How to Fly with a Dog
Should you fly with your dog? If so, how can you make the trip as safe as possible?
Spring has sprung, at least in my quadrant of the globe, and with spring come vacation travel plans. If you’re traveling by plane to someplace where a dog might have a good time, you might be wondering whether you should bring Dogalini.
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Is It Safe for Pets to Fly?
The Air Transport Association website reassures us that “pets can and do travel safely aboard commercial aircraft.” The ASPCA’s website less cheerfully suggests that people “think twice about flying their pets on commercial airlines,” while the Humane Society of the United States urges you not to fly pets unless “absolutely necessary.”  Statistics on hurt, lost, and dead animals appear on the U.S. Department of Transportation website but are hard to interpret; suppose a given airline loses twice as many animals as the others, are they more careless, or are they flying 10 times as many animals and thus actually more careful?Â
According to the website ThirdAmendment.com, 227 animals were reported to have died or were lost or injured during air transport between May 2005 and February 2010. However, the website argues that that figure may be too low. In any case, airlines have developed procedures that enable them to avoid losing or killing unaccompanied children. It’s a little hard to see why they can’t improve their record with companion animals, especially when you consider that, unlike children, animals are obliged to travel in closed containers.
How to Decide Whether to Bring Your Dog on an Airplane
If you want to fly with your dog, consider her behavioral health, her physical health, and her comfort.
So there are risks in bringing your dog with you on a plane trip. On the other hand, there is no such thing as risk-free living, and maybe that early-June hike you’re planning for the Rockies would make your dog’s year as well. If you’re not ruling out air travel altogether, take the following into account.
Is Your Dog Comfortable in Crowds?
Your dog should be comfortable in human crowds and behaviorally flexible enough to get through the trip without freaking out or freezing up. Is the stranger who bends to pet Zippy in the check-in line risking a snap or a bite? Or will Zippy spend the entire wait cowering behind your legs? If so, leave Zippy home with a pet sitter he knows and likes.
Can Your Dog Relax During the Trip?
As for the flight itself, several hours in a Sherpa bag underneath an airplane seat is really not any dog’s idea of a good time. Maybe, given some advance exercise to tire him out, and a discreet hand slipped into the bag to scratch his cheek from time to time, he’ll sack out quietly. But if you know in your heart of hearts that he’ll spend the entire flight scratching at the zipper and whining, or huddled in a small, fearful ball, then the trip isn’t going to be fun for anybody.
If your dog is too big for the passenger cabin and must travel as accompanied baggage, how will he handle hours of being crated, separated from you, moved here and there by strangers, and plunked down in the strange, loud, vibrating environment that is the baggage hold? A friendly, unflappable dog who loves his crate may take the experience in stride, but for many others, it’s a recipe for misery.
Should You Sedate Your Dog on a Plane?
If your Dogalini is the anxious type, you may be tempted to sedate her. Don’t. The American Veterinary Medical Association advises that tranquilizers can increase the risk of respiratory and cardiac distress.
Is Your Dog Healthy Enough for Air Travel?
Speaking of respiratory and cardiac distress, consider whether your dog can physically tolerate air travel. The airline will require a certificate of health anyway, so inquire about their specifics. But again, apply your intimate knowledge of your own dog. How often does she need to pee in a normal day, for instance? If you’re checking in an hour and a half early for a five-hour flight, that’s six and a half hours right there, and you haven’t factored in the half-hour waiting for takeoff, or the interval between touchdown and baggage claim when you arrive. Even if your dog can go seven and a half or eight hours without a toilet break, there’s a level of discomfort that makes me wince. A long delay can turn discomfort into agony.
Temperature Restrictions on Travel
By federal law, animals may not be kept for more than 45 minutes, either in the hold or on the tarmac, when temperatures are below 45 degrees or above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The limit on these temperature extremes runs to four hours in a holding facility. Four hours in a crate at 85 degrees. Lovely. Some airlines won’t fly flat-faced dogs if the external temperature is over 70 or 75, but I’ll go out on a limb and say that I think the risks of air travel outside the passenger cabin are too high for English Bulldogs, French Bulldogs, Pugs, and other flat-faced dogs. Their malformed airway makes it impossible for them to cool themselves effectively, and many individuals of these breeds suffer respiratory distress even under everyday conditions. Leave them home.
