Cruising With A Service Dog....everything You Ever Wanted To Know!

[Quampapetet]

Have an awesome crusie Quam!!!!!!

 

Thanks, Rangeley! I had a good time, as did my service dog. The weather was perfect (although my sunburn not so much, LOL!) and we had a lot of fun with our friends and the group we were with. :D The excursions were great, too.

[Quampapetet]

The potty solution worked great for us. I put large-sized potty pads from PetEdge down under faux grass (K9Grass) on our balcony. My dog took to it right away for pee and poop. I had the room steward bring me a new garbage bag every day (although he sometimes forgot) to put the used pads and poop pick-up bags in.

 

The wind was coming underneath the partition of the balcony in front of us, which blew the back potty pads and grass up (as well as made a lot of noise blowing one of the garbage bags underneath them around), so I asked the room steward to do something about it and he put a flattened cardboard box against it held upright by a balcony chair. That worked just fine, though when we were at sea as well as when we were docked in Grand Turk it was pretty windy to change out the pads (none ever blew away off the ship, though).

 

I was going to take home the grass, but decided on debarkation morning that I didn't want to deal with it. So, if I ever cruise again, I'll just have to get some more.

 

Our large balcony (aft wrap) worked well for a couple games of fetch as well as sniffing around (for the dog, not me, LOL!!!). Our aft neighbor was a wonderful elderly lady travelling with who I assume is her caretaker. She stuck her head around the balcony one the first or second day in the cruise and wanted to pet my dog, so I let her since she was off-duty/in play mode.

 

Carnival upper-level staffers were very good. Some of the lower-level staff didn't know what a service dog was and some asked me how much it cost to take a dog on a cruise, LOL. The passengers were good for the most part (same as daily living on land).

[wizard-of-roz]

The wind was coming underneath the partition of the balcony in front of us, which blew the back potty pads and grass up (as well as made a lot of noise blowing one of the garbage bags underneath them around), so I asked the room steward to do something about it and he put a flattened cardboard box against it held upright by a balcony chair. That worked just fine, though when we were at sea as well as when we were docked in Grand Turk it was pretty windy to change out the pads (none ever blew away off the ship, though).

 

Quam: I'm glad you had a wonderful time.......I think the potty "solution" is to let them [the cruiseline] put down "whatever" they want [more weight in the box] and then you can put down the artificial stuff.

Welcome home! Did you purchase any FCC's while onboard? That's always the cure for the "down" feeling when the cruise is over. Having another one in the works always makes me feel better! ;)

[rangeley]

Quam, Welcome back!! Glad to hear you had a great cruise and all went well. No problems getting off the ship with the dog? Did you have to pay a fee at Turk???

 

Cindy

[Quampapetet]

Quam: I'm glad you had a wonderful time.......I think the potty "solution" is to let them [the cruiseline] put down "whatever" they want [more weight in the box] and then you can put down the artificial stuff.

I didn't use their box, as it wasn't big enough for what I brought (which I knew before going, they apparently got mixed up and thought I still needed a box - they removed it as I asked and it sat upright in the hallway for half the cruise and then they finally moved it somewhere else). It also happened to be a very high-walled box, which I wouldn't have liked had I had to use it (for my dog, I mean, LOL!!! I myself am potty trained ;) ).

 

Welcome home! Did you purchase any FCC's while onboard? That's always the cure for the "down" feeling when the cruise is over. Having another one in the works always makes me feel better! ;)

 

No, I only cruise with my friend's group. She'll start working on next year's Valentine's cruise within the next couple of months, I'm sure. Then we'll know what cruiseline it will be on and what the itinerary will be and all. And I have no idea if I'll go on another one or not - it depends on several factors.

 

The cruise-over feeling I'm having is the one of the OCEAN! LOL! Darned brain hasn't yet realized I'm back on land yet. :p

 

Although, I do realllllyyyy miss the private, deserted island we took a helicopter to in St. Thomas. That was PARADISE!!!!! I want to go back there about NOW!!! LOL. We all really miss it and we do hope to go back again someday.

