montoya 0 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Quite interesting article from back home about hotels and shelters offer 'loaner' dogs. I can see this happening easily in Japan someday, especially in places like Karuizawa, etc.. --------------------------------------- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/17/TRGDQ990TH1.DTL Man's best friend becoming travelers' favorite perk More hotels, shelters offer 'loaner' dogs - John Flinn, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, October 17, 2004 Aspen , Colo. -- Everybody in Aspen seemed to have a dog except me, and it made me wish I'd brought my golden retriever to Colorado. So I did the next best thing: I dropped by the Aspen Animal Shelter and checked out a "loaner." In resort areas around the United States, borrowing a German shepherd or husky is getting to be as easy as checking out a book from the library. A small but growing number of shelters and high-end hotels -- and one grocery store -- now lend dogs to visitors for an afternoon or a weekend: -- In Aspen, the borrow-a-dog program is so popular that there's often a waiting list in summer. Some of the town's most upmarket hotels participate, helping arrange loaners for their guests and permitting the dogs to spend the night in the hotel. -- In Vancouver, British Columbia, the two Fairmont hotels each have a resident Labrador retriever registered guests can take for a stroll around the city. Among their fans: Queen Elizabeth II, who was photographed with one during a visit a few years ago. -- Near Sun Valley, Idaho, visitors to the Animal Shelter of Wood River have their choice of between 60 and 100 dogs for hikes. And each Wednesday during the summer, dog lovers are invited to join the staff and 10 to 15 of the shelter's dogs for an off-leash romp in the Sawtooth National Forest. -- In Haiku, a small town on the road to Hana in Maui, over 20 loaner dogs of varying pedigree are available at the Maui Grown Market to anyone who buys a picnic lunch. "Some people are crying when they bring the dogs back," said owner Chris Borges. "They fall in love." -- At the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, a tony ski resort near Vail, the resident yellow Lab, named Bachelor, is available for weekday hikes and snowshoe treks. The service is free, but guests are urged to make a donation to the Eagle County Humane Society. When he's not out walking, Bachelor holds court on his doggie bed in the hotel lobby. For upmarket hotels, canine ambassadors are one way to get a leg up on the competition. At the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and the Fairmont Waterfront, the resident dogs -- former guide-dog trainees -- always show up at the top of visitor satisfaction surveys. They're so popular that reservations are necessary, and the dogs have mandated rest periods during the day. "When they go out on walks, they know the most direct routes to the nearest doughnut shops and hot dog stands," said Jill Killeen, spokeswoman for the hotels. "We've had to put them on diets, and now we send guests out with a pack of more appropriate doggie treats." The dogs -- Morgan, Mavis and Holly -- each have their own e-mail addresses, and Killeen said they receive a steady stream of missives from former guests and the guests' own pets. For dogs in shelters, the loaner programs have huge benefits: They get plenty of daily exercise and socialization, and a large percentage of them end up going home permanently with their borrowers. "A lot of our dogs leave Aspen on private jets," said Seth Sachson, owner of the Aspen Animal Shelter. "It's quite a Cinderella story for them." Borrowing a dog for an afternoon walk in Aspen couldn't have been easier. I signed a waiver, strolled past the pens in the back, chose Nali, a white, 2- year-old husky mix, and within minutes was strolling a wooded path along the Roaring Fork River. Nali led the way. She's done the walk a thousand times. "For tourists, it's a great way to become part of the community," Sachson said. "With a dog, you feel like a local. People come up and talk to you. It's a great ice breaker." And so it was with us: A pair of joggers stopped to make a fuss over Nali, and we had a nice little chat about the area's best walking paths. Another hidden benefit came at the end of our walk. Nali had wallowed in a bog of inky mud, but when we got back to the shelter I didn't need to get out the garden hose -- I merely handed her back to Sachson, who took care of the bath. For technophiles who like the idea of a dog but not the responsibility, the new W hotel in South Korea, the W Seoul-Walkerhill, offers a solution: free use of a Sony AIBO robotic dog. It is said to be able to recognize the "owner's" face and 100 voice commands, and can retrieve a toy bone. And, perhaps best of all, if guests take it for a walk around the hotel, they needn't carry a plastic bag. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information Aspen Animal Shelter, (970) 544-0206, www.dogsaspen.com. Fairmont Hotels, (800) 275-7544, www.fairmont.com. Animal Shelter of Wood River, (208) 788-4351, www.animalshelterwrv.org. Maui Grown Market, Haiku, Maui, (808) 572-693. Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch, (800) 241-3333, www.ritzcarlton. com/resorts/bachelor_gulch. W Seoul-Walkerhill, (888) 625-5144, www.whotels.com. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Interesting idea, that. Especially good if its good for the dogs. That last sentence though about Aibo. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 As Mogski has proved, all those hangovers and wasted yen at the Gas Panic and Motown could have been saved, with a far better "done deal" percentage, by simply renting a cute little dog and walking up and down the beach in Kamakura in summertime. I personally witnessed his mini Dachs pull 5-10 of the most eye-poppingly luscious bikini babes. These were gals whom we never would have met at Gas in our bachelor days. One girl in particular comes to mind. Perfect creamily tanned bazoongas packed into a tight shiny pink bikini, and cork high-heel clogs and long, curvy legs sweeping up into a fine owld rump, the breathtaking contours of which were hardly left to the imagination behind the thin stip of flimsy shiny fabric stretched over 1/3 of them... If I hadn't been holding a beer under my chin, the saliva would have dripped all over the table. A walking fantasy. And she jiggled over to meet the dog, squatting down Yankee-style right in front of us. Yes, boys, the Gas Panic is a waste of time, healthy cells and money. Dog rental is where the real action can be found. Link to post Share on other sites
Telleboy 0 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 I think its a great idea. I got me a half huskie half sheeba, white fur, blue eyes and shes the chick pulla from hell, cant go anywhere with her without a group of japanese girls running over and going gooey and rubbing the hell out of her. If you want to rent her, come to Hakuba and shes yours. price neg. Hell if you take good care of her and bring her back, you can have her for free. Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderbird2 0 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Rubbing the hell out of her, not you, right? Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 > One girl in particular comes to mind. What breed was she? Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Has anyone ever met anyone "nice" at Gas Panic? Link to post Share on other sites
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