DOGS AS HOTEL GUESTS, FROM ONE GUEST TO ANOTHER

Posted on September 15, 2025 by BigFootClub

Traveling with dogs can entail a stay at a hotel. There are some things you can do to prepare for taking your dog to a hotel that will make life easier for you and the dog, and ensure that other dog owners are welcomed during travel. Here are some general tips:

1) Be prepared for clean-ups. Take a spray bottle of cleaner, like a mister bottle with a cleaning solution, and paper towels. These can be helpful in the vehicle during trips and in the hotel room for cleaning up messes.

2) Pack your dog’s water and food dishes. If you have a small rug for the dishes, that is a useful way to curtail messes when they are eating or drinking and to reduce noise when you feed on a solid floor. Dogs have a keen sense of smell, and you may need to buy bottled drinking water or spring water during their stay to keep them hydrated.

3) Pack enough of your dog’s food for the full stay. Some foods are not as easy to source on trips.

4) Pack your dog’s medications.

5) Avoid giving unusual treats during travel to reduce the chances of GI distress.

6) After check-in, situate your dog in the room first. Don’t carry armloads, pull luggage and bring your dog in on-leash at the same time. It will be difficult to negotiate getting all through the door at one time without risking injury to the dog. If the dog gets caught in a self-closing door, you may need to see a vet on an emergency basis. Set up its crate first provide water, then take it to the potty area and bring it inside. (and PICK UP ITS POOP so you, your dog and other guests don’t step in it) After your dog is secure in the cooled or heated room, unload your luggage and travel gear. If there is more than one person traveling, one should stay with the dog to reduce the dog’s anxiety about being left in a strange place, so it does not begin barking. The crate will be familiar, so a sheet over the crate may help. Disturbed neighbors may lodge a complaint.

7) Take your dog outside to the relief area frequently enough to avoid accidents inside. For adults, every 3-4 hours may be enough, but for puppies and seniors, more frequent trips will be needed.

8) Always pick up after your dog, and keep bags with you when you walk your dog. It isn’t as easy to find later. This practice is a courtesy to other dog owners, and to you, so people or dogs don’t step in what you leave behind and track it inside.

9) Keep your dog on-leash at all times when you are outside of your room. Dogs can be spooked by noises, can be the target of someone else’s dog that is not on-leash or they can respond to something you don’t notice, like a stray cat, and they may chase in excitement before you can react. Travel can be exciting for dogs too, so the couch potato at home may be more energized than usual. Use a leash that your dog can’t break, and don’t let it go so far to the end of a leash that you could lose control. Pay attention to your dog at all times when on-leash to avoid issues. His cues will let you know when you need to shorten the leash.

10) Keep a travel collar on your dog with identification, the rabies tag and her/his vet clinic. Should your dog break free or get out of your room, this will help anyone who finds him reach you and handle him safely.

11) Should you need to bathe your dog during your stay, there are several DIY services as well as grooming services in well-developed areas. TSC has a $10 bathing station complete with shampoo and conditioner and a dryer in many areas. There are other services, some that charge a flat rate and some that charge per-minute for over-time. Look for one with a large tub for a large dog, and steps to make it easy for it to get in and out. Some auto washes now install dog bath stations too.

12) Some additional, useful travel assets are a King sheet or two for covering the hotel beds, a toy or two from home, a lint roller and some towels for drying off a dog who must be relieved or exercised in the rain.

Relax and enjoy your stay. Dogs can be excited and/or anxious about staying away from home until they learn the ropes. The more relaxed they are, and the better prepared you are, the better their company will be. Then you can look forward to future trips with more ease.

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CHRISTMAS GREETINGS 2024!

Posted on December 21, 2024 by BigFootClub

Grace checked the first box on her Fit Dog certificate at the Lights Run. She was thrilled to be with a group of dogs doing something together. Any form of a party dials up her energy.

This morning, with frost on the ground and banana cupcakes coming out of the oven, it was a very Happy Saturday. She was the first one up, and she piled onto the bed before I was awake. Later, after being outside, came back in with cold feet and a cold nose to share her joy, Pirate style. She springboards onto the bed and plunders any form of loot, edible or chewable. Then she proceeds to pirate-growl and tussle if I object.

This will be her first Christmas, and fun is in store. Rather, more fun is in store, and some of it is stored in the closet and the kitchen. But now it is time to do the family Saturday walk.