[Quampapetet]

Quam, Welcome back!! Glad to hear you had a great cruise and all went well. No problems getting off the ship with the dog? Did you have to pay a fee at Turk???

 

Cindy

 

Thanks, Rangeley!

 

Yeah, we had a good time and most things about the cruise were good.

 

Nope, no issues getting off the ship. No, we didn't need to pay a fee at Grand Turk, as I'd already discussed with the vet there and had the paperwork to prove it.

[rangeley]

Quam, Glad to hear you had a great time. And I'm glad you didn't have to pay the 50 bucks.

 

I read on the front page of this site that Carnival is raising prices!! I assume all the others will follow. We are not too happy about that. With the economy like it is, I don't think now is the time to raise them. :mad:

 

Cindy

[Quampapetet]

Yeah, Carnival is pretty dumb with their prices. They were the only or one of the only cruiselines to make a profit in the previous quarter or something like that, so they're keeping their prices high. Even when our ship, which was a northeast school vacation week sailing, was only about half-full right before final payment, they didn't lower the prices! The only offer they had was upgrades a few levels (still in the same category, just like 8A to 8E type upgrades). It didn't affect me much because I did Early Saver on the cabin I wanted, but I thought they could've filled the cabins sooner if they'd lowered the prices. They did upgrade most of the ppl in our group to a higher floor (most ppl were on the same floor I was on) so they could sell the lower-floor cabins, though. And they did end up sailing full as of a few days before the cruise (I tried checking and it wasn't available online anymore).

[sunshine426]

I have a 13 month old golden at my feet. He was so good at the hospital. He did not do well on his last home visit with another volunteer, but he has been wonderful for me. Slept well in the crate, that is always a huge plus! Then was a superstar at the hospital. I wish I had a video of him lying on a therapy table with a toddler stretched out next to him. She rolled over to reach for him with her weak arm. So sweet, he was totally relaxed during this.

 

Last night I was just goofing around on the computer and on face book was a very brief video of his trainer working with one of the new puppies. I played it and as soon as her heard her voice he was over staring at the computer screen. I think he was trying to figure out how she got into the computer! These dogs sure love their trainers.

 

Played with my Crackers yesterday and plan to take him on an outing and out for coffee and kibble tomorow.

[wizard-of-roz]

I have a 13 month old golden at my feet. He was so good at the hospital. He did not do well on his last home visit with another volunteer, but he has been wonderful for me. Slept well in the crate, that is always a huge plus! Then was a superstar at the hospital. I wish I had a video of him lying on a therapy table with a toddler stretched out next to him. She rolled over to reach for him with her weak arm. So sweet, he was totally relaxed during this.

 

Last night I was just goofing around on the computer and on face book was a very brief video of his trainer working with one of the new puppies. I played it and as soon as her heard her voice he was over staring at the computer screen. I think he was trying to figure out how she got into the computer! These dogs sure love their trainers.

 

Played with my Crackers yesterday and plan to take him on an outing and out for coffee and kibble tomorow.

 

So, so sweet.....I can just picture the little girl trying to reach the pup! Wonderful!

I love the trainers too! Without them, we'd all be lost, [or, at least, I would!] :)

[rangeley]

Hi All, Everybody must be busy this week, it's dead in here. We have been preparing for the puppy raisers recruitment weekend. They are having it at the dog place we go for our monthy getogether. They are hoping to convince people to raise puppies or just to be a volunteer. John and Wex will be one of the speakers, and I will be cooking something for the event. It should be fun!

 

Bailee went to the vet today for her yearly checkup. After they picked me up off the floor, I paid the 272.00 dollar bill. :eek::eek::eek: She looks good but we won't find out the blood work results til Monday. She wants me to get a poop sample and a urine sample :confused: Anyone ever see a girl dog pee? I'm not sure how I am going to collect that. Maybe a plate? hopefully I'll figure it out.

