My family and I went on a road trip earlier this summer. We went out East for about 10 days, camping and staying in hotels along the way. For the most part, we had a lovely time.

At one of our hotel stays, we had a terrible experience. Shortly after checking in, my six-year-old daughter was running down the hall to the indoor pool. A man walked out of the stairwell with his German shepherd just as my daughter passed. Everyone startled everyone, which is no one’s fault, I know, but the dog barked and scared my little girl, who screamed, which made the dog bark again.

The man immediately turned around and took the dog away, which was helpful, but my daughter was traumatized. There were other dogs in the hotel and every time any of them barked, she burst into tears. I tried to talk to the hotel about it, but they just dismissed me saying dogs were welcome.

Now what do I do?

Scared

The most important result of this scenario is that your daughter now has a fear of dogs that she didn’t have before. There are many ways to get over that fear, if it’s important to you and/or your daughter. If your daughter wasn’t afraid of dogs prior to this incident, according to experts, she can overcome this new-found fear quickly.

Start with small dogs that she is already familiar with, say her friends’ dogs, or perhaps any dogs in the family. Gradually reintegrate with the larger dogs with whom she is already familiar. If she isn’t familiar with any dogs, one of the best ways to fall in love in the safest of places is at puppy yoga. It’s a fabulous experience, and a great way to play with puppies in a safe environment.

The dog owner at the hotel did the absolute right thing by taking his dog away from the scene immediately. He could clearly see that his big dog scared your young daughter. And even though your daughter may have accidentally scared the dog, the stakes were uneven.

As for the hotel, if they allow dogs, then dogs are paying customers and have as much right to be there as you and your daughter. Perhaps in future, you may want to stay at non-dog-friendly establishments.

I play Pickleball with three friends once a week throughout the year. We’re not the best, but we enjoy it immensely. We laugh, sweat, grunt and chat in between. One of our foursome needed surgery and is out for the summer. The three of us didn’t want to quit, so we found a replacement, a woman one of the other women knows well. She assured us she was on par with us in skill and intensity.

We’ve now played with her four times and none of us are happy. She’s not as good as we are, which would be fine because the more you play, the better you get. But she’s also highly competitive, calling shots that she misses out, or contesting shots when her opponent calls them out.

And off the court, when we’re grabbing water and wanting to giggle, she’s making rude comments about people, some of whom we know, others we don’t. How do we get rid of her?

Sour Pickle

Find a replacement for your replacement! Be honest and tell her it’s just not a good fit. Will it be slightly awkward? Probably. Will the friendship with the friend who brought her suffer? Maybe, but she misjudged her and that’s that.

I’m not trying to be harsh, but you love your game and I want you to get back to it.

FEEDBACK Regarding date night and the rowdy boys (June 8):

Reader – “Why should the couple’s dinner be ruined because of someone else’s bad behaviour?  As soon as they started acting up, I would’ve asked to be moved to another table and explain why.  The manager should’ve asked the boys to settle down or leave.”

FEEDBACK Regarding coffee for one (June 6):

Reader – “Have they ever heard of a Keurig? My husband always claimed that coffee smelled like skunk. I have always been, and still am, addicted to coffee. It's a simple matter of putting a pod in the Keurig and making your own coffee. Takes two seconds and I would love to have my husband back (he passed away years ago).”

FEEDBACK Regarding the woman whose boyfriend doesn’t think she’s beautiful (May 26):

Reader – “You agreed that she should feel insulted, but I’ve learned never to ask a question that you don't want to hear a true answer to.”