Viva Las Vegas

A mix of Golden Nugget and Caesars Palace January and November 2025

2025 was a year of exploring and so of course we had to check out the dog friendly culture of Vegas not only once but twice this year!

The first trip Cosmo did to Vegas with me was in January of 2025. We went with our friends from Quebec snd had booked a trip to stay in Palm Springs at the Caliente Tropic Hotel which I will include in a different blog as it is one of my favorite dog friendly hotels to stay in Palm Springs.

After Palm Springs our next stop was the Golden Nugget located on Fremont Street in Old Town Vegas. I had always wanted to stay here and had no idea they were dog friendly. I was really excited to bring Cosmo here and see how he would do in the chaos that is Vegas. I would say Vegas is not the first place I would think to bring a dog as the noise, lights, action would stress and freak out most dogs. But after living in the hustle and bustle that is Hollywood, I feel Cosmo has shown me that he actually does pretty well and seems to enjoy a lot of activity.

I think one of the values of traveling to a lot of different types of environments with a very young dog, and making it a positive experience, is that they are exposed to situations that may be too overwhelming for them later in life. I find a lot of dogs who grow up in quiet householdes or neighborhoods tend to be more noise sensitive once they are exposed to more.

My hope with Cosmo was to expose him to more situations early on so that he would develop a familiarity with a lot of various scenarios, encourage him to be confident and explore these areas, and that way when he is in a high stress situation he has the ability to manage his emotions and behaviors without falling apart.

I feel these kinds of things get trained in a lot of service animals but we do not always apply it to our pets. We tend to shelter our pets more or avoid bringing them places we know are not good for pets or that we know we will be burdened by having to deal with their needs. While I have also had dogs in the past I have had to shelter and keep away from environments that stress them out, I have also seen the benefits of taking a very young dog out into the world and exposing them to things before they have an opportunity to develop fear or negative associations.

I encourage Cosmo to explore and meet people in a way that promotes confidence, and I also encourage him to ignore and avoid people or dogs that do not want his attention. He is developing a better balance between making smart choices as he gets older that requires less coaxing from me and shows that this work is paying off. With that said we are not perfect and Cosmo has communicated to me when he is not happy in a situation, I do my best given the circumstances to accommodate his needs where I can. I think it is a give and take relationship and I try to comfort him in situations that aren’t ideal.

Surprisingly Vegas has been a really amazing environment to watch him in as he navigates the chaos of casinos, bright lights, and loud music.

People in Vegas absolutely loved seeing Cosmo and he got a lot of affection as we walked around the hotel.

I will say I was surpised that Fremont Street actually has a strict dog policy where techincally they do not want you walking your dog unless it is a service dog, so I ended up having to carry Cosmo for some of the walks we took. While Cosmo is not a certified service dog I do consider him to be a Psychiatric Service Dog to me as he checks all of the boxes for what those requirements are for me in my life. There is not an actual legitimate certificate for this or governing body in the United States and you can legally train your own service dog, which is what I have been working on with him.

At some point I hope to have him meeting all of the PSD requirements. We still have some boxes we are working on.

Now one of the places I went to for the first time while being in Vegas was the Arts District that is located just about 10 minutes outside of Old Town. I couldn’t believe I had been to Vegas so many times and had never been to this neighborhood. There were tons of shops, restaurants, and cafe’s where I could bring Cosmo in with me.

Caesars Palace November 2025

We enjoyed exploring this area and I highly recommend it if you haven’t been.

Our second trip to Vegas this year was in November and took place at Caesers Palace, another hotel I have always wanted to stay in and hadn’t before. I just realized I got to check two hotels off my Vegas bucket list this year, that is cool!

Caesars boasts itself as being one of the best pet friendly hotels on the strip, and I can say after staying there I don’t disagree. However they didn’t really take the time to give us a clear map of where the dog relief areas on the property were but it wasn’t too hard to figure out with some exploring.

Because I am Vegan it limits some of options for us to eat, but what I was so happy to find was a True Love Kitchen located in the restarauant area of the shops. While it was a bit of a trek from our room to walk there every day, it was a nice way to get some steps in before Brunch.

What I love about True Food Kitchen is that they have great vegan options and an assortment of healthy non vegan options so I was able to eat and also order plain Chicken breast for Cosmo everyday. Cosmo ate at the table with us and it made for a nice ritual every morning before we set out for adventures.

Caesars Palace has a large assortment of high end designer shops as well as your standard department or mall store shops, and all of them welcomed Cosmo in with open arms. Cosmo had a great time exploring Zara, Saint Laurent, Gucci, Dyptique, and more. It was pretty fun to go eat, shop, and then walk around Vegas with him in his cute outfits. He got a lot of attention from everyone and he seemed to soak up every second of it.

Roys stop in Amboy is always a fun one on the way to Vegas