Traveling with Two Service Dogs - A Good experience...

... except for one hotel, which I'll talk about later.

This past holiday, we decided to make the big trip (3 days driving!) back to the northeast. With our new SUV and my mattress in the back, I rode in complete comfort. Even with all our stuff, we were able to fit both doggies (Willie and Frankie) in the back with me.

Here's a few of our experiences:

For the first day of the trip, Frankie was a bit stressed. He developed stress-related diarrhea (luckily no accidents!), and had a hard time settling down. But by day two, he was much better.

We did find that Frankie wouldn't eat much in the hotel rooms. Not sure why, but he's not big on eating anyway. If there's a distraction, he's not interested in his food.

Willie, on the other hand, would eat if the world was ending. Oy.

We did have to stop more for doggie outings, which take longer than human "outings", mainly because you want to walk them a bit and let them stretch out.


As far as hotel experiences, the first hotel we stayed at was a Hampton Inn. I had decided that since I was traveling with two service dogs (one retired), I wasn't going to push for access for both of them. I was perfectly willing to pay a pet-dog fee if asked, but only for ONE DOG. The other one would have total free access via the ADA's Service Dog regulations.

I had the hubby take Willie in to the hotel when checking in. Willie was dressed in his vest and acting as a representative for our dogs. This seemed to have a good effect on the hotel employees, who were very accommodating as far as Service Dog access went.

That is until we arrived at the Hampton Inn near Knoxville, TN .

The desk clerk there attempted to deny access for BOTH DOGS, stating that "they did not allow pets".

Even though I wasn't going to fight for access for two service dogs, I certainly was going to fight for access for one. Especially in this case where access was denied for Service Dogs in general, not just because I had two of them.

The hubby was able to finally explain the law to the clerk and we were able to obtain access for one Service Dog. We did pay a pet deposit for the second dog.

All in all, a great experience with Hampton Inn's. Needless to say, be aware of the one in Knoxville. You can bet I will be writing a letter soon.

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