Flightster

Have dog, will travel

• by Shannon Albert
• on September 22nd, 2010
• 1 Comment

We have 1 dog but I recently asked my husband if we could get another. His response was that I want to be gone too much to get another dog. He’s right. Having a dog makes it logistically more difficult to travel but we do have some options for traveling while being a pet owner.

1. Find pet-friendly hotels

If you want to take your dog with you, find out which hotels are pet-friendly and will allow your dog to be in the room with you. Check PetsWelcome.com to search for accommodations. Make note of the extra daily fees for having pets in the room plus any weight limitations.

I know many people bring their dogs along to hotels but I hadn’t really considered it until an impromptu trip that required me to take my dog with me. I found it to make the trip much more fun and the hotel itself was so much more friendly since pets were welcome. Ever since, I try to bring our dog along as much as possible.

2. Hire a pet sitter

Having somebody come to your house to care for your dog while you’re gone can be a nice compromise between taking your dog along on a trip and kenneling your dog somewhere. Craigslist is a great resource for finding people. I also signed up for a sitter site once which gave me the name of a local pet sitter and asked me to pay a lot of money to get her contact information. It did give me her name and in the age of Facebook, I was able to easily contact her and arrange for pet sitting.

3. Flying with your dog

Some airlines allow pets and some of those give you the choice between having your dog in the cabin or traveling as cargo. Airlines that allow animals to travel in the cabin will have rules on the size of dog that you can have in the cabin so only small dogs will be able to use that option.

Cargo is an option that can be convenient but also kind of scary. Animals are kept in the same area as the luggage which can have wild variations in temperatures and it’s very dark in that part of the plane. Animals have been hurt or even killed traveling in cargo. Airlines often require the animals to have papers from the veterinarian that certify that they are healthy enough to travel this way.

If flying your dog in the cargo area is something you need to do, use some of these tips to make it easier:

• Provide your dog with a food and water bowl. The kind that attach to the crate can be more convenient so they don’t take up space where the dog lays down. You will need to also have feeding instructions for the staff to know how to feed your dog.
• Board after the flight attendant has confirmed your dog has been loaded
• Transport your dog in a hard-sided dog crate that’s clearly marked with “live animal” stickers and has your contact information

Flight alternatives: An airline called Companion Air is set to launch which will allow you to travel with your dog more easily. You may also opt to have somebody else drive your pet while you fly by using a company like Professional Pet Transports.

4. Dog kennels

There is a wide variety of kennels available for your dog. Some kennels will simply crate your dog and take them out once or twice a day. Others are more like resorts where the dogs are exercised, socialized and provided with rooms rather than crates. The difference in price between the two types of kennels is that the nicer option often costs twice as much.

There is also the option to have on-site pet kenneling in some places. Walt Disney World, for example, just announced recently that they’d have their own pet resort with varying levels of service that you could purchase. It just launched a few weeks ago and they are already fully booked. Like anything at Walt Disney World, reservations in advance are suggested.

I wish there was a good way to get reviews of boarding locations. Obviously personal references are a good idea but if you’re looking for reviews online, the only luck I’ve had with that has just been in Google’s reviews. Search for boarding in the city you will be in and see if any of the listings contain reviews that will help you make a decision.

Any thoughts on experience you’ve had with any of these methods? Any other suggestions you’d add to the list?

Shannon Albert

Shannon loves to share awesome, fun and hopefully useful info that she's collected and to connect with other travel freaks. She loves the planning part of travel as much as the traveling itself. Shannon's background includes working as a web developer and as a digital producer for an advertising agency. She lives in Texas with her husband, 2 kids and dog. New York City is her favorite city. Her blog is shannonalbert.com.