Dog is God in Reverse- My Life With Dogs

This is a hot button topic for many but for some of us there wasn’t a choice. I am talking about when we moved from Anchorage, AK to Redwood City, CA. The drive was over 3000 miles long and took 72 hours of straight driving which we spread over a week.

The time alone would have made it difficult with two dogs (we only had Baily and Mesa at the time) but the bigger issue was Breed Specific Legislation. The cities on the route were littered with it. Taking another route is not an option when you are in the middle of nowhere. We could have asked each city for permission to drive through with our dogs or even done it hoping to not get caught but we were putting dogs at a huge risk of getting taken away and put to sleep just because they are pit bulls.

So that left the option of flying the dogs cargo which we had heard some horror stories about but the risk was much less for us that the real risk of BSL. We were lucky to be flying the dogs out of a location that deals with dogs in cargo all the time since that is a common way for people to get their dogs to Alaska.

We did a couple things to get the dogs ready. Because of Mesa’s issue with crates we got some mild sedatives and made sure to work with our awesome vet on a dosage that would make her calm but not make her pass out. The day before the flight we also took the dogs to their favorite daycare from the moment they opened to the moment they closed. The girls had 12 straight hours of running and playing meaning that they were still pooped the next day.

Because it was no longer tourist season when we flew the girls, there were no direct flights from Anchorage to San Fran and they had to stop in Seattle. This made the trip a little bit longer but it was the fastest route possible for us. When I picked the dogs up in San Fran. the staff was amazing. Knowing how long the dogs had been in transit, they brought them right to me and allowed me to take them out for a stretch and potty break before sending all the paperwork.

Then came to see if flying a dog in cargo could really change its personality. For us it changed Mesa is a good way. We used to have to confine her in some way if we weren’t home no matter how much she hated crates (she was so much better if Baily was next to her) but after the flight its like she vowed to be so good she wouldn’t have to be crated again. I had the pups alone in Redwood City for a month so they had to be home alone while I was at work and I could now leave them both out.

The jury is still out on if it changed Baily. Baily has always been a whiny dog but it got worse after we moved to Redwood City. My husband thinks it was due to the “trauma” she thought she experienced while flying. I think it has to do with her extended periods of being home alone while I was working. In AK Baily spent some time coming to work with me and after that was no longer possible there was always someone home with her since the hubs and I worked split shifts. She is such a people dependent dog that I think being home alone for 8-10 hours made her more whiny and not the flight but that is something that will always be open for debate in our house.

So this leaves the question, would I do it again? And for us the answer is YES. We plan to move back to AK in a couple years and the BSL issue hasn’t gone away. Our experience was a great one and while I would love to say I would take all the time in the world to drive around the cities with BSL I have to live in a practical world where I know that just isn’t feasible.

So what about everyone here, have you ever flown a dog in cargo?