Have you ever been away from home and found yourself missing your dog? Most of us have. There are things you can do for this, such as calling home and having someone hold the phone to the dog’s ear so you can talk to him. Or you can go online, if your pet’s boarding facility has a web-cam, and see what he is doing. Either can make you feel better. But sometimes you want something more in the way of a dog fix - a hands-on encounter with a real dog.

Apparently there are a lot of people who get lonely for some canine companionship while traveling, and other people are stepping up to fill the need. Hotels in various cities, mostly vacation destinations, are offering a loaner dog to guests who need a little canine contact. Some offer the service in conjunction with a local humane society or other rescue group that will offer some of its dogs as companions for lonely visitors. Other hotels have dogs on staff, available for guests to take for a walk, a hike, jogging or a visit to a local dog park for some catch with a tennis ball.

It is one of those situations where everyone benefits. The hotel makes a guest happy, in some cases even letting the dog stay in the room with the guest. The guest has the companionship of a dog during his stay. The dogs get exercise, companionship and socialization, and many of them end up going home permanently with the people who borrowed them.

For the visitors, walking a dog makes them a part of the community, and makes it easier to meet the locals. People stop to pet the dog, comment on it, and talk. As always, dogs are the great icebreakers.

In Aspen, Colorado, a town where it is probably safe to say that most of the people reading this do not own a vacation home, the borrow-a-dog program is so popular that there is often a waiting list for dogs during the summer. It’s not a bad life for a pound puppy, staying in an upscale hotel or a million-dollar chalet. Even better, many of the dogs get adopted by the people who borrow them. As the head of the Aspen Animal Shelter says, “A lot of our dogs leave town on private jets”.