CENTRAL POINT, OR ‒ Earlier this year, clients Henry Kisor (IL) and Christine Goodier (FL), both with Hearing Assistance Dogs from Dogs for Better Lives (DBL), co-authored guidebook, Traveling With Service Dogs – By Air, Road, Rail, and Ship across North America.
250-page travel and guidebook, now available on Amazon.
Three years in the making and published in late 2019, Traveling With Service Dogs (250 pp), addresses a number of questions, concerns, and challenges that those with Assistance Dogs must tackle when traveling domestically or abroad. This past October, Kisor and Goodier received the Silver Award in the Society of American Travel Writers’ annual Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism contest for this guidebook.
Christine received Hearing Assistance Dog Raylene (black Labrador, 8 yrs) in 2014. Originally, Raylene came to DBL from Guide Dogs for the Blind, and while she did not work out as a guide dog, she has been an amazing Hearing Assistance Dog for Christine and her travels.
“The DBL trainers did a wonderful job of matching us,” stated Christine. “With her calm temperament, Raylene has been an intrepid travel partner, logging some 30,000 miles with me across the United States and Canada and sailing aboard more than a dozen cruises to foreign ports of call. I think she’s looking forward to getting back on the road again in the coming years as much as I am.”
Henry received Hearing Assistance Dog Trooper (Poodle/Schnauzer mix, approx. 6 yrs) in 2015. Shelter
dog Trooper was originally acquired by DBL from the Bakersfield Animal Care Center (CA). “I am a writer by trade. I am a dog person. I am also profoundly deaf,” stated Henry. “Put those three things together, and you have a book.”
After Henry had Trooper for about a year, he realized there was a book coming from their many travel adventures. Early on, Henry had reached out to DBL and several other service dog organizations, sharing
Christine Goodier with Hearing Assistance Dog Raylene, departing St. Thomas on a cruise ship.
that he was planning to write a travel/guidebook and was looking for people who had also traveled with their service dogs. DBL helped to connect Henry with Christine and once they spoke, they immediately saw the synergy and multitude of benefits in collaborating on a guidebook for others who (wish to) travel with Assistance Dogs in North America.
After the world (and its dogs) start traveling again, Christine and Henry are thinking of a new, expanded edition that includes Europe, the most popular foreign destination for American and Canadian travelers.
Dedication inside the book notes, “To Dogs for Better Lives for bringing Raylene and Trooper into ours and to all service dogs from coast to coast.”
To find Traveling With Service Dogs online, you can visit Amazon here. And if you use AmazonPrime instead, and designate DBL as your nonprofit charity, 1% of sale goes to DBL.
[Read news release as PDF here]