SPARKLING CHRISTMAS WISHES TO NEWFS AND FRIENDS

We found a quieter spot to take photos with lights in the background.
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WELCOMING GRACE O’MALLEY

Posted on December 12, 2024 by BigFootClub

Grace O arrived near the end of August. She has been the life of our party, and like Parker and others before her, she is always in the mood for a party!

She has enjoyed her “kiddie pool”, her agility tunnel, her water bucket (upside down on her nose is best), her walks in town and her two-legged companions. She would love to enjoy the cats, but they quickly learned that Grace is not yet cat-cultured. Most Newfs learn their cat obligations in time. We will see.

Grace is an avid digger. Once when I left a hose running in the yard, she tried to build her own swimming pool. She also frequently works on an area of her yard space. She is also a jumper! Humans must stay on their toes keeping her ambitions closer to reality. Then she discovered a running launch move, landing squarely on her feet on top of the bed, with me in it.

She enjoys her toys and knows most by name. She has “Lammie”, an after-show toy for her first show. It had a jute tail that quickly became a separate toy, and that didn’t last long. She plays with the noisy ball that squeaks when it rolls. She enjoys the front half of the green reindeer with peppermint striped feet. This was one of Jade’s favorites. Jade loved dangly toys and parts of toys that were dangly. Sometimes hand-me-down toys are like welcoming presents left by previous generations. She loves the alligator, which has two loud noise-makers, and the green dragon, and some that Banner left: the two wool dryer balls that she had confiscated, the nubby turkey toy that makes good noises and has rope feet, and the Wubba fish. Banner loved the alligator, and I had bought extra, so the one Grace has is the last of the stash. The turkey has been replaced once and will soon be in need of another replacement. Banner wasn’t as engaged with the Wubba fish, but Grace is fascinated with its eyes and lips, and by handling it with hand-art, it can swim around your body, legs and arms, and appear like a fish in water would, with those big eyes engaging her interest. It has a good noise-maker and the extra heavy duty, well-stitched fabric fins make it a good tug toy. Clearly, she keeps us and her entertained.

One of her favorite toys is a piece of unbleached cotton rope, about 6-8′ long. This is a soft toy, and she plays with it softly. She will pull it gently, but is mesmerized when you loop it around her head and nose like a boa. She will wear it comfortably, and it stays on. The frayed end of the knots is a gentle brush for sweeping across her nose.

Another of her favorites is a new bottle. This was a good way to keep giving her “new” things, and at first she would wear all of the fun out of her toys and look for something else. While it was hot, we put ice in a bottle and played with it in the yard. Then she discovered the large, nearly empty bottle of vinegar sitting on the laundry floor. Those are good yard toys too, better than bottles because they bounce without being too excitable and they make a lot of noise. (Yes, there is a theme here. She prefers noise-makers.)

Today we played with the rope, and then in a Flash! her head went up, her tail went up and a smile covered her face, showing those still new pearly whites: she swiped one of the mini-hedgehogs from behind the chair, squeaked it and offered it for play.

Play doesn’t have to involve a toy. Squirming around on her back and making garbled pirate growl-noises is fun too, followed by a sudden race in one direction or another, or into your lap if you aren’t paying enough attention. And if you get in the mood to snuggle, and she gets bored, or she just wants to play rowdy, she will unleash some pirate on you!

She is not short on toy imagination, and she is beginning to learn some gentler ways of interacting. At now 6 months old, I don’t think there is any risk that the Mighty Pirate is growing up too fast, and we aren’t in any hurry. She keeps developing and learning. She has learned that some of the metal drain covers on sidewalks rock, and those must be jumped with ample clearance. Others that don’t rock are no big deal. She is getting a lot of experience with loud noises from cars, motorcycles and fire trucks and ambulances. She likes to walk at the park or around the square, and she loves being greeted by strangers. She is always on the lookout for the next hug opportunity. In class, she is finally beginning to watch the judge after a down and back. Originally, she wanted to do a friendly mugging. And showing her bite is less of a battle

I’ve been talking with her about Christmas and the naughty list. Maybe she’s been factoring that into her thoughts. And speaking of Christmas, we are only two toys into the shopping season. One is the large hedgehog, and one is a Zhu-zhu fish. The Zhu-zhu hamsters were a big hit with Parker and Jade. The fish is colorful and will hopefully give her some good entertainment.

