Shipping dogs - Page 1

Does anyone have any input on shipping dogs, positive or negative. Do you have experience with a certain airline you like or don't like and why. what about sedating a dog for flght or other recommendations is this good or bad to do? How about withholding food before flight and upon arrival? water is moot. I am mainly talking about overseas transport.

Where are you shipping to? I like Lufthansa. I import dogs several times a year and just exported two for clients this week. If you have not done it before, you will probably have to pay for some broker to help and that gets expensive. You should really NEVER sedate a dog for flight. High altitude will change the way the drug is metabolized and this could be very dangerous for the dog. What and when you feed and water depends on where you are sending the dog and how long it will be in transit. if at all possible, send the dog direct to its' destination or have someone meet the dog at the destination to avoid transfer flights, stays in kennels that might not be terribly clean and healthy etc. Make sure you have all your paperwork done correctly.

Lufthansa for sure for overseas flights. They are outstanding (for shipping dogs anyway). For domestic - I prefer Continental, and except for the fact that their flight patterns are limited - Midwest is also excellent for shipping animals. Northwest is ok too. Never sedation. Food, give it but not too close to the flight, make sure dog has time to digest/eliminate before a long flight. Fasting is better if you don't have time to let him digest/eliminate properly before crating. Water, give before the flight but again - enough time before that he can pee before being crated. I like putting a hanging pail in the crate with either ice cubes, or the entire pail full of water, frozen. That way it won't spill, and he can lick it as it melts. For short trips I don't bother with that. molly

Lover 2 Had a flight from Frankfurt to Phila. airport by Lufthansa. Mistakes occurred at Frankfurt they shipped the dogs paperwork/jacket to Phila. and flew the dog to Boston!!! Made for a very long day and double flight time for the dog who was a wreck when I finally got him. He should have been in Phila. 2 pm finally received him at 10 pm that night, that was the best Lufthansa could do.

I have used Lufthansa several times and have always been very pleased with them. For domestic flights I have used, continental, delta, and Northwest. The last dog I received using Northwest, was a disaster. The transfer plane arrived with mechanical difficulties, and was being repaired. The dog had been on a plane since 8am and did not finally reach his destination until after midnight. However, I will say that Northwest was excellent in making sure that I knew the dog was being well cared for. This was evident by the folks who were also on that plane who told me they saw the dog being given extra water, and his crate being taken on and off the plane several times and taken to air conditioning while the plane was on the tarmack. Cargo pick up at Logan closes at 10 pm. Northwest let me pay for the flight at their cargo office and I was able to pick my boy up at baggage claim at the airport. (cargo is seperate location outside of airport) I never sedate, and most airlines won't allow you to. If they think for any reason that the dog is sedated, they won't accept the dog. Which ever airline you decide to use...make sure you contact their Pet Specialists to get all the flight information. Each airline is different as to requirements for flight. Some airlines require more than health certificate, and acclimation statement. Some require a dog over 7 to have a kidney and liver function test before flight.

Usually there are no problems with serious flights as Lufthansa.The problems are in some countries where customs officers began to charge a lot of money for the reception of the dogs.They charge warehouse and many more items even if your dogs dont use this services.Sometimes this fees are higher than the freight itself. The best is if somebody can travel in the same flight and check the dogs as part of their luggage.This way you wont have to give so much money in excess. Dont sedate the dog for the flight ,but you can give if necessary two valeriana pills.Thatis much safer. Have a nice trip!

Dog flying from Germany alone? Definately Gradlyn Kennels/Lufthansa! Dogflying with YOU from Europe or domestically? Continental, Delta, Northwest: all good. I had no end of problems with Air France to/from Frankfurt... Ditto for SwissAir. United charges too much and gave me a bunch of crap about "only" having #500 crates... Made me purchase 700's (for a small fortune) at the last minute at the cargo terminal in Frankfurt, then weren't able to get them through the cargo door of the aircraft on the connecting flight from Dallas to SFO... :((((( Yes... They held the flight while I had to disassemble those G-Damned'ed #700 crates out on the 100+ degree tarmac, provided water for me to hose-off the dogs, and personnel to hold their leashes in the meantime, while I reassembled the crates IN THE HOLD and put the by-then wet and excited dogs back in those God-Damned apartment-building sized crates... Then there was the issue of renting a vehicle that would carry those f--king crates at the other end... at 4-f--king-thirty a.m. in the morning, when we finally arrived in SF... Someday I'll write a book titled "Frequent Flyer Dogs." LOL NOW I laugh. NOT then.