 

Next weekend we have our recertification. We are staying at CCI Thurs and Fri night. Saturday our puppy raisers are coming to visit us before we go home. It will be nice to see them and everyone from our class. We are trying to diet Wex before we go:eek: Hes going to be doing alot of running this week!!

 

Cindy

[rangeley]

Hmmmmm I wrote on here last night, but it's not showing up on my computer. Does anyone see what I wrote???

 

Cindy

 

 

NEVER MIND, IT JUST SHOWED WHEN I WROTE THIS

 

Anyway, I managed to get Bailee's pee this morning. A dish with sides worked perfect and she didn't even know I collected it.!!!

Edited March 5, 2010 by rangeley

[wizard-of-roz]

Cindy, I hope all is well for Bailee, I have to take Brenny to the Vet for her Rabies shot and a physical and I'm just putting it off.....for Oh! so many reasons.

First, she hates the Vets office.....not so much him but the office itself! She fills with stress and the second she sees the back door, she pulls on her leash to head for it......it can be very amusing if it weren't so sad! And, secondly, we have not been able to get the 5 pounds off of her that he wanted us to do.........we can't resist those big brown eyes when she wants more......just a little more.......Puuuuuleeeeeeez!

Collecting Bailee's sample must of been funny to see, can you imagine what she would have done had she caught you doing it?

Have fun with your Puppyraisers.....I'd love to hear John speak. And, good luck on your Certification......You'll all pass with flying colors!

[rangeley]

Roz, Bailee is just awful at the vet. The vets office is near the bank we use. Now yesterday I parked more towards the bank than the vet. I turn around and the poor thing is all a quiver. This is even before I get her out of the car. Sometimes I think shes going to give herself a heart attack. But I understand because she has gone through alot of pain. For years she had a clogged mucus gland in her neck. She always had a lump, which was not really sensitive to the touch. About 5 years ago the lump got a cyst in it and infected her whole body. She was operated on, drains hanging out her neck for weeks. She was better for a while then the lump got big again. Two or three time she went in to have it drained and each time she had to have drains in for a week or two. The third time I decided to take her to the vet here where John lives. He operated again. Within a month the lump was back and infected again. So this time he tried something new and it worked!!!!! He is my hero!! Not only has she had no infection, but she has no lump at all! Three operations, three drainings and alot of years of living hell for her. You see why she shakes. I would be shaking too!!! But she is awesome now and I'm so thankful to the vet here.

 

Cindy

[wizard-of-roz]

Roz, Bailee is just awful at the vet. The vets office is near the bank we use. Now yesterday I parked more towards the bank than the vet. I turn around and the poor thing is all a quiver. This is even before I get her out of the car. Sometimes I think shes going to give herself a heart attack. But I understand because she has gone through alot of pain. For years she had a clogged mucus gland in her neck. She always had a lump, which was not really sensitive to the touch. About 5 years ago the lump got a cyst in it and infected her whole body. She was operated on, drains hanging out her neck for weeks. She was better for a while then the lump got big again. Two or three time she went in to have it drained and each time she had to have drains in for a week or two. The third time I decided to take her to the vet here where John lives. He operated again. Within a month the lump was back and infected again. So this time he tried something new and it worked!!!!! He is my hero!! Not only has she had no infection, but she has no lump at all! Three operations, three drainings and alot of years of living hell for her. You see why she shakes. I would be shaking too!!! But she is awesome now and I'm so thankful to the vet here.

 

Cindy

 

[color=indigo][b]Poor darling.....her nervousness is well earned!!!!! [/b][/color]

[color=indigo][/color]

[color=indigo][b]Brenda had a cancerous tumor removed [about a month after we brought her home from CCI] and had to go through a long and involved surgery on her leg. She's fine now and has been cancer-free for over 5 years but she's a bowl of jello when I take her back to the Vet's office. [/b][/color]

[color=indigo][/color]

[color=indigo][b]I don't make a big deal over it and I don't say much as we're approaching the door or when we're inside.....but, once, she literally jumped into PaPa's lap [all 70lbs of her!] It was a sight to see.[/b][/color]

[color=indigo][/color]

[color=indigo][b]I love her and all her craziness and am grateful for every day that she's by my side. I'll take whatever personality quips she throws at me![/b][/color]

[sunshine426]

First, I had to pick myself up from laughing. Cindy, creeping up from behind with a plate, to capture "output" from the canine!!! More power to you, I've collected many urine specimens, but all from humans!

I'm lucky that Sandy has not had a bad experience at the vet and is quite fond of "Jeff" one of the vet techs. Still, she always seems to start a bit of a shiver when we go into the office, and crawls under the chair I am sitting on until the visit is over. And I so sympathise with those big brown eye begging for more food. Makes me feel a bit better as "chubby" Sandy can sit in front of the pantry, staring at her food bin, and then looking at me!!!

 

I've missed all of you guys lately. We have been quiet.

[Quampapetet]

I wanted to post a photo of the potty I set up on my cruise, since I'd uploaded it to the Web for ppl wanting to see the balcony (and photos of the cabin). It is potty pads (the X-Large "Clean Go Pet" ones from PetEdge) under faux grass (K9Grass) and about six feet long, three feet wide (which is three potty pads by two potty pads). I also ripped two garbage bags down their sides and placed them under the center gap of the two pieces of grass (under the pads, of course).

 

The small black garbage bag in front of the potty is where I put the dirtied pads and used poop pick-up bags. The steward took the filled garbage bag every day and usually left me a new, unused one in my cabin.

 

At night they didn't let the balcony lights be on, but I'd heard about this before the cruise so I'd brought a powerful (two-bulb Xeon) flashlight with me and that worked perfectly (it had a trigger lock to keep the flashlight on when I couldn't hold it, such as when replacing the pads, and it worked just fine to place it on the little table on the balcony). I'm glad I remembered to bring the charger for the flashlight with me as it did run out of batteries one of the nights of the cruise.

 

The cardboard box in the photo (which is held up by the chair) was put there by the steward when I asked him to do something about the continuous wind coming underneath the balcony divider, as it was strong enough to blow up the grass by several inches and it also rattled the garbage bag underneath so it was a super annoying constant noise. It did the trick.

 

If I cruise again, I will definitely use this same solution again (though I'll have to buy more grass 'cause I ended up leaving these two rolls on the ship the last morning, since I was too tired to deal with it after only two hours of sleep).

 

[sunshine426]

Thanks for posting that picture Quam. It looks much more inviting them some of the boxes I've seen.

[rangeley]

Roz, Poor Brenny!! I really hate to see our babies hurt.

 

Sunshine, I'm sure it's alot easier getting pee from a human. I was lucky Bailee didn't even know what was going on.

 

Quam, So the potty box really isn't a box? It's piddle pads with grass on top?? Did the ship not have a box or this just worked out better??

 

 

Cindy

[Quampapetet]

Yeah, it was more inviting than the boxes. I mean, I assume so, since I'm not a dog and I use a toilet.... ;)

 

I told them I didn't need a box, since I knew it wouldn't be large enough for what I was bringing. They got mixed up and put an empty box out there anyway, which I had them remove (although they had it sitting in the hallway for half the week, LOL!). Their box was MUCH larger than the dumb one Royal Caribbean gave me, but I was surprised how high they made the sides of it. It made me wonder how much of that litter stuff they put in the box when ppl are fine with using that. Not to mention how somebody in a wheelchair would pick up their dog's poops! I wouldn't have liked to have tried stepping in a box with sides that high; it was hard enough stepping into the bathroom and coming in from the balcony (uhm, I messed up with that bathroom step a couple times ... of course, when I came home, I tried stepping up into the kitchen sink area when making my dog's food once, LOL!!!).

 

There's no reason to have a box when using potty pads, since they absorb the liquid, but you would need it if using just mulch or that evil paper litter stuff.

