Tag Archives: pet

Kito’s First Dog Park: Foothills Dog Park

Arizona, Blog, International Travel, Uncategorized, United States, , , , , , , , , ,

The Valley of the Sun is a pretty dog-friendly place. In the West Valley alone, there are 17 dog parks that I know of. Today, I checked out the Foothills Dog Park (in Glendale, Arizona) with Kito and my sister, Kaylee.


Getting There

The Foothills Dog Park isn’t hard to find. It shares a parking lot with the Foothills branch of the Glendale Library. The library is near 59th and Union Hills, and its turn-in is just west of the Glendale Rec Center. The gate to the dog park is located on the south side of the library parking lot.


Hours and Rules

The rules of the dog park are pretty basic: pick up your dog poop, take home your toys, and be courteous.


The hours are from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm.


Features

The Foothills Dog Park is pretty big! There is plenty of space to run off-leash and play fetch. There is a separate park for big dogs and little dogs, which is awesome. Kito is medium-sized, but she usually ends up knocking over little dogs when she gets too enthusiastic.


Between the two areas, there is a fenced-in location with a doggie drinking fountain. Kito was a snob and would only drink from my bottle, so guess who didn’t get water? Me. We’ll work on that.


There are also a bunch of playground-style toys. I suppose you could use these for training, but we just had fun on them. Kito liked the tunnel because it was shady.


Speaking of shade, there are plenty of shaded areas for both dogs and people to relax.

My Rating

I’ll give this dog park a 5/5! Maybe it’s just because I don’t have anything to compare it to yet, but I thought the Foothills Dog Park was pretty amazing. I’m excited to try the next dog park on our to-do list!

What’s It Like to Bring a Dog to Sint Maarten?

American University of the Caribbean, AUC, Expats, Expats and TCKs, For the New Expat, International Travel, Spouses Organization, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wondering what it’s like to travel overseas with a dog? Turns out, harder than you’d expect but more than worth it! Here’s my friend Jon, the husband of a med school student at American University of the Caribbean and proud owner of a boarder collie, on how to bring a dog overseas and help him adjust. To read more of Jon’s pet advice, head over to The Healthy Pup. 

Once we realized that we would be moving to St. Maarten for two years, there was no question that Forte, our Border Collie, was coming with us! As we prepared for our move, we realized we didn’t like the idea of Forte stuck in a cage in the cargo hold, so we decided to make him an emotional support dog so that he could sit with us on our flight. We had our vet fill out the paperwork necessary for Forte to travel to St Maarten.

We knew that Forte’s high energy would be hard to manage throughout two flights and a layover, so the vet gave us a tranquilizer that we had Forte take after we got to the airport, which made him drowsy but able to walk along with us. We had quite a day – we woke up at 2 in the morning, flew from Chicago to Atlanta, and then from Atlanta to St Maarten. We landed in St. Maarten at about 3 in the afternoon, and Forte was great the whole time. He mostly slept on the flights (and lay on my wife’s lap a lot), and he waited patiently during the short layover we had. He’s weird about going to the bathroom in new places, so we didn’t have to worry about any accidents (but we did bring a few pads just in case).

 

Forte had no problem adjusting to his new home! We brought the blanket he always had in his cage as well as several of his favorite toys. Forte loves to play, so the minute we started throwing his ball around the apartment, he relaxed. We had to buy a new cage and retrain him to like his cage, and that was a process, but he likes his cage now, too! We also packed a few pounds of the kibble he was eating back home.

When we got to the island, we bought food and slowly increased the proportion of new food in his meals, which allowed him to transition to the food we will continue to buy on the island without getting an upset tummy. The dog park near the school is a great place to take Forte and throw the Frisbee for him, which is his favorite (my wife and I like it too, because it tires him out so much)!

We wondered if Forte would become depressed or homesick, but so far he has been his playful, affectionate self! We have done everything we can to make him feel at home, and it looks like we have been successful.


EarthDog Eco-Friendly Hemp Dog Bed – $84.00
from: The Ultimate Green Store