Traveling dogs!

[sophie]

My little mini poodle and I just successfully completed an overseas round trip and she was a gem! Only 5 months when we left, and she behaved perfectly, peed in the designated area by the gate right before boarding, then stayed put in her little carrier all closed-up, under the seat, didn’t make a sound.
Same thing on the way back.She was older (8 months) and had grown a bit, the carrier is getting a little small, but she can still lay down fully in it. Not a peep, again, from her, on a return trip that lasted 12 HOURS in all.
I am soooo thrilled with her. And she still likes her carrier, goes in willingly!

I wonder if others here have taken their pet in the cabin with them? I want to hear stories!

[2DogsFarm]

What a Good Gurl!

Not flights, but a friend makes an annual trek to visit her Dad - 900+ miles by car - with her 3 dogs.
2 JRTs & a Border Collie.
She overnights at motels she books ahead knowing they’ll accept dogs.
She crates them in the room, so the assembling/disassembling of crates is more work than I’d undertake

[endlessclimb]

My husband and I went and got our latest Vizsla. While we were picking her up, the breeder asked if we would mule another one that was going to Chicago, and the new owners would meet us at the airport.

Two, eight week old, field/performance bred Vizslas on a plane, 6 hours of travel in all.

It did not go as well as your story went. I think everyone on the second leg of the flight was ready to kill us.

[sophie]

LOL I think I would just sleep in the car if I did that kind of trip!

[sophie]

Yikes. Were they whining the whole way? 8 weeks is so young…

I have a friend with a hysterical schnoodle. That dog is hysterical by nature and air travel (US to Denmark) makes her even worse. She gets some Tramadol, I am told, and even so, traveling with her is very challenging

[endlessclimb]

They were ok for the first leg, but it was delayed so we didn’t get a chance to get them out of their crates before the second leg.

The second leg - wooo boyyyyyy. They were total gremlins. I know they don’t want them out of their crates but at one point we had them both out trying to get them to calm and the flight attendants were totally understanding.

[sophie]

The flight attendant told me a horror story about a cat who “escaped” during the flight and wedged himself somewhere inaccessible - said it cost the airline thousands of dollars to free him. Owners said cat escaped on its own…
During our second leg (6 hour flight) we did open the top when we saw she was moving about a bit, gave her some water, and told her to go back to sleep. She did.

[DiamondJubilee]

What a good pup!!!

We travel with our girl quite a bit, but mostly in our truck. We haul long distances for horse shows (10-12hr hauls) as well as Rving (sometimes 1,000 -3,000km trips). We have been doing this for a while and she is quite used to the long hauls, but has tons of energy to burn once we get to our destination. She is large at 115lb so she won’t fit in a plane or train now.

I did take her for a local train trip down to Toronto and it went very well, though a lot of the passengers were scared of her and gave her a wide berth. She did very well until someone came in with a carrier that had a ferret in it. As soon as she smelt it (it took her about 30 min to catch the scent) she surprised everyone with a loud bark and she jumped up from where she was sleeping at my feet (she surprised me as well as she was quietly sleeping for 30 mins). Luckily it was getting off at the next stop! She has a very strong prey drive and I had no doubt that she wanted that poor ferret for supper

[MunchingonHay]

I am so impressed with your pup! 12 hours is a long haul regardless of age, and your pup did it under a yr old. What a good girl!

The only time I have traveled with a dog via air travel, I also had a container of horses with me, so I just let him in the container to ‘go’ if needed. It was a middle aged Jack Russel and they were his horses so everyone knew eachother. He traveled like a champ.

All my other traveling adventures have been in a car/truck up and down I-95.

Here is a photo of my last trek up 95 with a 100lb ridgeback, my old man 70lb pittie cross and GusGus the cat in my Prius. Tampa Fl to Harrisburg Pa area.

Everyone enjoyed the ride. The cat started in his crate, but he cried for the first two hours and I let him out. Once he got to be with his siblings, he was fine. No one tried to jump out at gas and potty breaks. We all stayed in a hotel in NC and GusGus was great about using his box on the road.

Its amazing how much you can fit in the back of a Pruis!

Dog is my co-pilot.

[sophie]

Wow, that’s a car full! Good thing they all get along great

[MunchingonHay]

They all loved each other very much. The only one left is Buma and Ridgeback. Riley crossed the bridge last year and GusGus cross the year before that. They were inseperatable; until old age.

[OverandOnward]

Are there recommendations for breeds that are more likely to travel quietly on public transportation?

The prey drive thing, or maybe sometimes it is the protective thing – is a thing. My late dog had a high drive, of some kind. He would go off on other species with no time in his brain to think first. He was a great traveler in our own vehicle, hotel stays and all. Never flew with him and don’t think it would have been comfortable for either of us.

One time with a ground floor motel room, we had what I thought was the good fortune to have a parking space right outside the room. Dog stood at the door and barked at every. single. human. he heard walking by his car. How dare they. If another dog came by, he alarmed x10. I finally moved the car further away.

If I have another dog, I would like one with the temperament of OP’s mini poodle. Are poodles a low-reaction breed, or is OP’s dog just the best poodle girl ever? No idea, I like how smart they are, but otherwise have never lived with one.

[sophie]

Before this little one I had medium to big dogs, including 2 Standard poodles, and none of them were reactive / prone to barking. One of my Standards had a high prey drive for squirrels and any type of fowl, but since I got her as an adult dog, I don’t know that early training wouldn’t have solved this.

This little one does bark at visitors when they come to the door, and I am allowing 2 or 3 “legitimate” barks right now, but she is being trained to not bark at people /dog she sees on the street for the window, etc. I can’t stand yappers.
Crossing fingers that the training will work, so far so good.

[OverandOnward]

Is there a low-protective instinct involved? My last dog did not bark just to bark. He only barked if there was a reason – and in his mind, he was Security Chief. He was all about Protection Using My Voice.

Also the puppyhood training, to teach a dog to have the split instant of trained thought before they react instinctively. I didn’t get my dog until he was ballpark 6 months old, off the side of the road. He apparently had had no training before that time.