Help Keep Your Dog Safe During Air Travel
If the factors add up right for you, and you’ve checked your airline’s requirements as well as those of your destination if you’re traveling abroad, the following tips can help keep your dog safe and make her trip more pleasant.
First and foremost, book a nonstop flight. Every stop increases the chance that you’ll be delayed, and every transfer increases the chance that your dog will be lost. I also advise strongly that you travel with your dog, not ship her as unaccompanied cargo.
Choose a Strong, Comfortable Crate
Get a crate big enough for your dog to stand up, lie down, and turn around. No matter what it says on the label, there is no such thing as a travel kennel “pre-approved” by any airline or by the International Air Transport Association, although most airlines do bar crates with wheels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture website offers a terrific explanation of how to evaluate a crate. Do you know how to judge the strength of the door? I didn’t! It should be metal, and it should attach with four metal rods to the body of the crate.
Label and Personalize Your Dog’s Crate
Attach “Live Animal” stickers to the crate–they probably came with, but if not you can find them at pet supply stores. Use indelible marker to draw arrows labeled “This Side Up” on the sides and back. Also write your dog’s name and your contact information on the crate. Attach a clear plastic bag with a color photo of your dog, and it can’t hurt to decorate with colorful stickers and hand-drawn hearts. Baggage handling is a monotonous job–let your dog’s crate catch the workers’ eyes and draw out that extra little bit of TLC. While you’re at it, tell every single airline employee you have contact with that you are traveling with your dog. There will be animal lovers among them. The more friendly eyes on your dog’s itinerary, the better.
Make Sure Your Dog Has Plenty of ID
Your dog should be microchipped and wearing a flat buckle collar with her tags. I hope you never use a choke chain or prong collar on your dog, anyway, but certainly she should not be wearing one while crated. Check that the tag info is up-to-date and add an instant make-it-yourself tag with info specific to the trip.  Provide comfortable bedding. The airline may require you to provide water, in which case freeze it in the dish overnight so your dog doesn’t wind up in a puddle. The American Veterinary Medical Association advises that most dogs feel more comfortable traveling on a nearly empty stomach. The airline may also want you to provide food, but try to get away with just taping a token bag of food to the top of the crate. If the plane trip is so long that you’re looking at more than one somewhat delayed meal, your dog should stay home.
Why I Don’t Fly with My Dogs
I used to fly with my dog Izzy years ago. No catastrophe ever occurred, and usually the airline personnel were kind and helpful. In pre-9/11 days, one airline even used to allow me into the baggage handling area with Iz, so I could watch her crate being loaded on the plane.
But then there was that other airline. The first time her crate was put out on the luggage carousel instead of brought to me on a handcart, my complaint got me a hundred-dollar gift certificate, an apology, and a promise that nothing like that would ever happen again. On the very flight I booked with that gift certificate, guess what? My crated dog was dumped on the carousel. That was the end of that. Izzy, Juni, and their housemate cats love our pet sitter, and there’s something to be said for vacations where I don’t have to get up early to take anybody for a walk.
For a travel alternative, please see my other episode on dogs and car safety.
Send your questions and comments to dogtrainer@ quickanddirtytips.com, and I may use them in a future article. I Twitter as Dogalini, and you can also find me on Facebook, where I post links to articles and videos and respond to your questions. Thanks for reading!
Resources
The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers pet travel tips here, including how to spot and avoid pet-shipping scams and how to evaluate a travel kennel.
The American Veterinary Medical Association has this terrific downloadable brochure with advice on all forms of travel with pets.
ASPCA tips for air travel are here.
Humane Society of the United States advises against air travel for pets here.
The AAA offers a brief, clear rundown of transport regs here.
Here’s an example of an instant tag you can make for travel. I’m not endorsing any particular company or tag, but it’s a nice extra that this one has a reflector.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Jolanta holds professional certifications in both training and behavior counseling and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She also volunteered with Pet Help Partners, a program of the Humane Society of the United States that works to prevent pet relinquishment. Her approach is generally behaviorist (Pavlovian, Skinnerian and post-Skinnerian learning theory) with a big helping of ethology (animal behavior as observed in non-experimental settings).
