by Charmaine Ham

I’ve had dogs for 21 years but it wasn’t until last Fall we took our dog on vacation for the first time. We had reservations but since we knew we’d be gone a month, we couldn’t be w/o Max! We made it fun, bring besides food, his dishes, & his dog bed a bag of new dog toys. We thought if we presented a new toy it would make vacation fun.

The biggest fun was actually walking him in a dog friendly neighborhood. He enjoyed the various smells and scents (he’s beagle/Jack Russell mix) and many people walked their dogs. Even more dog friendly was the beach — oh how he loved walking on the damp sand. If it weren’t for me, he’d walk all day! One time we saw people riding their horses in the surf and I had to pull him back on his leash because he was so curious! I didn’t want him to be stomped on or spook the horses, yet he had never seen horses before.

We did all the work as we were busy cleaning out an inherited house to get ready for rental. So Max was the only one who got a vacation! Then to top it off, we only got breaks when our friends stopped to visit, and as usual, he thought everyone came just to visit him!

I recommend taking a pet on vacation, and do your homework to make the proper preparations. I promised Max we’d go walk the beach again and hope to return this Spring.

Max always wondered what it would be like to go on vaction

Charmaine and Max on their first vacation

Max now knows that vacations are fun but that they also can wear a dog out

We’re reprinting this post for the fourth year in a row since so many of you loved the dog pumpkin-carving stencils.  Please send in any photos of the pumpkins you carve and we’ll post them to share with everyone.

(9/27/09)  So you love dogs and live in the Land of Dogs.  Being as dogmatic as you are, you want to carve your pumpkin to look like your dog but you’re not sure how to do it.   We’ve solved that problem for you.  Now you can get  free dog stencils that make carving pumpkins much easier.   And please send in pictures of any of  your  dog pumpkin masterpieces and we’ll share them with the group.

The stencils were designed by Diane Starkey and are from the Good Housekeeping website in an article entitled “Free Pumpkin-Carving Stencils of Favorite Dog Breeds.”

Lisa Baxter sent in pictures of her two dogs, Lou and Chi Chi,  who seem to love a good time.  You might note that Lisa makes sure her dogs wear their life jackets while boating.  You can find life jackets in five different sizes as well as other safety gear at happydogsplay.com.

Lou and Chi Chi always wear their life jackets when boating.

Lou and Chi Chi are party animals!

This just in:

The is the dog version of "You might be a redneck if…."   This list was started on happydogsplay.com and since I'm sure you have many of your own to add, please send them in.

This isn't an official one but it's true for me today: you might be a dog devotee if you started your new business yesterday and got your first four orders and instead of getting right to it, you play ball with your dog first thing.

Here's Gracie and her ball: