Travel with your pet

How to travel with your pet? it can be seen as difficult and exhausting, but if you are well prepared it can be a very relaxing experience for you and your furry friend.

Some of you know that I moved to Vancouver 6 months ago. I was raised and born in Mexico City so it was a big change to me and I had to leave a lot of things behind. But not my dogs. I had to find the way to get those wet noses with me no matter how.

I’m a dog mom of three wonderful furry friends, Pelusa, Maïa and Gru. And when I told my family that we were moving to Canada, the first question was always, are you taking the dogs with you?

Of course, we are! They are family! At first, we thought it would be a very easy experience, but we came across some difficulties, but that didn’t stop us.

So, I’m here to tell you everything you need to know if you are moving to Vancouver or any other place with pets.

Before the trip

My furry family is very diverse. Pelusa is a 12 year old Yorkshire; she’s the queen. Maïa is a 5 year old medium kinda lab (unique breed), she’s more active and big and then there’s Gru he’s a 11 year old pal who we adopted like 2 years ago.

Something we knew was that Maïa had to go in the undercarriage because of her size, so the first thing was to get her ready for this process.

In most cases dogs must travel in the cargo compartment of the airplane, but there’s an exception for small dogs under 5 kg and service dogs.

Get a crate, days before you plan your travel with your pets

Maïa wasn’t accustomed to be on a crate ever! So, we were a little worried of how to get her used to it.

We bought a very spacious crate. A crate where she could stand up and move easily.

I recommend this type of crates with wheels because it makes your life way easier for transportation when you travel with your pet and have more bags and stuff to carry.

It was a whole process, we started leaving her on her crate for short periods of time and then slowly increased the time. Sometimes we used the crate to transport her on the car.

After a while she started to use the kennel as her bed and loved it!

We got soft carriers for Pelusa and Gru because we were taking them on board with us. The soft crates have to be 40 x 30 x 23 cm and no more than 5 kg with the dog inside. Soft crates are only permitted in the cabin only.

There’s always information on how to travel with your pet in each airline.

Vaccinations and Paperwork

It is very important to have your dog’s vaccinations updated. Then, you just have to ask your vet to give you a letter that says all about your dog’s health.

Remember that every law in each country is different so it is vital that you review the custom laws of the country you are traveling to. For Canada from Mexico we only had to get their paperwork, the vet letter and vaccinations ready.

The Airline has their own indications too, there are some type of animals or breeds that aren’t allowed to fly, so it is very important to check this out.

Airline

Call the airline before booking your ticket just to be sure they still have space for your dog. Once you do this, it is very important to notify the airline that you are traveling with your pet or pets at least 3 days in advance just to “remind” them.

Always try to buy a non-stop, direct flight in the morning.

Each airline has different rules, but most of them let you travel with 2 animals per person, but only one on board.

Pelusa traveled with me in-cabin, as well as Gru with Alonso, and Maïa had to go in the undercarriage.

At first, I was all stressed out about it, but one of my friends who’s a fly attendant, told me that the area for pets is set to the same air pressure as temperature as the human cabin, so I was relieved to know this.

Traveling day!

What if your pet is too anxious to travel

I’m like a mom when it comes to my dogs, so I wanted to make sure Maïa would have a good experience on her first time traveling by plane, so I asked my vet what I could do to make her feel more relaxed.

A lot of people think that giving them some medicine to make them sleep is a good idea, but my vet told me that we should always avoid this. This could reduce their blood pressure and the ability to regulate body temperature.

But if your dog is way too anxious and may harm itself you can always give them some pet melatonin or calming treats.

Always talk to you vet first! The dosage is very important and he knows what’s best for your pet.

Something that helped Maïa was that I put her favorite toys and a shirt of mine and believe it or not this has a calming effect for dogs and cats.

Getting ready to fly

Arrive at the airport early, but not too early as you will not be allowed to check your pet in more than 3 to 4 hours prior to the flight. You have to check-in at the counter, then there’s always another place after you make your regular check-in where you do this with your pet.

Before you fly make sure you take your dogs for a walk, if you can play with them and make them a little tired.

Do not feed them for minimum 4 hours before the flight to avoid any nausea and give them just enough water to be hydrated.

ID/Name tags

Add a name tag on the crate with all the information of your dog and yours. Name, local address, destination, flight number, phone number, email, everything! Even a photo of your dog. You can consider a microchip too.

I added some zip tides to the crate just to ensure that it will be kept closed at all times, and this is not a must, but I bought some CAUTION/LIVE ANIMAL stamps to add it to the crate. This makes people being more conscious with the “package”. Just in case.

Prices

Each airline has different prices but I’ll give you an estimate of what we had to pay in Interjet from Mexico to Canada. You can find information of how to travel with your pet in each airlines website.

Dogs in Cargo compartment: $100 CAD

Dogs in Cabin: $125 CAD

Service dogs: Free

Accommodation:

I totally recommend this website or app BringFido is the AirBNB for dog owners. It’s just amazing!

Other post you’ll be interested:

The Essential Carry-On Packing Guide

Live with your dog in Vancouver