Dogs in flight

I'm interested to know peoples' experiences of how their dogs coped with the flying experience? Were they traumatised? Did they come out okay? How long did it take them to recover? We are getting anxious about our two wheaten terriers, especially the male who is a rescue dog with 'issues'! My partner has been training them to get used to the airport crates and has been playing them a CD with aircraft noises!

Sounds like your dogs will be more prepared than mine was!  I've flown my dog from Houston to Cairo and then 4+ years later from Cairo to Salt Lake City.  My dog hates crates so I was really nervous how both experiences would go.  When we landed in Cairo, they put her (whilst she was still in her kennel) on the luggage conveyor and she looked absolutely petrified.  In Cairo, she was traumatized for some time.  But not so much from the journey - I think she was over that in a matter of hours - more out of being in Egypt.  I think she had more culture shock than the rest of us! 

On the way back to the US, I had her on a leash in the Cairo airport until after I checked in.  Interestingly enough for my crate hating pup, the airport was so scary for her that she jumped into the crate when I opened the door up for her.  Then again, I had to take her out of the kennel at JFK for security to inspect it and again she happily jumped right back in afterward.  When I took her out again at SLC she was fine.  You would never have guessed that she had just traveled so far.  If your dogs are used to a crate, it should go just as smoothly for you. I expect that they will sleep for most of their plane trip.  My feeling is that the worst parts for them is the time between check in and being loaded on the aircraft and again the time between unloading and you picking them up.  Really, I think this whole experience is probably worse for you than it will be on them. Happy travels.  

Thanks Laura. That's helpful. Good to know your dog was okay. I will be very relieved when we collect ours from the Animal Reception Centre and take them to their new home. We will have to teach them to woof with a British accent!!

Hope your terriers do well on the flight!  I think its great that your partner has been crate training them.  It will go a long way toward making their trip go smoothly for them if they think of their crate as a sanctuary - before boarding.   My dog sort of learned that while in transit!  For the record, I tried to crate train her before our trip, but I couldn't get her to go in - even by putting chicken or beef at the end of it! 

I flew with a dog and two cats, and they all recovered remarkably quickly.  I was expecting a lot more upset.  I'd been crate training the dog for months, and really tried to make it as comfortable as possible for her. Still, she's always had some claustrophobia issues, and I figured that the nearly 20 hours she had to spend in the crate (the flight, plus check-in, plus the drive from London to Newcastle) were going to be hell.  She seemed just fine, though.  We let her out of the crate for a potty break a little bit outside of London, and I was terrified she wouldn't get back in (I was being driven from one place to the next--if it had just been me I would have let her out of her crate for the car ride), but she seemed pretty chill about it.  We went for a decent walk when we got to the flat, so that she could sniff, etc, and after that she settled right in. 

Thanks Mungo. That makes me feel a lot better.

do pets have to ride in cargo or can they go under the seat? i have a pug, and most airlines won't let them fly cargo because they have breathing issues.

For the PETS scheme, they have to ride in cargo. From what I've seen, most airlines have restrictions on temperatures/times of the year for pets, esp. the short-nosed ones. You'll need to check with the airlines on what restrictions they may have.