Hello All-
Since we are staying at one of these "dog friendly" hotels from time to time when we attend shows.. I find it helpful and remind me to read the hotel policy about pets in the hotel room... I hope this will help preventing any mishap from happening especially for those who will attend the Nationals..
My sincere thanks to Liz Karshner for sharing her story with us..
Good luck and God Bless to All.

George N





THIS IS A HORROR STORY!!

It was a nightmare of a weekend for me in Waukesha. We left the show Sat morning after it was over and took the dogs back to the hotel and went to lunch and shopping. The dogs had been fed and walked of course. The hotel housekeeping staff went into the room to clean and reported that our dogs were left unattended in the room. The idiot young 'assistant' manager at the desk phoned and asked the Humane Society to remove the dogs from our room because they were unattended..per signed contract when we checked in. After the second call within 30 minutes to the Humane Society insisting that they come and impound our dogs...they came to collect our dogs plus another one that was barking unattended in another room (another breed). There were two very obnoxious messages on our phone from Brandon (idiot on the front desk) that were very ugly and stating that our dogs were going to be impounded if he phoned back in 10 minutes and we did not answer the phone. He did phone back and left the message that our dogs were being impounded for abandonment. Keep in mind, that our luggage was there and our credit card was on file with the front desk. Of course the police were involved also. The lady from theHumane Society told them when she Adminved and saw the dogs, that she really did not want to take our dogs out of the room because they were clean, crated, and quiet and creating no problem for anyone......and that it would be dangerous to remove them with the heat and stress. But they continued to point out that we signed the contract that they were not to be left unattended in rooms. If not for a fellow Bulldogger (Gwlynda Irek) from Texas, our dogs would have been taken to the animal shelter. The hotel was talking charges of abandonment. The Humane Society lady found Gwlynda outside and approached her because she was at her trailer which had a picture of a Bulldog on it and asked if she knew Donna, and since she knew us..she decided to release the dogs into her hands instead of removing them to the shelter. Gwlynda and Sandra Riley took them into their room to prevent them from being taken to the shelter. Someone managed to phone Donna's home to tell Rick that the dogs were being taken to the shelter (we will never forget to leave our cell numbers on hotel checkin info again!), and then Rick phoned Donna on her cell. We could not believe our ears!!!!!!! We rushed back to the hotel to the front desk and asked what was going on. What we got was the statement that we left our dogs in the room unattended per our signed contract. When asked where the dogs were RIGHT THEN, they told us they were in our room. THEY WERE NOT IN OUR ROOM! The entire hotel staff had just left for the day that was involved in the scenario with the Humane Society and no one knew where they were..the Humane Society gal had released them to Gwlynda without getting her name, signature, etc.

Of course we are pursuing this with the corporate headquarters of the La Quinta. The manger of the the hotel has told corporate as well as Kevin Riley (who is holding the OK specialty show how next month at the La Quinta in Oklahoma City ...as they have done in prior years..) that it was a guest that phoned the Humane Society. THIS IS ONE OF THE MANY LIES that the manager has told his corporate headquarters..as well as our dogs barking. The Humane Society lady was in and our of our room several times and our dogs never barked, and it was not listed at any time as a noise issue. They were clean and quiet and crated...and the room was very clean. I was on conference call with the Humane Society and now the Corporate headquarters has names and phone numbers with the truth. The dogs were found to be quiet also when Gwylnda & Sandra were allowed to remove them from our room and take them into theirs for safe keeping.

Of course we did sign what we felt was the typical statement about not leaving dogs in rooms unattended, cleaning up, no dogs off leash, etc. And of course we took this to mean that the dogs were never to be be left loose in the room..left of their own devices to mess or destroy the hotel property. Our dogs were totally clean and quiet...but they insisted that the contract meant that whenever anyone left the room...the dogs MUST be taken with them...never to be left without a person in the room. And they have not really backed down on this issue yet. The whole crating deal did not seem to even matter. The weather on this show weekend was at least 110 degrees with the heat index. We were so secure in the fact that our dogs were back in the room safe and cool.

I cannot begin to tell you how upsetting this ordeal was for us. I could never have imagined that they could have the Humane Society walk into your hotel room and impound your dogs. They would have been taking me to jail if I had arrived and truly found my dog in the shelter...if she had lived long enough to survive the trip in the metal box of the their truck..which would probably have been at least 120 degrees that day easily.

Donna & I are continuing to pursue this matter as far as we can take it..and to expose the hotel manager to his corporate headquarters as a total liar. There was never a complaint about our dogs being noisy, destructive, etc. They were simply crated in the room without any person there in the room with them. I am not sure that I will ever feel that my dogs are safe in a hotel room again. Everything was a sperfect as we thought possible for the safety of our dogs as well as protecting the hotel property.

We would appreciate any support that we have forthcoming from fellow dog people voicing complaints to the La Quinta Corporate headquarters in this matter. They have informed Kevin Riley that this is NOT the policy of La Quinta and they are investigating. We stayed at this hotel last year without any issues whatsoever.

We cannot thank Gwylnda and Sandra enough for saving our dogs from the shelter and quite possibly a much worse fate. We must get this story out to the dog world. I also believe that this hotel should not be listed as a possiblity for exhibitors for this show weekend in the future.


What a horrible frightening experience.

Liz Karshner