 

(By the way, they had a ramp placed in my cabin for walking out onto the balcony, which was handy, but I thought it quite strange that there wasn't also one for coming back in from the balcony! Nor was there one for getting into the bathroom. Did they expect me to move it around each time or something? I wasn't going to do that, I just left it in place for going out onto the balcony and had to be careful coming back in.)

[MCDW]

Hi Folks, it has been forever since I was on the Board. We did the Panama Canal on Holland America in November. An awesome experience. Next month we are doing a transatlantic to Rome on RCCL.

 

I am just starting to investigate the possibility of taking a Fall repositioning from Vancouver to San Diego via Hawaii. I sent a few emails to the appropriate Hawaii government folks. I guess they have not had a service dog on a cruise ship stop in Hawaii. Or the person I was dealing with hasn't had the experience. According to their website, the only point of entry for a guide/service dog is 1 particular airport.

 

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[rangeley]

MCDW, I really don't know anything about cruising to Hawaii except that they have unbelievable restrictions on bringing a dog there. They are one of the toughest places to bring an animal.

 

Cindy

[S.S. Cruisers]

Mornin' all:

MCWD: We did the 14 day San Diego to San Diego to Hawaii and there was a service dog on board. I believe he and his mom were from New York. I know he got off the ship on each stop, as we saw them out and about. So it can be done. Maybe try calling back and getting a different person or a supervisor? Be diligent and don't give up. Customer service is such a thing of the past, unless you can get that one person that will help you. Just send them a picture of OZ and I am sure you will get results. What a cutie!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. It started raining here last night and is still raining this morning. Very odd for us. This has got to be a record rain year.

Nancy

[Quampapetet]

Hi Folks, it has been forever since I was on the Board. We did the Panama Canal on Holland America in November. An awesome experience. Next month we are doing a transatlantic to Rome on RCCL.

 

What are the requirements for Rome (and any other foreign ports you are going to)? My friend was asking me that, as she'd like us to do such a trip on RCCL. I'm not sure I want to do it, so I haven't looked into it, haha, but since you just did, I figured I'd ask. ;)

 

I am just starting to investigate the possibility of taking a Fall repositioning from Vancouver to San Diego via Hawaii. I sent a few emails to the appropriate Hawaii government folks. I guess they have not had a service dog on a cruise ship stop in Hawaii. Or the person I was dealing with hasn't had the experience. According to their website, the only point of entry for a guide/service dog is 1 particular airport.

 

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 

They have had SDs on cruise ships to Hawaii before. The requirements are listed on Hawaii's Web site (they are the same requirements as bringing an SD on a land trip - with the exception of the airport, of course, then it would be the cruise port). I have spoken to somebody with the Hawaii gov't about this before a few years ago. If the program/trainer your dog is from is not an ADI organization (self-training included), you have to show more paperwork (like from your doctor) than someone with a dog from an ADI organization need to show, which is dumb 'cause ADI only takes non-profit organizations and it is tough for them to get into, too, plus I'm sure it costs them money, which some organizations might not want to spend.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Quampapetet

[wizard-of-roz]

Quam: Wonderful ideas for the potty area.....Thank you for sharing your ideas.

MCDW: We've missed you! Hawaii requires a blood titre to be drawn within 48 hours of the dog traveling. [Now, that's going by airplane, they certainly can't expect that if you're traveling by ship. It takes at least 5 days, be cruise ship.]

Hawaii has NEVER had a case of Rabies [documented] so the blood draw would for the Rabies Titre.

If you love sea days, you'll love this journey.....too many days away from land for me [at least for now!]

Well, I've left Brenny at home with PaPa today. Tonight is my Major Gifts Event [donors to contribute over $10,000 or more.] We're doing in a private home, in their backyard, under a tent, with chandeliers, open bar and lots of amazing food.

It's the first time I've ever been separated from her at any event. But, her "comfort zone" was so compromised in this venue [people walking and possibly tripping over her], it was my decision to give her a break.......however, it's making me fill with tears, everytime I look around my desk and see pictures of her [and, realize that one day she won't be here] OMG.....I have to stop thinking about this. I can't bare to think about it!!!!!!!!!

Bye!