Cabot's Day Out

I have big plans for Cabot, and those plans include flying with me in my tiny, noisy airplane. Cabot appears on track for maintaining a small enough figure to actually fit in the plane; his big (and I mean BIG) brother Hogarth has not been able to fly with me since I traded the plane with a back seat big enough for him for a plane with no back seat at all.

In addition to being small enough, any dog that flies with me has to be comfortable with wearing a harness. That's safety thing, but possibly not for the reason you think; it's more about keeping him from interfering with the controls than it is about restraining him in a crash. Me, I'm all about protecting my own posterior.

Fortunately, I have a small, noisy training environment to use as a simulator in which to train young Cabot: my Miata. I knew he wasn't going to like it, so I needed to find a way to make it worthwhile for him. And what could be better than a trip to the farm? Running, playing, infinite opportunities for marking territory, and smells, smells, SMELLS! Canine heaven.

He fussed for the first 20 minutes, but once we got on the highway he settled in for a nap. He got a little antsy for the last 15 minutes, but once we got there all was forgotten. We sniffed, we played fetch, we vomited up our breakfast (thank goodness he didn't do that in the car!), and we met a huge, scary horse!

The trip home was much, much easier. He was so tired that he conked out as soon as we started driving. All things considered, I'm calling this a huge success!