bring dog on cross-country flight...suggestions?

fightinfilipino

first things first, here's some pics


our little guy is the black and white pup on the left


here he is helping us book flights

so my girlfriend and i live on the west coast. we're planning to visit her family for the holidays, and they live on the east coast. a flight from here to there is about 5 hours, not including security wait times and such. we'd be there for Christmas week, basically, up to the 31st.

we adopted this little guy from a shelter not too long ago, and we love him. we want to bring him with us on the flight instead of leaving him at a pet boarding place in part because we're afraid the experience would traumatize him. it would be too similar to leaving him at a shelter. we actually checked out a couple of highly-rated pet boarding places in our area and brought our dog to see them. he freaked out, and i really really think he thought we were leaving him for good.

of course, flying on an airplane can be a traumatizing experience, too. but at least he'll be with us, and he will be able to see us. for practical considerations, he's around 15 lbs., can probably fit in a pet carrier meant for airline carry-on spaces, housebroken, and very quiet. also, we're flying U.S. Airways (sucks, but was the only direct flight to where we are going).

is this an okay idea? anything we should know in advance? what can we do to make sure the airline is fine with bringing him on board?

mightyjongyo

Most airline websites have a section about bringing pets. It'll usually have information about what size carrier is allowed and all that.

Generally it's that the dog has to have enough space to stand up and turn around, and the carrier has to fit underneath the seat. Also make sure that he's up-to-date on shots and all, and make sure to bring that paper with you. There will also be an extra fee, anywhere between 50-150 (that I've seen).

Can't hurt to give customer service a call to check with them, too.

noir_blood

I looked into transporting my dog cross country recently, and what I came out of is that there's not a lot of dogs that will fit in the cabin. As mighty said, they require that the dog is in the carrier at all times and that he's able to stand and turn around in it, and that disqualifies almost all breeds except puppies and toys. But if you're able to meet those qualifications, there's a couple of things to know;

Book over the phone with an agent. Most flights only allow one or two dogs in the cabin, so you don't want to get there and find out there's more than one dog at the time.

Don't tranquilize the dog or anything like that. It might fuck up with their breathing when they're up in the air.

Honestly, I would still consider the dog boarding. It seems like a lot of hassle to add to what's already going to be a stressful traveling season. My dog was very similar to yours in that he freaked out around other dogs and didn't look happy being left in the boarding. However ,we didn't have much choice at the time, so we found the most reputable boarding house that had a webcam in the premise and left him there. I check the webcam on the second day of his stay, and he's happily playing with other dogs.

Maybe consider taking him to a dog park and seeing if he can get used to being around other dogs?

mts

we always just found a friend to stay at our house to watch our dog since she would never be able to handle boarding

one of the joys of pet ownership

Elin

Check your vet to see if they do boarding. My vet doesn't have state of the art facilities but they know my dogs and, as pugs are delicate souls, I don't trust a lot of people with my baby. Honestly, your dog looks a bit large for in cabin flight and I wouldn't trust cargo, boarding will end up being the better of two evils.

fightinfilipino

noir_blood wrote: »

Honestly, I would still consider the dog boarding. It seems like a lot of hassle to add to what's already going to be a stressful traveling season. My dog was very similar to yours in that he freaked out around other dogs and didn't look happy being left in the boarding. However ,we didn't have much choice at the time, so we found the most reputable boarding house that had a webcam in the premise and left him there. I check the webcam on the second day of his stay, and he's happily playing with other dogs.

Maybe consider taking him to a dog park and seeing if he can get used to being around other dogs?

it's not so much being with other dogs. our dog is aloof to tolerant of other pups. he doesn't play with them, but that's alright.

what our dog seems to be really afraid of is that he's being left behind. according to the shelter where we found him, he was initially adopted as a pup but then abandoned at the shelter after they had him for only two years. i'm pretty sure this has colored the way he views places that look even remotely like shelters. even the best of boarding places that we have seen still have a "shelter-like" configuration.

we're definitely not tranquilizing, as we've read that that can actually be risky when the dog needs to keep his balance. we don't know anyone who will be around to babysit him or housesit while we're gone (it's the holidays after all). at this point i'm hoping the airline will let us take him on board. they definitely don't allow dogs in their cargo holds, and we wouldn't even consider that as an option.

