Background: moving two dogs from Denver to UK. One dog (Morgan) is very very nervous, even to the point of being suspicious of his own leash. I spent two months painstakingly working on getting Morgan to go into his crate. I ran out of time to work on leaving him in the crate, in fact he never had the door closed on him while in there.
The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15pm (British Airways BA218 direct flight to Heathrow). We arrived at the cargo facility at 4:20pm and handed over the paperwork while the dogs stayed in the car. The cargo facility was really just a warehouse with forklift trucks, packages and an X-ray machine. Pretty dirty and noisy.
After checking the paperwork I had to carry the crates into the warehouse and assemble them, including putting on the live animal stickers, etc. Next we brought the dogs next to the crates so they could check they were big enough. They didn't put the dogs inside, just compared them side-by-side.
Then the crates were weighed and I had to put both my dogs on the scale at the same time (not inside the crates). Finally we waited for the total cost, which was $2,650 for everything including transportation, DEFRA, security fees, etc. Note that the total weight of my dogs was 105lb.
At this point it was around 5:10pm and I decided to walk them around the nearby buildings to get rid of some energy. I did this until 5:45pm at which point I gave them herbal Happy Traveler pills for relaxation (not sedation!). The final step was to take them back into the warehouse and put them in the crates and close the door. I did this myself, not the cargo employees. I left the leashes with the crates just in case they were needed. We then returned the rental car and checked in for our flight.
A few random things to note: if the flight is delayed or canceled we get our dogs back for the night. If we were not flying with them then they use a pet company to pick them up and house them for the night. They are taken to the plane at the last minute in a pickup truck, and they stay in the crates from the moment I put them in there myself until Heathrow, if everything stays on schedule. British Airways flies one to four pets out of Denver nearly every day of the week, so it is routine for the staff.
The flight was uneventful except for a lot of rolling and a very hard landing at Heathrow at which point I was sure my dogs had just died of fright.
The plane landed at 12pm and it was torture getting through immigration and getting a rental car (note: A Ford Galaxy from Hertz can carry 10 bags plus the disassembled crates just fine). By the time we arrived at the Animal Reception Center it was 2pm. We gave our last name and we were told that our dogs were fine.
It wasn't until 2:45pm that we received our paperwork back and then about 5 minutes later our dogs (on leashes and not in the crates). We opted to get the crates back. Our dogs were perfectly fine. No indication of any problems or even tiredness although they slept a lot later on.
A notice on the wall said that clearance for pets from outside the E.U. can take up to four hours.
We stayed in the Oakwood Guest House in West Drayton for the rest of the day and night to allow our dogs to recover before driving to Yorkshire. This is an affordable B&B that accepts dogs at no extra cost and is very close to Heathrow.
Note that one of our dogs had a Home Again chip (10 characters). We thought about renting a scanner but decided to risk it after reading somewhere that the Animal Reception Center has about 15 different types of scanners. Well we made the right decision because there were no problems with reading his Home Again chip. Along with our paperwork we received a DEFRA certificate stating the dog's details and chip numbers and the fact that they were approved to enter the UK.
I hope this helps reassure future travelers with their dogs. We were incredibly stressed because one of our dogs is so nervous. We even panicked at one point and tried to book on the QM2 instead (but failed). However it all turned out fine.