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One family’s journey to finding, raising and traveling with their dog

I grew up in a home with an assortment of pets. At one point we had a tank full of fish, four turtles, three dogs and a cat. While I loved them all, the dogs were always my favorite.

There have been very few moments in my life that I did not share it with a dog. The dogs in my life have always been my trusted companions. The ones I could share all my fears and secrets with and know they wouldn’t tell.

Throughout my life, we acquired our dogs in different ways. A few came from the pet shop. This was long before we knew about puppy mills.

A few came from the local shelter or a rescue group. One was an abused stray we rescued off the streets. And one was given to us by a family friend.

Bella hanging out

The dogs ranged in size and breeding. With a few large purebreds and a couple of small mixed breeds. Regardless of where we got them or what breed they were, I loved them all.

All toll I have more than 30 years of experience in finding a dog, caring for a dog, training and traveling with a dog.

I started this blog to share our difficulties with finding our current rescue dog. Even before the pandemic hit, trying to adopt a dog in the Northeast was hard. Especially with young kids in the house. Many rescue groups would not allow us to adopt because the kids.

By sharing our experiences and what we learned along the way, I hope that it will help someone else.

After we found our puppy, next came puppy training. I realized there were many people that were new to having a puppy, that could benefit from someone else’s real-life experience to get them through the puppy phase.

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Bella at 9 weeks old

Dog trainers are great and I highly recommend going to a professional puppy training class. But, they sometimes forget about the emotional side of dealing with a puppy.

There is more to having a dog than just teaching them commands. On this site we try to focus on both the training and the emotional side of having a puppy.

Now that we are past the puppy stage, we have moved on to writing about our experiences of traveling with our pup. We have been traveling with a dog for more than 20 years now.

Traveling with a dog presents its own set of problems that I hope I can help others get through by sharing my first-hand experiences and what I have learned about dog travel.

I hope that you can join us for the journey.

Bonnie

Also seen at:

Hiking with Your Dog: A Low-Impact Approach to Outdoor Adventures by Bonnie at Happyoodles.com