Story by Sandi Kahn Shelton; Photos by Melanie Stengel, Register Staff

CHESHIRE — A dog’s life sure isn’t what it used to be.

These days the canines among us live lives that their wolfish forefathers wouldn’t have recognized. They have their own daycare centers, their own clothing lines, their own ice cream treats — and now, apparently, they get to go camping.

Yes, camping. In tents. Indoors.

Marty Bailey, the owner of the Smartydog Center for Canine Enrichment, a woman who is always looking for fun things for dogs to do with their people, sponsored the inaugural Canine Camp-in recently, and to hear the participants tell it, it was a howling success.

“When I told my dog trainer friends that I was thinking of doing this,” says Bailey with a laugh, “they all gave me 100 reasons why it would never work. But you know what? It was wonderful. People told me that it was like a mini-vacation, a time to escape and play games and be with their dogs in a different social atmosphere. And the dogs loved it!”

Bailey has been a dog trainer for 36 years, although her Smartydog Center only opened in August. She’s also taught dog training classes at the North Haven Recreation Center for the past 25 years. She says she loves doing the agility training and all the fun classes that create greater life skills for dogs and those who love them.

The camp-in was held indoors (hence, a camp-in) at the training center as sort of a dry run before dogs and people try to live in a tent in the great outdoors.

Camping outdoors with dogs takes some planning. State-run campgrounds in Connecticut, for instance, do not allow dogs. But there are many dog-friendly private campgrounds in Connecticut. Web sites like www.dogfriendly.com can help with the search.

For the Canine Camp-in, there were eight humans and eight dogs, and some pretty cute-looking canine pajamas. Continued...

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Bailey opened the evening by saying, “Here are the rules for the sleep-over. There are no rules. Everybody just behave.”

Wisdom Stotler, a 10-year-old yellow Labrador retriever who shares life with human being Susan Stotler of Meriden wore a blue hoodie sweatshirt for the evening and was delighted to indulge in the relay races planned for the dogs’ entertainment.

“I laughed so hard,” says Susan. “You could just see the dogs having so much fun running back and forth with their people.”

After setting up the tents and running a few relay races to tire the dogs out, the humans sat down at a large folding table for dinner.

“We placed our chairs around the table, and the dogs stretched out beside us while we ate,” says Patricia Pope of Windsor, who brought Jake, 10, and Sophie, 8½, two yellow Labs who have camped outside before but never inside. “All the dogs were in a down-stay, and nobody barked or begged or whined. The people all talked and talked ... It was great.”

Bailey says she had planned the evening to make sure the dogs had as much fun as the people. “You wouldn’t invite children to something and then just expect them to sit around while the adults talked,” she says. “So I wanted to make sure the dogs had plenty of fun, and then were tired enough to just rest.”

After dinner, there was a racing game for the dogs and a trivia game for the people — and then the dogs went outside for a final walk, and then humans and dogs snuggled down together near their tents to watch the Disney movie “Bolt.”

By the time the movie was over, everybody was ready for sleep. Well, mostly. A couple of dogs (we’re not naming names) were so thrilled with the idea of their person sleeping right in the tent next to them that their thumping tails were heard for quite a while, but nobody seemed to mind.

“It made me laugh, hearing the dogs wagging away,” says Bailey, who was sleeping next to her own dogs, Journey and Destiny. Journey, a Catahoula leopard dog, wore pink and blue pajamas with hearts on them. Destiny chose to simply wear a dog’s natural attire of fur.

“The best part was that the dogs got to practice their training and create greater life skills,” she adds. “I have always known that dogs can behave, but I’m always happy to see it happening.” Continued...

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Bailey hopes to do another canine camp this summer — maybe outside this time. “Dogs love to have these new experiences with their humans,” she says. “During the set-up of the tents, when the dogs realized that their things are there, it’s like they’re saying, ‘Hey, Mom, look, these are our pillows!’ It’s such a good bonding experience.”

Bailey offers lots of fun-loving classes and experiences at her center, including photo events, biscuit hunts, as well as classes in doggie line dancing, a tunnel course, trick training, basic obedience and beyond, and communication and confidence.

“The next thing I want to do is put in a kiddie ride in front of the building for the dogs to ride in,” she says. “You know, those little merry-go-round type rides that kids love? Well, dogs love them, too.”

Contact Sandi Kahn Shelton, author of “Kissing Games of the World,” at sandishelton@comcast.net, and check out her blog at http://www.sandishelton.com/blog.

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