Kim Campbell Thornton - Traveling With Dogs: By Car, Plane And Boat

Karla Austin, Business Operations Manager

Nick Clemente, Special Consultant

Jarelle S. Stein, Editor

Kendra Strey, Assistant Editor

Jill Dupont, Production

Michael Vincent Capozzi, Book Designer

Copyright 2005 by I-5 Press

Illustrations copyright 2005 by Buck Jones

The dogs in this book are referred to as he and she in alternating chapters.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of I-5 Press, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thornton, Kim Campbell.

Traveling with dogs / by Kim Campbell Thornton ; illustrations by Buck Jones.

p. cm. -- (Simple solutions)

ISBN 1-931993-45-9

eISBN: 9781620080788

1. Travel with dogs. I. Title. II. Series: Simple solutions (Irvine, Calif.)

SF427.457T49 2005

636.7'083--dc22

2004025519

I-5 Press

A Division of I-5 Publishing, LLC

3 Burroughs

Irvine, California 92618

Printed and bound in Singapore

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Should You Take Your Dog?

Dogs have been traveling with people for thousands of years. They accompanied them across the Bering land bridge from Asia to the Americas some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago; indeed, without dogs to pull heavy objects and warn of predators, people might not have survived the arduous journey. Later, traders from the Phoenicians onward carried various types of dogs from port to port, exchanging them along the way for other goods. Toy dogs accompanied great ladies wherever they went, and war dogs accompanied the Romans as they marched through Britain some 2,000 years ago.

Today, we still enjoy having our dogs with us when we travel. A dog is a little bit of home in a sterile hotel room, a friend in a sea of strangers, a watchful eye and an alert ear in an unfamiliar place. Having a dog on a trip is a great way to meet new people.

While moving to a new home is a trip that must include the family dog, people are also choosing to take their pets along when they vacation. Today hotels and resorts are more readily welcoming four-footed travelers. Consider taking Bianca on vacation with you if shes healthy, adaptable, well behaved, and enjoys new places and new people.

Dont take your pooch if you cant spend time with her, however. Dont take her on a business trip if youll be tied up in meetings or making sales calls all day. Do take her when the two of you can lounge on a beach, swim in a lake, or explore a new city together.

This book covers the practical planning that goes into taking a dog on a trip, whether its a one-day car ride to a new home, a one-week vacation, or a one-year sojourn overseas. Youll learn how to find dog-friendly accommodations, how to pack for your dog, how to arrange air travel, how to find a veterinarian in a strange city, and proper travel etiquette. Happy trails!

Places To Go, Things To Do

Resourceful pet owners can make almost any trip dog friendly, but certain activities and places have special allure. The great outdoors is always a draw. Whether large or small, active or laidback, most dogs enjoy the scents and sounds found on hiking trails and beaches.

Camping and boating are wonderful activities to share with your dog. Yet cities hold many of the same attractions (on a different level)good things to smell (and eat!), birds to chase, and open spaces (parks) to play in.

Dog-loving entrepreneurs have created camps for dogs and their people and trips designed to allow dogs to participate. At dog camps, you and Buster can try out dog sports such as agility, flyball, herding, and tracking. You can learn animal communication skills and clicker training or study canine nutrition and holistic health care. Buster can learn tricks and acting skills. Dogcentric tours include river rafting in Colorado; houseboating on Lake Powell in Utah; canoeing in Canada; and touring Santa Barbara, Californiaincluding a botanical garden, a beach barbecue, and a ride in a self-powered quadricycle. To be welcome at a camp or on a tour, your pooch needs only a friendly attitude toward other dogs and people.

Dog-friendly cities include San Francisco; New York; Paris; Chicago; Seattle; Toronto; Vancouver; and Washington, D.C. Its easy to see these cities on foot, taking rest stops at cafs with outdoor seating and detours into department stores, such as Macys and Bloomingdales, whose salespeople dont bat an eye at canine customers. When you get tired of walking, hop on the dog-friendly public transportation in some of these cities.

Many European countries have an enlightened attitude toward dogs in public. Youll see dogs in restaurants and shops and on subways and trains in France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Check the rules before you ride; Buster may need to be leashed and sometimes muzzled.

Cities are also great because they have parks. Chicago has eighteen miles of trails along the shores of Lake Michigan. Other favorites include New Yorks Central Park, San Franciscos Crissy Field and Baker Beach, and Vancouvers 1,000-acre Stanley Park. In Washington, D.C., jog with Buster through Rock Creek Park or a walk on the National Mall, stopping at the memorial of dog-loving president Franklin D. Roosevelt. If you and Buster are baseball fans, you can attend one of the annual Dog Days games held by teams in many cities. (Youll need a special ticket.)

Other good areas include Cape Cod and Nantucket in Massachusetts; Carmel, Monterey, Laguna Beach, and Lake Tahoe in California; and Key West, Florida. Each has plenty of dog-friendly lodgings.

Nantucket Airlines and the islands ferry system transport dogs, as do the islands shuttle buses. Leashed dogs can romp at Cape Cod National Seashore; in California, dogs can run off leash at Carmel City Beach. Dogs are everywhere in Laguna, from the boardwalk on Main Beach to the shops and the dining patios of places such as the Ocean Avenue Brewery. Up Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach is the dog-friendly shopping center Fashion Island. Outdoorsy types can take dogs river rafting at Lake Tahoe or on a gondola ride up the mountain at Squaw Valley. Floridas Key West Aquarium permits well-behaved dogs (keep your canine out of the shark tanks).