[nagdu] Report on my travels to Mexico with Loyal

[Natalie]

Right on, Ioana.  Glad to hear your trip to Mexico with Loyal was a success.
Best,
Nat and Liam Joshua

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ioana Gandrabur" <igandrabur at gmx.de>
To: "NFBnet NAGDU NFBnet NAGDU Mailing List" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 4:43 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Report on my travels to Mexico with Loyal


> Hello everyone,
>
> Hope my message finds you well and spring is giving you a nice energy 
> boost.
> Some time ago I received valuable insight from the list about traveling to 
> Mexico with my guide dog and I thought I would give you an update on how 
> it went.
> I found after some searching the official website of the Mexican embassy 
> about importing pets. Meeting all their requirements made the control at 
> the airport very smooth. Took about 20 minutes.
> Here is the link for anyone interested:
> http://embamex.sre.gob.mx/canada_eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3938&Itemid=41
> My biggest concern was that they officially do not allow you to bring your 
> own food. I found out about stores that carry Loyal<s food but brought 
> mine anyway and they made an exception. BUt they recommend that you bring 
> the food in original packaging for even better chances of success.
> Now about the trip itself, I stayed in 3 hotels and went to many 
> restaurants and never had an access issue. This might have something to do 
> with the fact that I was traveling with an official team of the music 
> festival organizers. I have to say that most room service people were 
> scared of Loyal and very hesitant to come in the room when we were there, 
> even when he was on leash.
> Loyal was incredible! Stayed through hours of judging an international 
> competition pretty much without a sound. Best news for me was that he 
> stayed backstage without wining when I performed my concerts. I hope it 
> will stay that way and not that he was too tired to care. I think that the 
> fact that I brought his mat everywhere I performed might have helped to 
> make him feel safe.
> It is in any case good to know that he can deal with long days of teaching 
> judging in competitions and ending with concerts where he has to be quiet 
> and after concert late dinners. Poor dog did not get much walking but I 
> made sure we played a bit but he was too tired even to play too much at 
> the end of a long day.
> Guiding was outstanding on almost non-existent sidewalks at time. No 
> relieving issues either although often there was just cement available. In 
> time the other participants of the festival learned to trust his guiding 
> and stopped freaking out at any potential difficulty like over-heads or 
> stairs.
> He ended up being the mascot of the festival and got quite some publicity 
> even on tv.
>
> Flying went ok but given that I had 7 hours wait time I made sure I could 
> relieve him twice and actually fed him since the trip took 20 hours.
> Well, hope this helps someone and thanks for following my story about our 
> adventures.
>
> Take care,
>
> Ioana
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