BootsnAll Travel Community

A friend of our Libby Hadden has a question concerning travelling with her dog and it would be cool if we could all help her.

Here's her question.
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I am moving to Austria from the US for a year on August 1st, and I am bringing my dog. I really
don't want to put her in the baggage area of the plane, but I'm having problems finding another
solution. I am willing to go on a boat if necessary, but of course I would prefer flying. My dog is 6 years old and weighs 30 pounds. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Libby Hadden

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Any ideas guys?

Cheers

Nic

I'm not sure if I'll be of much help, but I'll certainly try!!

I have some experience in this department. We adopted a dog when we lived in Santiago, Chile. Eventually we decided to return home to the States, and there was no question that Andie would be going with us. There were several steps involved in the process of bringing her from Chile, which may or may not be the same as bringing a dog from Austria.

Before I start anything, here's the link to the U.S. Custom's site on travelling with pets. Be sure to read check it out for the requirements for bringing a dog into the U.S. from abroad.

So, here's what we had to do:

First and most importantly, Andie's rabies vaccination had to be up-to-date – given within 30 days of entry to the U.S. This involved not only the vaccination itself, but also getting the all-important rabies certificate from the vet. This is simply a document, signed by the vet, stating when and where the dog was vaccinated for rabies, and that the results were negative. We got a duplicate, notarized copy of this certificate, just in case.

Next, we had to get an "export permit" from the Chilean department of agriculture. Austria may have an equivalent permit required, I don't know.

Third, we got Andie a carrying crate which met the airline's approvals. Check out the airline's website for specifications on acceptable carrying crates. Usually these specifications involve factors such as airflow and attaching water, etc.

On the day of our flight, we got to the airport about 4 hours early. This was a very good thing, as it took us nearly an hour just to check in (we had a lot of stuff!). We did give Andie a sedative but I'm not sure it was worth it in the end. Most resources now recommend against giving sedatives, but our vet said it was a good idea so that's why we did it. It's a personal choice, really.

Some interesting things happened during our adventure to bring Andie into the U.S.:

• Remember that "export permit" I mentioned? No one in Chile nor the U.S. ever asked to see it.

Lesson #1: Just because it's a "requirement" doesn't mean they care if you have it. But it's good to have it anyway, just in case.

• We didn't think to enquire about whether Andie was actually put on our plane until it had just taken off. We asked a flight attendant but she said there was simply no way to know for sure until we arrived in Dallas. Thankfully, Andie was on our flight, but it would have been nice to know that the flight crew did not have any sort of way to confirm this for us.

Lesson #2: Be sure to ask before you board the plane whether your dog is on the same plane!

• After we arrived in Dallas, we went to the baggage claim area to collect our things to take through Customs. The "Beagle Patrol" came through and strangely, the little beagle stopped by our bags. At that moment I was more taken with this cute little dog than the fact that when the beagle sits down it means it's found illegally smuggled items!! After a quick search of our carry-ons and some questions, we discovered that the beagle had detected an almost-empty bag of dog treats we had with us. We'd brought these treats to persuade Andie to get in her crate and to take the sedatives, then just shoved the rest in our bag, not thinking about it. Well, guess what? Dog treats are right up there with bringing veggies and fruit and meat into the U.S.! We were almost fined (!) except that the bag indicated the treats had been manufactured in the U.S. and exported to Chile – therefore, it was ok to bring them back into the country. Weird....

Lesson #3: Leave those dog treats at home!!

• The dog treats got 10x more attention than Andie's rabies certificate. The Customs agent barely remembered to ask to see it.

Lesson #4: Same as Lesson #1

• When we finally got to our gate to wait for our flight to DC, all we wanted was to find Andie and hopefully take her outside for a bit during our layover. The flight from Santiago to Dallas was about 9 hours, and we knew she'd have to pee. But guess what? The American Airlines staff couldn't locate her!! They were very pleasant but they just couldn't seem to determine exactly where Andie was. We were on the plane, seatbelts on, 5 minutes from taking off before the flight attendant found us and said, "Your dog was put on an earlier flight to DC 2 hours ago – she should be there in just a while, and will be waiting for you."

American Airlines were trying to be compassionate by getting Andie on an earlier flight to DC, instead of making her wait the 3 hours before the flight from Dallas. But that meant even more time for Andie to wait to get out of her crate. As it turned out, none of the airport staff at Wash Dulles would let her out, as she's pretty big (100lbs) and they didn't know if she was friendly or not. So poor Andie just sat there, alone in her crate for about 2-3 hours until we arrived in DC. Ironically, our family saw her in the crate, but didn't approach because none of them knew it was our dog (they'd never seen her before). Had they known it was Andie, they would have let her out.

Lesson #5: If you have a connecting flight. contact the airline(s) in advance about what will happen with your dog after it first arrives in the U.S. If you are able to get the dog on an earlier flight (without you on that flight as well), make arrangements so family/friends can receive your dog when it comes in. If you do not want the dog send ahead of you, the clarify and confirm that with the airline(s).

However!! Don't let this discourage you!!

There are a lot of things we could have done differently, questions we could have asked, etc., to avoid some of the problems we'd encountered. We didn't know then what we know now – and what I'm now passing along to you.

The most important thing was, Andie got to the States in one piece. It was an ordeal but once it was over, it was over.

That flight was in May 1997. Andie just turned 7 years old last Friday, and is doing great. (that's me and her down there!)

~ Jenney



You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

[This message was edited by Jenney on 22 April 2002 at 22:06.]