state has no problem with dogs arriving as in-cabin passengers:

The Department of Agriculture does not have any regulation regarding where pets fly within the aircraft. It is totally up to each airline’s policy. The airline is required by law to bring all incoming animals directly from the plane to the Airport Animal Quarantine Holding Facility.

That’s a hassle for the airlines, and nearly all of them have responded by banning dogs from in-cabin travel to Hawaii. Twenty-four airlines currently fly into Honolulu, the location of Hawaii’s quarantine facilities (if you’re flying to Hawaii with a dog, you need to fly into HNL). Two airlines are charter-only, four are only inter-island, and sixteen either forbid all pet dogs (Alaska), carry them only as cargo (Air Canada, Continental) or do not allow them in-cabin (Hawaiian, American, Delta, Northwest, United, U.S. Airways, Air New Zealand, Air Pacific, ANA, China Airlines, JAL, JetStar, Philippine Airlines, Qantas).

That leaves only two airlines: WestJet and Korean Air. When I spoke to customer service representatives from each airline this morning, I was told that both allow dogs to travel in-cabin to Honolulu. I asked a couple of times, because I just couldn’t believe it, and even after they double-checked the answer was still the same. So here’s the deal: You can take a direct flight from Vancouver, B.C. to Honolulu via WestJet, or you can take a direct flight from Incheon to Honolulu via Korean Air. For U.S. residents, flying to Vancouver is obviously easier than flying to South Korea, but I thought you should know about both choices. (Please note that I asked only about direct flights. Korean Air only flies to Honolulu from Incheon, but WestJet has other flights that ultimately end up in Honolulu.)

Another choice — the last one I know about — is to join a private travel club like Dogtravel Company, which organizes pet-friendly charters around the world. I know nothing about the service beyond what I’ve read on its website, so I don’t have a review to offer you. It’s an intriguing idea, though.

Be sure, of course, to double- and triple-check the WestJet and Korean Air options before you book. If you do take a dog in-cabin to Hawaii, please write and tell me about your experience — and if you know of another way to travel there with an in-cabin dog, please let me know!

[A few days after this was posted, a WestJet representative wrote to me and told me that their agent had misinformed me, and that WestJet does not allow pets to travel to Hawaii either in-cabin or as checked baggage.]

Mango Dog Park: Tampa area off-leash dog park

Visiting my in-laws recently in Brandon, a suburb of Tampa, Chloe and I were both happy to discover an excellent dog park in the nearby suburb of Seffner-Mango. I particularly liked it, of course, because it has an enormous small ‘n’ shy area, but it has many other positives to tell you about. It’s very large — 5 acres in total — and it’s thoroughly fenced and gated. The small dog area has its own pavilion for shade, as well as a number of grown trees. There are multiple water fountains and a kiddy pool for the dogs to splash in. Poop bags are provided, as are trashcans.

The dogs who visited while we were there (and we went a couple of times) were good-natured, as were their owners. Chloe will always love the San Juan Island dog park best in the world, but the Mango Dog Park is a real contender.

Mango Dog Park
11717 Clay Pit Road
Seffner, FL 33584
Open 8 am to 8 pm