Expat pets and travelling with them.

We have always had dogs ever since living abroad.  We don't kennel our pet, but we hire housesitters.  Safer for the dog and the house.  Usually, I use our babysitter as a housesitter.

We have flown with our dog, but that always makes me nervous.  Still, he has gotten wonderful treatment.  It looks like he will be flying a lot more in the future.  I would skip the pet travel agents.  Sounds like a scam and if you aren't going into the UK anyway, what would they do?  Booking his flight shouldn't be a hassle.  I am confused here.  I have flown transatlantically several times with our aussie.  Choose which flight you want and then, call the airline and tell them you have a dog.  They will lead you through it.  You may need a vet certificate for Canada but you can check the Canadian agri. website for that.  We have flown BA (spendy) and Delta with the dog, as well as with Tap Air our of Portugal.

Having done it once, and it went reasonably well, I'll post what we have discovered so far.

We gave the dog anti-seasickness meds because he gets car sick as well, but try it before you fly with him.

I agree with Sonho, book what you want, but the hassle was considerable.

What we did do was ask the desk crew at the gate to confirm that the dog had been boarded before we got on the plane, we also printed the dogs name in large letters on the top of the kennel so that they could tell us what his name was if we were unsure.

We also left some water and food in a pack on the kennel so that if he were stranded somewhere too long they could feed him.  Because of his nausea problems we didn't feed him for 12 hours before flight time.

Also you need to be very careful when you fly, while the plane is on the ground the hold can get very very hot and very very cold, so you need to be certain that you are not flying in high summer, and if you must, all bording and transfers occur at night or early in the morning.  The same can apply if it is very cold.  Dogs have died.

We were surprised that the dog was in as good shape as he was when we got him, he hadn't soiled the cage in anyway.  We packed him two kongs to relieve stress and he had a couple of blankets in with him for comfort and warmth.  Also it meant that I didn't have to pack them in the bags

Finally get the kennel well in advance, at least a month, so that the dog is used to it and views it as an OK comfortable place to be.

We will be using our housekeeper to "live in" when we travel.  We also travel with our dog quite a bit.  He is small (15 pounds) and travels with us in the cabin of the plane under our seat. If your dog is this size or smaller this may be a very good option for you.

Bob K