I have had only experienced shipping an animal two times and they both involved international flights as well as domestic flights. The first time was when I moved to Germany. Goliath did just fine and was about a 1 1/2 years old. The second was when we moved back to the US 4 years later. This experience left me in tears at customs. I'm not sure if someone gave him something, it was his age combined with that length of flight, or what but he was stumbling and couldn't stand long. I took him out of his kennel and was just in tears. The fact that I took him out got the employees very upset but I didn't care I just kept asking them what did they do to my baby. I ended up leaving all of my stuff with someone that worked for the airline and just took Goliath. I was in the full on ugly cry by this time but I was just that scared. I took him outside to get fresh air, and to the bathroom so he could drink more water since he had drank his in the kennel. I was trying everything and fortunately he came around and started behaving normally. I was very concerned though because we still had to catch our connecting domestic flight. I was a pack of nerves on the domestic flight thinking of him in the cargo hold again. Needless to say I didn't really 'greet' my family properly at KCI. I just kind of rushed through and told them I had to find Goliath and make sure he was okay. When I found him though he was fine and I was relieved. The second experience was enough to make me never want to go through this again even though I know it has to work just fine most of the time. My own personal experience has been 50% good and 50% terrifying for me personally even though he turned out fine. If I had to do it again I would want them with me in the plane and not in the cargo hold area. With a big dog there isn't that choice so I would not want to do it again with a big dog if it could be avoided... I would rather drive. That's just been my experience though. When you get scared seeing your baby like that you never want to go back to 'that place' due to the memories associated with it. I wish you luck in whatever you do and congratulations on the new furbaby. Be sure to share pictures of her when you can. |