Transporting a dog from Dallas to New York-UPDATED

noir_blood

Between now and January, I have to find a way to transport my Papillon/Shih Tzu dog from Dallas to New York. I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing something similar, and what do you guys recommend?

From doing a bit of research, it seems that most airlines won't allow him as 'baggage' due to his shih tzu side, but they will still take him as cargo depending on the weather(which is why I want to try to figure this out before it starts to get too cold). I don't necessarily have to fly with him, as my fiancee will be picking him up in New York.

From googling I also see a few companies that supposedly specialize in this type of stuff. I'm wondering how good they are and prices.

Thanks,

Dr. Frenchenstein

See if you can get him considered a "comfort animal" and take him on southwest. he can ride in the cabin with you.

I was on a flight from Vegas and a lady had a parakeet (I think) and a dog with her.

I've heard some horror stories about people shipping their pets, be careful!

3cl1ps3

I wouldn't ship him. The areas they ship pets in are not well controlled/ventilated/heated/etc, a lot of dogs get issues or die doing that. I know that sounds dire/overly dramatic but you reeeally shouldn't have him on the plane as cargo.

Dr. Frenchenstein's idea is a good one. How are you moving the rest of your stuff? I would just drive with him, personally, if you're moving a car.

noir_blood

Unfortunately, putting him in a cabin seems to be out of the question, as more airlines won't accept him due to having shih tzu in him-apparently pug noses(even though he really doesn't have one) are really sensitive. At least I don't have a bulldog, as those are entirely banned it seems. To add to that, he's not really crate trained, and I worry that even if I was allowed in the flight, he would just bark the entire time.

And I'm not moving up with him just yet. Basically, next year I'll be doing unpaid student teaching for a semester. To try to save as much money as possible, I'm planning to move in with my aunt and uncle, who will give me free rent, but don't allow dogs.

If worse comes to worse, I am considering driving himself myself, but I would like to save the wear and tear on my car-along with having to take off a week off work just for that.

amateurhour

There's a few national and easily googleable services that guarantee climate controlled smooth road based transport for your pets, but they can run well over 1-2 thousand dollars depending on the distance.

I'll third the comfort animal approach. You might have to get a doctors note or something to make it sit with the airline, but it's possible.

MushroomStick

My dad works the ramp at an airport and says that if you care for the well being of the animal at all, you should either drive it or put it up for adoption before putting it on a plane. As for the comfort animal angle, my understanding is that the way those are handled varies from airline to airline and from terminal to terminal.

noir_blood

Okay, so after a bit of hunting around, I found a couple of options:

There's two ground transport places that charge around 500 dollars- They provide the kennel, the vans are air controlled, and it's door to door delivery.

Spirit airline will allow the dog into the cabin, as they don't require any paperwork or have restrictions on breeds.

We're leaning towards the airline. The Fiancee is flying here before the end of the year, and it looks like flight and kennel will cost about half of what the ground transport does. We figure that even if the dog is panicky, a two hour flight will be a lot less shittier for him than a 2-4 day trip.

Now I'm just worried about how the dog will react to being crated. He used to be crate trained, but once the fiancee left, I pretty much just let him sleep in the bed. At least I have a couple of months to retrain him.