Bodie and I at the gorgeous Chateau de Villandry, Loire Valley, France

Hello AndASmallDog followers! I know I have been quiet (except my rant about KLM losing our dog) but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been traveling. In fact, we’ve been on the road a lot of this year – first NYC, then Europe (Belgium and Holland this year), followed by a week in South Florida (the Keys and Miami). We’ve settled back home for a while until it starts again in NYC in March!

Of course, Bodie comes with us on these trips. We also took him all over France last year including the Loire Valley, Bordeaux and Burgundy areas. He got to explore the beautiful gardens at the Chateau de Villandry, see the cute castle of Chateau de Chennonceau (from the outside only), drive around the famous wine regions all over France (think his favorite part), visit the Armagnac distillery… Ooh la la! We stayed at some gorgeous pet-friendly properties including in the prestigious wine town of Puligny-Montrachet.

In Belgium, we did our own self-guided brewery tour. We lost count of how many breweries we visited but it was at least 12+! He wasn’t allowed inside the breweries but we’d leave him at our vacation rentals while we went in. Or just did a quick visit while he slept in the car (weather was cool enough for us to do that!).

Bodie enjoying the view

For the past two years, we’ve stayed on houseboats when in Amsterdam. Bodie loves (?) barking at the boats as they go by haha! We enjoy the feeling of space the houseboat gives us and its lovely to feed the passing ducks and swans out of the window (Bodie is not so keen and in fact tried to leap out of the window as I was throwing bread to ducks once. Luckily I grabbed him before he went overboard. So now I have to give him bits of bread each time so he doesn’t get jealous!)

He really doesn’t care where he is though as long as he is with us. He loooooooves being in the car and will sleep on our laps on the long journeys. I’m glad that he is so good about that!

Anyways, I am here still to assist you with your next vacation – whether you are taking your pet with you or not. AndASmallDog.com is my “pet project”. I have a couple other sites including GoYourOwnWayTravel.com (my main hub) and WineBeerTours.com (food/wine/beer travel). Feel free to check them out as well! They are the reasons why I have been quiet on here. Plus I’ve been busy helping my clients travel!

Happy Travels!

Leila Coe, CTA

Boone and Kenzie in San Francisco

Introducing Boone and Kenzie, two globe-trotting Scottish Terriers, who love to travel and share their photos and stories. These two adorable dogs have traveled all over Europe and the United States and they keep an online journal of their travels. The stories are amusing, told in first-person (first-dog?), and are about all their adventures. The highlight of the website, however, is the photos! These two dogs, one black and one white, have photos of themselves perfectly posing in front of famous landmarks all over Europe and the U.S. These two dogs have a lot of experience with traveling, so I asked them a few questions about their experiences.
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Q: Thank you Boone and Kenzie for sitting down for an interview for AndASmallDog.com! AndASmallDog.com is a website with information about traveling with a small dog – something you both know a lot about. Have you been on any trips recently?
A: Our most recent trips were to eastern Washington to see family and in the spring we went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which turns out it had more daffodils than tulips this year when we went.

Q: You traveled extensively through Europe, similar to what we did with our Jack Russell. What was your favorite place and why?
A: We enjoyed a lot of the places we travelled, however the one that sticks out in our mind the most was our stay in Milan, the first city in Europe that we visited (but Italy in general was nice).  Everyone was very friendly there.  We got to eat inside nice restaurants like Charlie Brown’s, visit dog parks all over the city, go through a castle, ride the trollies and visit the Piazza del Duomo and neighboring areas.

Boone and Kenzie in London, England

Q: You went to the UK when you traveled through Europe – did you have any problems with the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS)?
A: We planned ahead pretty well to avoid the 6-month quarantine by getting our rabies shot and ISO chip, but we were forced to stay an extra day in Calais because we needed to get a sign-off from a vet for flea and tick and de-wormer medication.

Visit http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/pets/index.htm for information regarding the rules of importing pets to the UK.

Q: What was your least favorite place in Europe, or the least doggie friendly place?
A: Naples was our least favorite place in Europe.  After arriving by train, we walked outside only to find garbage dumped all over the roads and flies swarming on top of the garbage. It turned out there was a garbage strike.  So we ended up leaving that same day back home. Spain also because they need a doggie train pass, otherwise the cost is prohibitive to ride them.

Q: What do you prefer: planes, trains or automobiles? My dog, Bodie, definitely prefers automobiles but also loves a good train ride.
A: We definitely prefer trains the most, especially when passing by cows.  We always tend to pay the most attention to the scenery when we see them.  We wish we could travel by rail in the United States, but sadly Amtrak doesn’t allow pet travel on their lines.

Boone and Kenzie ready for the plane

Q: When you fly, can you fit under the seat or do you ride in cargo? Do you have any tips for calming nerves when flying?
A: When we fly, we’ve only done where we fit under the seat, since we’re pretty much the max width, height and weight for in-cabin flying.  Tips for calm nerves during flight would be to go potty just before leaving and get fed treats during takeoff and landing.  Also it’s a good idea to practice being “kenneled” in the bag/kennel you’ll fly in for long amounts of time to get used to being in there.

Q: The highlight of your website has to be all the photos! Have you thought about putting a book together with all the best ones?
A: Yes we have and we look forward to doing that sometime in the future.

Q: If you could choose, where would you vacation next?
A: We’d love to visit Greece, Egypt and India next if we had our choice.  If quarantine wasn’t an issue, we’d also try visiting China, Hawaii and Australia.

(Note: Hawaii no longer requires a long quarantine. For more info, click here)

Q: Do you have any travel-related tips, stories or reviews you’d like to share?
A: We tend to point people to our FAQ, though we don’t have it properly linked from our website:  http://scottietails.com/faq.html

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Boone and Kenzie haven’t had time to update their travelogue lately due to the birth of their new family member, Brendan. ScottieTails.com is still a delightful website and the photos are definitely worth seeing. Boone and Kenzie are two cute, lucky dogs who have traveled more than most people!

Thank you to Boone and Kenzie, and to Ben and Shelby (and little Brendan), for participating in the interview. I hope to read, and see more photos, of your future adventures.

Links:

ScottieTails.com Homepage

ScottieTails.com Photo Gallery

ScottieTails.com Videos