Travel with Dog

I'm traveling this weekend, and because I'm not flying I brought Molly along. She thought getting to sleep in bed with me was VERY cool. She curled up at 10:00 pm and didn't budge until I got up at 6:30 am. I was concerned she would be up and down and might pee on the carpet, which is the reason she sleeps crated at home. Well, that and the fact that Ivan and Ditzy would be very upset at sharing the bed with a canine.

She was a perfect princess at the Eastern States Hedgehog Show. When she was crated under the table, she never made a peep. She didn't bark or whine once during the entire show, and she thought the children were WONDERFUL! She wasn't sure about ferrets, and she thought hedgehogs were very cool. She sat on a chair behind the booth and other than a few out-of-control wigglefests, she was great.

Making her sit on a chair was a great discovery. Wigglefests are limited in scope when the dog only has an 18x18 pad upon which to wiggle, and she didn't try to jump because she had some height advantage. I remembered to bring a tape-roller which was a good thing. I had to do some fur removal from the chair at the end of the day.

If I can keep her out of trouble until she is five or so, she is going to be such a great travel dog!

She loves the outdoors, so camping with her wasn't a concern. After all, there is no problem if she pees in the campsite. I was very worried about the hotel experience, and I needn't have been. She did bark and whine once or twice while left in her crate in the hotel room when I went to the truck, the front desk, and the hotel internet station (since my laptop objected to the hotel wireless). When I arrived at the hotel room door and heard her whining, I told her "no" through the door, and waited outside for at least five minutes to make her her silence was permanent. Then I went in, let her out, praised her, and took her for a walk.

One learning moment was when I realized that she would have to be walked immediately upon waking in the morning. So I'll need to invest in a sweats rather than pjs or a ratty t-shirt to sleep in, because she's not going to be able to wait while I shower and dress, and I'm not going to parade around the outside of the hotel in plaid flannels or oversized conference t-shirts, thank-you-very-much.

There were two other dogs at the conference: a long-haired chihuahua and a pomeranian. Funny to have Molly to be the biggest dog there.