Some things you might want to start testing on your pets - and crate training

Aloha!


I reviewed my post about the procedures checklist (dry and complicated) and will go through each step in detail, but thought I'd first write about something less mind-bending today - shopping and playing with products. There are a few things you might want to order online and try on your pets in advance. I ordered Travel-Ease and Happy Traveler, these are herbal preparations that are supposed to calm your pet for travel. They contain valerian and chamomile. I went to the local pet store and thought they were too expensive so I ordered them online at http://www.vitacost.com/. We ended up using both products, they probably had the same effect, of mellowing out the dogs. You also might try stuffing cotton in the ears to dampen sound. It didn't work for us, they would shake it out, but I read somewhere that others have done it.


We also ordered some Waterbites hydration gel. It is a beef flavored gel containing 95% water and vitamins. The idea behind this product is that you can put it in your pet's dish and it won't spill during the flight, while hydrating your pet and providing vitamins. The problem for our dogs, is that they liked it so much, they would eat it all as soon as we put it in the dish, so they wouldn't have any for the flight. You also can't put it in your carry on since it's gel. So I taped an envelope to the outside of the crate and stuck it in there with a pair of scissors, and gave it to them at the layover as a treat. You've probably heard this suggestion, freeze water in the dog's dish. That worked for the first flight but it was all melted/gone by the end of the first flight. Also I've heard of freezing a plastic water bottle full of water and poking holes in it and putting it in the dish. I got some of those teeny water bottles, like the ones they serve you on some planes, but didn't end up using them. We ended up also duct taping and bungee cording filled bike water bottles to the outside of the crates, so they could be fit through the crate door grates and squeezed to fill the dishes from the outside. You can see them in the pictures from the previous post.
Travel crates: This was kind of complicated for us, but it doesn't have to be for you. We wanted to buy crates early to get the dogs used to them, but there are different size limitations on different airlines so we didn't know what size to get. So we waited until we had booked the flight to buy the crates.

• If you don't already have one, buy a hardsided airline approved crate that is big enough for your pet to stand up, turn around, and lie down, but not any bigger, so they don't get bounced around. You want this at least a few weeks early so your pet is used to it. You will also need two attachable water and food dishes. There is an airline travel kit that's around $4 that includes 2 small plastic dishes and the live animal label, made by Petmate. We went with the Petmate Pet Porter 2.

For us, it turned out that the first flight only had room for one extra large crate (500 size) or two large (400 size) crates. So that ruled out buying two extra large crates, but it turned out that the large were just big enough. That's total capacity - as in no one else could have a pet on the plane after our dogs were on it. I lined the crates with puppy training pads on the bottom, and rubber backed carpeting on top. I took a rectangular non-skid area rug from Costco and cut it in half, and each half fit in each crate perfectly. A bath mat would work too. We then had the dogs go in the crate for fun stuff, like for "bone time" or getting their treats. We would take them for fun hikes by transporting them in the crates, by making them get in the crates, lifting them in the crates so they were used to that, putting them in the car, so they would associate being in them with fun times. Eventually they got comfortable enough to go inside and stay inside with the door open. Well, Tasha got comfortable. Danzig pretty much hated being caged but at least he would go inside voluntarily to get his rewards. This photo is before I went crazy with the duct tape, labels, photos, signs, zip ties, envelopes and other pre-flight "decorations" which I will describe.

This might be overkill, but I had bought a used crate then resold it and bought a new one because the airport security go through the crates in detail and wipe them for explosives, etc. and if the used crate has gunpowder from hunting then maybe it might not pass.

Time for a beach walk!