Look to all four corners of the globe and you’ll find the world has gone pet crazy. Once upon a time, a feline friend or canine companion was considered a family member. Today, they have achieved the level of status symbol. With stars such as Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey making their love of pets widely known, it is becoming significantly more common to find a local, pet-friendly hotel: from Monaco to Memphis and Paris to Portland. Luxury hotel accommodations are even readily available for those who wish to pamper their four-legged friends.

Traditional Lodging for Pets

In years past, neighbors or family members traditionally shared the care of pets when owners left town. As the need for quality pet care grew, kennels began to sprout worldwide. These facilities generally offered basic shelter and food for dogs and cats. A wire kennel only big enough to turn around in, along with food and water bowls served as the accommodations for boarded pets. Wanting better for their loved ones, pet ‘parents’ continued to make their wishes for care known and thus, luxury pet lodges were born.

As appealing as this option is, what many owners really wanted was to simply take their pets with them when they traveled. Providing that option, along with many pet amenities, is the fundamental premise behind a truly pet-friendly hotel. Monaco, Rome and countless other cosmopolitan destinations, for example, have pet-friendly hotels that allow guests to house pets in their rooms. While a much better option for some than leaving pets behind, other hotels go miles farther to make the pets’ visit as outstanding as the owners’.

Amenities for Pets

Right here in the U.S., pets can receive exceptional treatment when traveling with their families. For example, one Portland luxury hotel has a “K-9 Director of Pet Relations” whose job it is to make all pet-guests feel right at home. This social golden retriever named Art ensures that all pets – and their owners – understand the amenities available to pets, including a food bowl with coordinating mat, dog bed, complimentary dog treats, bottled spring water and dispose-a-scoop cleaning supplies.

Scheduling a massage for yourself? Don’t forget your pet! Canine and feline massage specialists are on staff to de-stress your pet after a long day of travel. While you’re at the hotel fitness center, your pet can enjoy a delightful stroll around the block with a trained professional. While you and your family are out on business or sightseeing during the day, your pet can visit with a pet sitter so loneliness and boredom don’t set in.

When booking pet-friendly hotels, be sure you ask about extras such as deposits or additional cleaning fees. You’ll also want to inquire about weight or size limits imposed on dogs and other pets.

Luxury doesn’t have to be for humans alone. When you travel with your family, bring everyone along – pets and all. With the luxurious accommodation available for pets, there is no reason the entire family can’t enjoy a vacation together.

Barbara Wade

http://www.articlesbase.com/hotels-articles/petfriendly-hotels-from-paris-to-portland-195079.html

Technorati Tags: Accommodation, hotel, pet friendly, pets

Once you understand a few steps to take, there are ways to make air travel with your pets comfortable for them and to eliminate any risk to your friend. You can relax… well, at least a bit anyway. From the research we have done about pet travel and specifically about flying with pets, it seems that most pets are completely safe and unharmed while traveling by airplane.

Still not convinced? Then you should take a look at two great pet air travel websites: PetFlight.com and PetAirCarrier.com…

Pet Flight is a great site about pet-friendly flights and safe shipping of your pets. It was inspired by a special dog named Brent. Brent’s “Pet Dad” discusses how they moved to Hawaii from the mainland, and they provide invaluable air travel and flight information for flying with pets.

Be sure to read the Pet Travel Reports. Pet Flight provides monthly reports on the loss, injury, and death of pets during air travel. Although this is not a pleasant topic, it will help you understand some precautions to take. In addition, you will find great pet travel tips and hard-to-find airline information. We highly recommend this website as a resource when planning to fly with your pets.

Pet Air Carrier is another great resource you could tap into. Pet Air Carrier has a 28-year reputation for transporting animals safely and can give you invaluable information on this. They deal with both wild as well as domesticated animals.

We hope studying the information on these 2 websites, and any others you may come across, will help to convince you that it should be perfectly safe to fly with pets IF you arm yourself with all the relevant information and use the right channels.

And if you really don’t like the idea of the cargo hold for your “babies”, then hiring a private jet might be the way to go!

Knowing all the rules of pet travel can be confusing since not all airlines allow pets to fly in the cabin. Do your research and contact the airlines directly for all relevant pet air travel information, since pet travel policies vary from airline to airline, and the different policies can be confusing.

Lots of pet travel information is available on the internet, so you can easily acquaint yourself with the rules of pet friendly travel. There are some basic rules that both you and the airlines must follow such as:

- your pet must be at least 8 weeks old and under 100 pounds

- your pet will not be allowed to be outside of its pet carrier

- “non traditional” pets are typically not allowed (sorry, you’ll have to leave your pet snake with his favorite sitter)

- you will need a health certificate from a vet that is no more than 10 days old if your animal will travel in the cargo hold.

These are just a few standard pet travel rules to keep in mind, but there are many more pet travel tips and resources to help make your pet travel experiences pleasurable for you, the airlines and, above all, for your beloved pet.

Darlene Berkel

http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/pet-air-travel-flying-with-your-pet-to-hawaii-127861.html

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“I have a 2 yr-old pomeranian-pekingese dog whom I need to bring with me to the Philippines from the U.S. He’s nervous around strangers, barks as a warning but not yappy, threatens to but never bites. I know I can actually have him stay with me in-cabin during the flight since he’s only 10 lbs. Besides looking for the right soft-sided carrier to keep him in, I have these questions…

1. Some websites say that stub-nosed dog breeds do poorly when sedated in flight. Since my dog has the pomeranian nose rather than the “squished” face of the pekingese, would he still be in danger if he travels in cabin with me while sedated?

2. Travel from NYC to Manila is about 18 hours minimum. That’s pretty long to keep a dog in its carrier or crate. Are there any international airports that would allow me to walk him somewhere during a layover?

3. Any recommendations for pills or remedies to just “take the edge off” for my dog so he’ll just be relaxed but not sedated during the trip?”

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Technorati Tags: Air Travel, airports, carrier, in-cabin, international, pets, regulations, travel