I bought a really nice travel bag on Ebay and it arrived yesterday, earlier than I expected.  It’s not for any one of the littles in particular but will work for Baji, Brighid or Java.  We have numerous carriers/roller bags/strollers and they are all good for different things. I really intended this bag for smuggling. Aside from the fact that it’s an eye catching bright yellow it would not be noticed as a dog carrier and that was my intention.

Periodically when I have a little one with me on vacation I just have to sneak her in somewhere. I’m sure some people will take issue with this but I’m sorry. The rules against dogs are unfair so I make my own. (That could be a topic for another day if anyone wants to pursue it.)  We almost always stay in pet-friendly hotels and eat in outdoor restaurants where they will not have a problem with the dog. (Don’t think that just because it’s outside they’ll allow the dog. Most I’ve come upon do but some don’t.)

Inevitably there comes a time when I need to run into a grocery store or some other place and the temperature outside is in the 90s ruling out leaving my pup in the car. That’s when a smuggle bag is invaluable.  However, it requires cooperation from the dog.  A bag that is moving, whining or yelping will call attention to itself, no matter what style bag it is.

I didn’t make a plan for getting the dogs used to the bag. I just plowed ahead and stuck Baji into it and put a Cheerio in her mouth.  Baji is game for most things and is curious so she was fine sitting in the bag.  My intent was not to have her use the bag with her head sticking out  which meant she’d have to lie down in the bag so I could zip the top. I did that rather unceremoniously too by tossing a few Cheerios into the bottom and pushing her down under the zipper. She didn’t protest too much.  But then… I lifted the bag off the table and carried it across the room. This was the part I should have been more careful with.  The bag swayed a good bit and she felt insecure. (Who wouldn’t? She didn’t expect to go sailing through the air.) I could feel her trying to get her bearings so I put the bag right back down and let her out. I decided that since I’d scared her (not traumatized you understand but made her a little nervous about the bag) I’d need something better than Cheerios to make her love the bag.  We happened to have left over hot dogs from Panama’s birthday celebration and my little dogs will do anything for hot dogs.  I broke half a hot dog into tiny bits and stuck Brighid into the bag this time and handed her a hot dog bit.

Something that works in my favor in certain instances (and against me in others) is that when you have multiple dogs they tend to compete. What one has the others want. When you have smart dogs they know they’ll probably have to do something to get it so once I came over with the hot dogs everyone knew that they wanted to find the way to interact with the bag that would get the hot dog bits.

As you can see,  everyone wanted their turn in the bag at which time it turned into a game.  By then it made sense to hold off on the hot dog bit until the dog was lying down in the mostly zipped bag and then reaching in to deliver the hot dog.  Dixie and Pamana are really too big for the bag (although in a pinch I could use it with them and the specs did say up to 20 pounds. Panama is 12 and Dixie is about 10) but I felt the need to give them a turn – and some hot dog bits – too.

Next I’ll have to attach a command to the game so that when they get in the bag and I give the command they’ll lie down in it. (I can’t use the “down” command. I think the reason it’s confusing is that they stretch their front paws out in front of them during a regular “down” and in the bag it’s more of a scrunched up “down”). Once I do that they can sit up in the bag unless I need to go into smuggle mode at which time I can give the command “scrunch” or “smuggle” and have them assume their smuggle position. In the mean time everybody likes the bag game.