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We grilled the experts, poured over the research and chatted with pet owners to find out the obvious: your four-legged best friend prefers to go with you, whether you’re camping overnight or flying out on business. Keeping your pal’s sense of adventure (and loyalty) in mind, up! presents a pet travel primer that will make you think twice about heading to the kennel on your way to the airport
On a sunny spring day in the lobby of the Fairmont Vancouver earlier this year, a brother and sister visiting from Quebec stared at the empty cushion by the concierge desk, fighting back tears. “Where’s Beau, mama? He was supposed to meet us,” sobbed the younger boy.
Just as mom knelt to console her son who told her how he missed his own dog back home, the Fairmont Vancouver’s resident Labrador retriever, Beau, trotted in. The guest who’d been walking him handed the concierge the leash and soon the family was on their way, temporarily forgetting that their own friend was three time zones away.
Perhaps mom and dad didn’t know that all Fairmont properties allow pets under 20 pounds, or that even while they left the family dog at home, an increasingly sensitive North American travel industry continues to make the connection that ultimately, going pet-friendly is good business.
“Pets represent and manifest that feeling of unconditional love and spirit of play that is so lacking in the human race,” says author Dr. Marty Goldstein, one of North America’s foremost integrative veterinarians. “The human-animal bond is becoming that much more vital to us so we want them around us more than ever.”
Travellers are so adamant about pet-friendly travel options that according to a recent Starwood Hotels & Resorts survey, 76 per cent said they would be more loyal to a hotel chain that accepted dogs.
“Many pet owners are more inclined to stay at accommodations that allow pets, even when they’re not travelling with their own, because they prefer places that recognize and welcome every member of their family—pets included,” says
Angela Lynch, who in 2001 founded petfriendly.ca, after not being able to find hotels that would accept her two dogs in one place online. Since then, there’s been an explosion of similar sites trying to track the lifting of the pet embargo by a travel industry aware that, much like in the U.S., nearly half of Canadian households have companion animals, and are increasingly expecting to bring them along for the ride.
—NP
PREPARING YOUR POOCH FOR THE ROAD
Psychology professor Dr. Stanley Coren reveals what dogs want when they travel
Dr. Stanley Coren must be part dog. And, when it comes to man’s best friend, all ears.
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