(upbeat music) – Hello hello, welcome
back to another video. Today's video is actually a request from one of my friends who is picking up a brand
new puppy this week, super exciting, look at how cute this adorable pup is. She is a standard American Eskimo, so yes eskie just like Kokoro, my friends are going to go pick her up from another state from where they live, so they're gonna have to fly and fly back with the puppy. We've gone through the process
of flying with our dogs, both Kokoro and Chibi, and also picking up Kibo when
he was just nine weeks old. So I thought I would make a
video and talk about the process in case any of you are preparing to pick up a puppy of your own. When you're booking your flight you want to double check the requirements for flying with pets with
that specific airline. So some airlines do have
minimum age requirements for puppies to fly. I flew with Alaska when we picked up Kibo and they did not have a
minimum age requirement. But you want to be careful because sometimes people
are picking up puppies when they're nine, ten weeks old and there might be a
minimum age requirement of say 12 weeks old.
I'm not sure exactly the details so just double check with the airline that you're planning on flying with before you actually make that reservation. The first thing you want to do after you book your flight
to pick up the puppy is call your airline and let them know that you are going to be flying with a pet on the leg that's returning. Each airline is a little bit different but you are going to have to pay a pet fee for flying your puppy. A lot of them do have a
maximum number of pets allowed per flight, so I always call right away after I make the booking to make sure that no time is wasted and that I'm going to be
able to fly with my dog on the flight that I want to. Once you've called the airline and told them that you're
gonna flying with a dog, there's nothing you really
need to do with the airline until the day of the flight.
In the meantime, you can start preparing all
the things that you'll need to fly and pick up your puppy. So you'll need a carrier that is going to fit them, and make sure you check with your breeder what the size and weight of your puppy will approximately be, but the safest bet is just to go with the largest carrier
that is allowed to fly, and you want to make sure
that your carrier is approved by the airlines, and will fit underneath
the seat in front of you but will still comfortably fit your puppy. When we flew with Kibo, we flew with this Roverland carrier that we have used with Kokoro and Chibi as adults as well. Kibo is a really large breed dog so he was definitely
nearing that maximum size that a puppy could be to fly, so also make sure you work
that out with your breeder to make sure that your
puppy is going to fit in the carrier when you're gonna go pick them up to fly back in cabin. You don't wanna be stuck with a situation where you get to the airport and the gate agent says
that your puppy is too big and they can't fly in cabin.
The rule with most airlines is that the animal must be able to stand up fully and
turn around comfortably inside the carrier. So make sure that the size requirements are being fulfilled so that you don't get turned away. In addition to preparing the carrier, you also want to bring some things to make the actually flight
or time at the airport a little bit more enjoyable
for your new puppy. You can ask the breeder to give you a blanket or a toy that smells like mom or smells
like the breeder's house to just help the puppy feel a
little bit more comfortable. I also really like flying with this type of water bottle for dogs, it's basically a portable
water bottle plus bowl all in one, and what's nice about it is that when you squeeze the water bottle, the water comes out of the top into this little bowl portion and your dog can drink from it. But if it doesn't finish all the water, all you have to do is let
go of the water bottle and the rest of the remaining water will sort of drain back in.
So it's a little bit more convenient than flying with a water
bottle and a separate collapsible travel bowl where if your dog doesn't
drink all the water what do you do with the leftover water when you're on the plane? Another really nice thing to
bring along for your flight is a really high value long lasting chew, something like a bully stick that will get the puppy nice and occupied if they're feeling a little bit antsy or they need something to do while they're in their carrier. Pee pads are also something that are really nice to bring, especially if your breeder has already started pee
pad training the puppy or potty training the puppy.
What ended up happening with us when we picked up Kibo was we were at the airport right on time and our flight ended up getting delayed by a couple of hours. So prior to bringing him to the airport, we had pottied him and
really emptied out his system but we ended up waiting
inside for a really long time, and as you know, little puppies can't really hold their
bladders for that long so we ended up going to the
airport pet relief station which is most of the time not
really the cleanest place, and for a young unvaccinated puppy, it can be actually quite dangerous for them to go to somewhere where there's been a lot
of urine from other dogs. You don't know if they're vaccinated, or what their health status is. So we ended up bringing him to that area and just laying down a
whole bunch of pee pads so that he could try to potty indoors.