Richard

I'm glad you are not even thinking about cargo holds, I have a relative who works in baggage handling at a large airport and from what he has told me it's quite bad.

I hope it works out in some other way.

Darkewolfe

That dog is definitely too big for standard cabin flight. You absolutely do not want to fly a dog in the cargo area of a commercial flight.

Your only option if you MUST fly is a charter plane ticket that allows dogs on leash, which will be several thousand dollars per person. You could also put your dog in cargo, but as I'm sure you're aware, there's a lot of risk to that and pretty much no one ever would recommend it.

For the cost of charter flight tickets, you could easily hire a dog sitter of some sort. It's probably time to start buttering someone you know up to convince them to house sit for you.

Dr. Frenchenstein

You might try and get him considered a comfort animal (i have no idea what is involved in this designation however), then southwest allows you to bring him in cabin, not in a carrier. I flew back from vegas this spring, and there was a lady with a cocker spaniel, and a bird...

fightinfilipino

Darkewolfe wrote: »

You absolutely do not want to fly a dog in the cargo area of a commercial flight.

oh i'm very very aware of this. basically, i imagine myself having to ride in that sort of space for five hours. i wouldn't inflict that on any pet, and especially not our pup.

Darkewolfe wrote: »

That dog is definitely too big for standard cabin flight.

i was afraid this would be the conclusion, but on what info are you basing this?

Usagi

Well FF, even if he fits inside a carrier that would go under the seat in front of you, most airlines have wording that the animal(s) must be able to stand up and move freely in the carrier while in that space

Hard to judge from the photo but he looks too big to do that comfortably

Elin

Yeah, each company is different, but you're looking at carrier dimensions that are between 17 to 20 inches long, 14 inches wide, and 8 inches high. that's pocket puppy size. Judging his size by the fact that the other dog in that first pic is most likely a Chug, your pup isn't going to be comfortable in a crate that size.

mightyjongyo

my dog is a little under a foot high and 20 inches long, and had no problems getting on a plane. if he stands up all the way then the top of his carrier stretches a little bit, but every time he goes in there he just lays down and chills, so no one ever made a big deal out of it.

I have bad spacial judgement from pictures, though, so your dog may be significantly bigger than mine is.

Darkewolfe

Yeah, I could be assuming wrongly. 20x14x8 or thereabouts is the dimensions on it, which is usually only young puppies or toys. I can't tell from your pictures, but he doesn't look to be a toy. I was guessing he was around 25 pounds and probably 15" or more in the shoulder, but I can't tell.

fightinfilipino

so i went home for lunch and measured the pup quickly.

he's about 11.5" to maybe a foot at the shoulder tall. he's pretty long, though, more than 16"? last time we took him to the vet, he was at around 15lbs weight, and that was like a month ago after he'd been with us for a few weeks and eating healthily again.

we also picked up one of the medium-size Sherpa pet carriers just to see if he'd fit. he can stand in it, and there's juuust enough room to probably turn around, but he definitely needs to turn his head to fit. we still haven't put him in it closed yet because we're trying to get him used to it first.

Deebaser

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/traveltools/specialneeds/pets.html

The higlights:

-Pets in cabin count toward your carry-on baggage allowance.

-US Airways accepts hard-sided carriers up to 17 inches long (43 cm) x 16 inches wide (40 cm) x 8 inches tall (20 cm) and soft-sided carriers up to 17 inches long (43 cm) X 16 inches wide (40 cm) X 10 inches tall (25 cm).

-$125 each way

Deebaser

wrong thread.

Manda

When you looked at places to board your dog, did you just look at their basic accommodations or did you look at suites? My two guys (both shelter dogs) did not do well in basic boarding but they did much better in suites, which are typically bigger and much quieter. They also did really well boarding in PetSmart's pet hotels. The perk there is that they can go to "day care" for most of the day so they aren't just sitting in cages. It helps if you have a good relationship with the people there - one of my dogs is a little special (cranky) but the manager loved him so he got tons of attention. The downside is that it can get pretty expensive.

You mention not having friends available to petsit but have you checked out a professional petsitter? We actually found this to be our cheapest and best option, not to mention that the dogs get much less stressed out.

Dr. Frenchenstein

be careful of petsmart day care, i'm sure results may vary, but my friends took their dog to one, and she got into something toxic and almost died. Petmart basically shrugged and said "don't know how that happened, bye"