I have used USAirways a couple of times here in the States. Had major issues with the first trip - put my 7 week old puppy in cargo on a turboprop(meaning that there was little heat in the area)in February when the air temp was 21 degrees. I would have had a pup-sicle if I hadn't asked about the cargo hold...needless to say I had a major hissy fit and made them pull my pup off that plane and we waited for the first flight that was a jet... The second trip went better but I had to stay on top of them every single second. If you're going to be travelling with the dog(s), make a complete pain in the ass out of yourself. Check with the counter people, gate crew, airplane crew and the captain,if they let you talk to him/her. Tell them that you have a dog on board, and you want to make SURE that he/she is in the right hold, on board the plane, is secure, if you have to wait or transfer. Shelly, I'm with you - now it's a bit funny, but so NOT funny at the time!!!

I have alwasy heard best from Lufthansa. However, I shipped 2 dogs withme on the plane from Frankfort to Sacramento. We had a stop in Minniapolis St. Paul to change planes. Had mechanical failure and the flight was switched. My dogs stayed on the broken plane and I went on my way unknowingly. While we were waiting I did ask about my dogs and was allowed to walk them. I'm sure that wouldn't happen today with security measures we have now. Definatly make your needs known so someone else can check your dogs. They were affraid on my male (lol) he was only 9 months and sweet as can be, just really big. I think thats why they had me walk him. I just insisted my dogs get a break due to the delay. How they got back on the worng plane I will never know. Instead of landing with me at 10pm I got them the next day delivered to my door by an Airline van. Oh yes, my daughters car seat as well. Had to borrow one from the airline to get her home. All in all, my dogs were taken care of. They made it with clean crates and not starving or overly thirsty. Lufthansa did make a mistake, but they took care of it without me having to be all over them. Delivering my dogs to me was nice since the airport is an hour away. Delta~ another story. Total pain. To get my dog from New Jersey to Ohio, to California took 11 flight arrangments and I lost count of how many hours on the phone. The people in their "pet" division...(rolling eyes) instead of calling names! Booking flights at counters that were not open at that time in the diff time zone, booking flight with cargo door too small for crate size, being a total pain in the A$$ about the temprature on flight day. I had to have my dog taken back to a vet, on her end and have a signed statment from the vet, that my dog could handle a temp colder than 45 degrees. Which by the way was only that cold at 7am. By the time the flight was to land, it would be a nice 62 here in Cali. I felt so sorry for the guy who had my dog. On his second trip to drop her off, I can't remember what happened, but she couldn't take that flight and he left her at the airport, rather than make a third trip through traffic. Needless to say I was rather pissed and worried, about my dog sitting in the APort unnattended. Finally they got her on a flight for her crate size. I believe she did have a layover. I think she had to go to Atlanta back up to Ohio, like a freakin' suitcase or something. I didn't even want to deal with shipping her home after having her bred. I had the stud owner make her arrangments and I said I would be there at anytime to pick her up, "just let me know". I'm pretty sure I wont use Delta again. I did months later geta refund for 1/2 of one of her flights for all the trouble. Wasn't worth the stress though. Shelly, I feel your pain. Write that book, I will buy it!

My only experience with shipping was when my new pup was shipped from vom Kirschental via Frankfurt to Boston by Gradlyn Kennels on Lufthansa at the end of June. Orbis arrived on time and safe and sound. He'd peed and pooped in the crate, but other than that he was just fine and appeared to have had a pleasant flight. And he'd buried the poop under the papers lining the crate, so a quick rinse with the hose to get the pee off of him when we got home and he was fine. He was of course very hungry because he had not been fed that day, but he wasn't dehydrated. The only issue for me was that first I had to go to the Lufthansa freight terminal at the airport to pick up the paperwork for Customs, then drive under the harbor to the Customs office to get his paperwork stamped, and then back again to the terminal before he could be released to me. And the tunnel I went through twice was the one that collapsed two weeks later and killed someone! Fortunately he arrived in the early afternoon so I wasn't stuck in any of Boston's legendary traffic and it took less than an hour to do the back-and-forth, but it drove me nuts anyway. Why the Customs office isn't at the airport - or why they don't have a satellite office there - is beyond me. But aside from that, everything went very smoothly. Of course, no transfers always makes flying easier!