And thankfully with
Kibo he went right away, our breeder had pee pad trained him and he didn't end up having
to touch any of the surfaces in that area, and he
was still able to potty. Once you've prepared
everything for the flight, pack up everything for your puppy. The carrier, the water
bottle, blanket, pee pads, chews, anything to keep
them nice and calm and happy while they're at the airport, and you just need to fly with that over to pick up your puppy. On the day of picking up your puppy, if you can, spend some time
at the breeder's house. Get to know the puppy, and start to try and acclimate
them with the carrier before you leave. If you can allow some extra time so that the dog can really adjust to you and you're not just
showing up taking the puppy and leaving, that'll really just
help with the situation of making your puppy
feel more comfortable.
We ended up spending a couple of hours at our breeder's house meetings Kibo's mom, his dad, just playing with him and
putting him inside the carrier making sure that he was
really happy and comfortable before we left for the airport. One other thing to remember is to ask your breeder for a couple bags of the existing food that
your puppy is eating. You can use this as treats for him while you're at the airport, but you also wanna make sure that you're just giving
him the same type of food that he has been eating at the breeders so they don't get an upset stomach.
If you just bring your own food or treats and just start feeding
your puppy at the airport, they could get an upset stomach and end up having a bad poop
situation that you don't want. Before you get to the airport, try and make a quick stop
somewhere where there's grass where the dog can walk
around a little bit, potty, get everything out of their system, and then try to tire them out a little bit before you actually get to the airport. Once you get to the
airport with your puppy, they have to stay inside
the carrier at all times according to airport regulations. So make sure you put your
puppy in the carrier, fully zip it. The first thing you wanna do is go physically check in with the agent before you go through security. Most of the time the airlines won't give you a boarding pass even if you check in online if you are flying with a dog. They need to check that the puppy is within the correct size, the carrier is within the correct size, and then they'll physically
print you your boarding pass when you check in with them.
So you have to go there to the counter, pay for the pet fee, and then make sure that you can pass all of the sizing regulations before you get your boarding pass. Once you get your boarding pass you want to make your
way through security. You have to take your
puppy out of the carrier for when you go through TSA, put the carrier and everything
associated with your dog on the X-ray belt so it can be scanned but you wanna actually
just carry your puppy and walk through the
metal detector with him. Make sure that there's no metal on collars or leashes
or anything like that when you are walking through security, and then once you pass through that area and get the carrier, you wanna put your puppy right back in. That's pretty much the hardest part is just managing all those items and carrying your puppy and
making it through security, but once you're through, you are golden, and we just made our way to our gate and actually did a little
bit of training with Kibo.
An airport is actually a really good place to socialize your puppy, there's a lot of weird
random sounds and strangers and people, and a lot of people will
probably want to come by and pet your puppy, so we ended up just opening
the top of our carrier and letting him look around. We gave him lots of
treats for being quiet, not barking, being a good boy, and then he was just
there sitting at the gate getting some training and socialization before we got on the plane. When it's time to board, you have to make sure to zip up the top of the carrier again, and the agent that's actually at your gate might do another double
check of your puppy, so just make sure that they're being quiet and fully relaxed inside the carrier as you're boarding the plane.
Once you get onto the
plane and find your seat, you want to put the carrier underneath the seat in front of you. Depending on the airlines, some airlines might be
a little bit more lax about letting the dog stick their head out or get a little bit more space. We were lucky that we were able to do that on Alaska,
on our flight with Kibo. So we kind of just zipped open the top and gave him lots of treats
for being a good boy. Not all airlines or flight
attendants will allow this. Technically the rule is that the carrier has to be closed for the entire duration of the flight, so you wanna go in expecting
that that will be the case. Puppies generally tend to do very well on their flights home when
they're really really young, they're just cute little blobs, and thankfully the air
pressure on a flight doesn't really affect the dog's ears like it does for us.
So they should be able to stay
relatively calm and happy, with all the things that you
have prepared for the flight. All right I think that's pretty much it. For those of you who are going to pick up a new puppy, congratulations, it's super exciting. And make sure you enjoy
this very very fun time of your puppy's life. Hope this was helpful for those of you who are about to go pick up a puppy, and if you have any questions feel free to leave them in
the comments section below, otherwise I will see you guys next time. (upbeat music).
