Goals -- Enjoy Time In Paris: Speak French, Take Dog
Last fall, we began to contemplate a trip to France. It started with the idea that Maxine was going to go to a cooking school in Provence, then Tom jumped in with, "If you're going to France, I want to go too...". We ended up conceiving of this as sort of a blow out trip -- Two Months In Paris!
Being planners, we started thinking of what needed to get done to make this happen. Most importantly, what was going to have the longest lead times. And, aside from airline reservations (necessary far in advance if you want your dog to accompany you in the cabin!) and finding an apartment, the two largest priorities were learning to speak French well enough to get along for two months, AND, working with Cassie so that we could take her with us (we've heard, and seen evidence of, the fact that French are pretty accommodating of dogs).
Why not leave Cassie home? Simple -- who could we convince to take her for that long? Anyone we knew well enough to ask had already met her. And, likely she'd barked at them. So, Plan B -- take her with us.
Our minimalist goal was simply to get her to the point where we could leave her in the apartment while we were out and about in Paris. And, if she happened to be with us, on a walk or at the park (she's pretty much an urban dog, living in Los Angeles), that she not create a disturbance to the point that the French started thinking of Maxine & I as the Americans with the badly behaved dog.
Or, to put a better spin on it, rather than the type of dog I've been describing, we wanted to turn her into the sort of dog that could accompany us to cafe's, help us get croissants in the morning, and fully participate in this adventure.
But all of this was a great deal of distance. We were talking about taking Cassie from a dog who was shy/afraid (I'd heard of dogs shivering with fear, but never one whose teeth would chatter) and would act aggressively to anyone who threatened the small world where she felt safe; TO some idealized companion dog who would be receptive to meeting people on the streets, could go shopping, and really could hang out with us in cafe's.
We talked about our plans with our Vet, who introduced us to Lori Peikoff!!!!!!!!!!
Being planners, we started thinking of what needed to get done to make this happen. Most importantly, what was going to have the longest lead times. And, aside from airline reservations (necessary far in advance if you want your dog to accompany you in the cabin!) and finding an apartment, the two largest priorities were learning to speak French well enough to get along for two months, AND, working with Cassie so that we could take her with us (we've heard, and seen evidence of, the fact that French are pretty accommodating of dogs).
Why not leave Cassie home? Simple -- who could we convince to take her for that long? Anyone we knew well enough to ask had already met her. And, likely she'd barked at them. So, Plan B -- take her with us.
Our minimalist goal was simply to get her to the point where we could leave her in the apartment while we were out and about in Paris. And, if she happened to be with us, on a walk or at the park (she's pretty much an urban dog, living in Los Angeles), that she not create a disturbance to the point that the French started thinking of Maxine & I as the Americans with the badly behaved dog.
Or, to put a better spin on it, rather than the type of dog I've been describing, we wanted to turn her into the sort of dog that could accompany us to cafe's, help us get croissants in the morning, and fully participate in this adventure.
But all of this was a great deal of distance. We were talking about taking Cassie from a dog who was shy/afraid (I'd heard of dogs shivering with fear, but never one whose teeth would chatter) and would act aggressively to anyone who threatened the small world where she felt safe; TO some idealized companion dog who would be receptive to meeting people on the streets, could go shopping, and really could hang out with us in cafe's.
We talked about our plans with our Vet, who introduced us to Lori Peikoff!!!!!!!!!!
2 Comments:
Having your own scanner is fine, but what use is it if your dog gets lost and you have the only scanner that can read his chip? How are you going to be reunited? Do you think it's worth getting your dog re-micro chipped? (my dog and I are going to be in France for a considerable amount of time)
Having your own scanner is fine, but what use is it if your dog gets lost and you have the only scanner that can read his chip? How are you going to be reunited? Do you think it's worth getting your dog re-micro chipped? (my dog and I are going to be in France for a considerable amount of time)***Sorry, i commented to the wrong post before***
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