The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

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M.F.

I’m flying to Seattle in a three weeks. One of the options that came up in our travel booking tool was a flight via Denver. I was so tempted to book it on off chance I could bump into you and Carbon at the airport!! Haha! I don’t even know your flight dates! In the end, I opted for the most direct flights. Usually I like a layover of a few hours to wander around a foreign city. But I couldn’t find reasonably priced tickets with pleasant layovers. I hate booking flights, worried I’ll book the worst option! Oh well, it’s done. More expensive than I would normally book, but I left it rather late and the travel tool approved it.
 
M

M.F.

Emily_Babbelhund said:
Well, Carbon and I will take that as a great compliment that you even thought about it!
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Absolutely! Your stories and videos are so endearing.

Emily_Babbelhund said:
We're flying on 11 September, btw. :)
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Then I don’t feel too bad. I’m flying on 14 September. So, unless Carbon needed a really long wee break, there’s no chance we’d have bumped into each other. :)

I actually don’t like connecting within the States cos one of the flights is always delayed—in my experience. I’ve overnighted in Dallas courtesy of a delayed flight, with a 3am wake-up, and it wasn’t fun. So, I try to get international flights directly into and out of the States.
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Well, we're nearly ready for our airplane adventure. Carbon is doing very well with his loose lead walking and adapting what he learned the past two months WITH crutches to now doing the same without crutches. I'm also working with his balance handle which is quite useful as I get used to walking without crutches too. Regensburg is in the middle of its version of Oktoberfest ("Herbst Dult") and that plus the half dozen a day cruise ships in port mean that we get excellent crowd manoeuvring practice every time we go out.

He's not perfect: we're still working on reactivity and he's gotten a bit jumpy about a few sounds lately. I think part of the problem is that we've not been truly working as much as we were past weeks (we had a week-long SD training 1x1 session break). He's a bit bored but I keep telling him he's going to WISH he was this bored a couple weeks from now!

Tomorrow if I'm brave enough my plan is to take him by train to the airport in Munich. I figure this will give us some real world practice in many of the behaviours he's been learning and also point out to me where I should be putting the most effort in our last week before flying. It also sets him up for success on our actual flight day as Carbon is ALWAYS better the second time he does something. This way we take some of the first time heebie jeebies out of the airport and we do it on a Sunday which should be pretty calm.

OR if I chicken out about the airport (i.e. oversleep), we'll head over to the Dultplatz and work on navigating crowds there. That would be way worse than anything he'll get in the airport. And pretzels. Lots and lots of pretzels.

He wore his Bavarian kerchief today and got so much attention from revellers also dressed in their Tracht finest. It was pretty funny. Considering he's a SPANISH gentleman dog, he sure does fit right in with red checks and edelweiss!
 
M

M.F.

I’m just so impressed with all the planning and training. If it were me, I’d want at least another six months of training before attempting a flight!! You’re very brave. :)

How’re you finding a smaller dog (rather than a big strapping Labrador) as a service dog?
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
M.F. said:
How’re you finding a smaller dog (rather than a big strapping Labrador) as a service dog?
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He doesn't provide the support Brogan did or say, a dog's Bramble's size would. However being small has other advantages - like hopefully more leg room on trains and planes for me!

Once we've completed all his curriculum I'll order him a mobility harness like Brogan had. There's a woman in Colorado who makes them to order and has just introduced a 'light' model which I think would be perfect for Carbon. :)

Atemas said:
you deserve for your journey and everything else to go well.
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Thanks, Alison - fingers crossed!

Lisa said:
I think she sat at the back but I didn’t see how she managed with the pooch.
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Under the seat and snooooooze is the only way. :D

I read an article yesterday that included photos of a service pony. He slept the whole flight on his person's lap, which is not allowed. Plus those seats are tiny...how did she get a horse on her lap? Anyway, not for Carbon: I only recently convinced him that he doesn't need to sit on my lap in the bathroom, so we're not opening that can of worms again, even if it WERE allowed. :sneaky:
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Atemas said:
I looked round yesterday and Red was sitting on F’s lap - this is the man that says no way are the dogs doing that. He had been throwing her squeaky ball for him and she was returning it so excitedly. I think he got carried away and filled with love for her and let her jump up on his lap - looked so cute ❤
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Carbon gets LOTS of lap cuddle time and pretty much sleeps the whole night laying on me...it's the just the bathroom where I draw the line. :LOL:
 
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