Hoping that Santa is good to all Newfs this year and their companions and owners, and that Christmas will bring treasured memories for all.

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BACKING UP THE CHAIN

Posted on July 4, 2024 by BigFootClub

I knew that botany class in my degree program would come in handy some day.  I was more interested in physiology, anatomy, microbiology and genetics.  Who would have thought that the cause and effect could become so complicated?

(plug for the country song, the head-shaking one about human nature to create and repeat mistakes – all of the Chaos makes perfect sense.)

So, as you know, we live in a rural area, and we use practices that support nature on our farm.  We also have a small garden, small because we have little flat surface with more than an inch of topsoil.  The bulls contribute to our gardening resources, in the off-breeding season, and when we finish rebuilding and reorganizing fencing, there will be a little more flat space for a real garden.  I will always try organic gardening methods first, and for foods, exclusively – so far.  I regularly lose the battle for squash and melons to squash bugs.  This year I used a garden fabric with a soaker hose underneath.  At first, you can keep up by scraping the eggs daily and killing any bugs.  The warmer it gets, the less effective this becomes, and by then, the early squash is dead.  The bug damage allows disease to begin.  Diatomaceous earth also helps, and with landscape fabric, it works well so far, but there are still squash bugs one and two days later, and you have to reapply after rain.  Then there are the tomato hornworms and others.  Biodiversity is essential, but the squash bugs are the perfect example of how excessive harvesting self-destructively eliminates a food source.  I can’t figure out how these bugs survive, because who wants to grow squash or melons to grow squash bugs?  But they appear every year, jumping from one food source to another over the course of the growing season.  There will probably be no pie pumpkins for us this year except for what may appear at a Farmers’ Market.

The tangled web of life is only glimpsed from experience with vegetable gardening.  The roses have their struggles, and the dahlias.  And the apple tree.  And the pines.  Even the walnut tree. Each pest that arrives, drawn to whatever you want to grow, requires that you examine how to curtail its food sources, add its predators, or back further up or down the chain to find ways to deal with the web of nature.

We keep a few outdoor cats, who help control rodents, but who also occasionally feast on birds that you wish they wouldn’t.  We feed the cats, and wildlife that figure out the feeding schedule are drawn to the cat food, or to hearing the call of “Kitty, kitty”.  These wildlife carry ticks into the yard.  (Good luck keeping wildlife out of the yard, but there are some limited ways to treat wildlife.)  Rodents can carry ticks, but the cats help with this, along with the raptors on fence posts and power poles.  Loose dogs belonging to inconsiderate neighbors may also bring ticks, and these are usually male, so they pee on things.  The Mugho pine was finally done in, not by Parker as it was moved to a new location near the road after he was gone and it was doing well.  This is how I knew male dogs were present.  Crossing fingers, this isn’t frequent now, and there is now a county animal control officer.

I am considering a couple of additional steps in our tick control efforts.  First, I am trying to figure out how to construct a cat station that lets cats in and can be used on the exit side to trap unwanted guests.  This will be fun.  (tic)  And I’m working on plans for a barrier area that will include tick control tools.  Mowing helps, but an extra measure in the perimeter would be good.  The recommended width for a barrier is 3 feet.  This will be a lot more gardening, and while I enjoy a little gardening, it is not my primary interest.  There must be biocompatibility, mainly for dogs and cats, but also for birds.  And the plants must tolerate freezing conditions, dry conditions and rocky soil.  Lavender is looking good as a main component.  I’ve set out three varieties in the yard this year, one that is thriving, one that is doing well and one that is staying small, which is good for some areas.  Winter will be another test. I like fragrance plants, and the dried flowers can hang off the mantel during fall and winter.  It may be interesting to experiment with extracting oils, too.

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost (etc.), so backing up the chain means garden efforts too, along with pest control efforts for pests such as aphids that damage the plants and set them up for disease.  I don’t want to build another garden to feed bugs.  But I would like to feed pollinators and hummingbirds.  All of the chaos makes perfect sense?  We will see.

For anyone who is interested, there is a lot of information online about tick controls for your yard, plants that deter ticks and don’t harm mammals, and how to grow plants – and some of this is reliable.  There is a good resource on growing lavender:  https://gardenerspath.com/plants/herbs/grow-lavender/

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