Is the World Becoming More or Less Dog-friendly?
By Cheryl Harbour

Living day-to-day with a dog brings you in contact with people who love canine companions and others who find them a bother. At least at home you know which places (and neighbors) to avoid. Traveling away from home warrants more research and preparation.

If you want to travel with your pooch, there are two main questions: Where will you stay? How will you get there?

According to Hotels.com, a travel reservation website, in recent years there has been "a huge increase in demand for pet-friendly hotels and guests wanting to travel with their animals." A spokesperson for the website, as quoted on BBC.com said, "Demand is growing year-on-year, with a large proportion of hotels across the globe now not only accommodating for pets, but also advertising this key feature."

In the U.S., you'll find a number of hotel chains that not only allow dogs - they cater to them. Some charge a "one-time cleaning fee" on top of your room rate. Ranging from $25 to more than $100, they can make the extra cost of having a pet for one-night stay the same as for a week stay.

The La Quinta chain, which has locations all across the country, charges nothing extra for a dog. Kimpton Hotels, a higher-end chain with fewer locations, also lets dogs stay for free. Some Kimptons even have a resident dog that visits with guests during the complimentary wine reception. At some of their locations, if you don't have your pet with you, they'll let you borrow a goldfish for the night.

Taking a dog out of the U.S. has also become easier.  In most places, dogs no longer need to be quarantined for a period of time after arriving. Many countries require pet passports, a microchip, and certain immunizations or treatments before the trip begins. You’ll find a summary of some of those requirements in this article on Huffington Post.

Another hotel reservation website, booking.com, has identified the world's most dog-friendly cities. They are Tel Aviv, Israel; Keswick, UK; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Toronto, Ontario Canada; Barcelona Spain; and Krakow, Poland. To this list, they have added one spot in the U.S.: Carmel, California where there is a mile-long beach permitting dogs to run and romp without being leashed to their owners.

The one part of the world where dogs haven’t made much progress is in Asia, where in countries such as China, South Korea, The Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and the region of Nagaland in India, dogs can still be eaten.

As for getting where you want to go, airline policies are still evolving. Despite the bad news for two dogs on United Airlines flights recently, airlines are allowing dogs and other animals to fly under certain conditions. Trained service dogs, for example, are permitted to travel with their human companions if they have completed the Assistance Dogs International Public Access Test.  Emotional support animals, which don’t have the same level of training, may be accepted with written documentation from a health professional. Travel by regular old Fidos is regulated by the airlines and involves certain types of crates or carriers and pre-flight requirements. As yet, there is no consistent set of regulations, so you’ll need to check with your airline in advance.

As for road trips, some dogs can handle many hours in the car and nights in a hotel and some can’t. Here are some practical tips from barefoottheory.com, an outdoor adventure site for, as they describe themselves, “everyday people.”

The best advice for traveling with dogs is this: Take along some extra patience – and treats.




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