Mahalo!

I am so happy to hear from readers, and especially glad to know that I can provide information to help you bring your pets here happily and safely! You've motivated me to stay home and write a post instead of going to the beach
:-) Doggie health update - no more fleas. hooray. Weather is hot, Tasha got a haircut. Here's a pic of her with a lot less hair, she seems comfy.


Now I'd like to answer some questions here so all readers can benefit from the answers. One friendly reader wanted to know what I taped and attached to the kennel. You might laugh when you see it, but here it is:




Looking inside, you will see that it's carpeted. The light blue around the edges is a puppy training pad. on top is half of an area/bath rug from Costco. The other half is in the other crate. Then I slept in a T shirt for a week without washing it, so it smelled like mommy, and we put it in the crate for something familiar and comforting. And the rope bone is her favorite toy. For the outside:

• I bought zip ties and fastened them through all the holes to make sure the crate would not come apart. The last thing you want is an escaped dog running around an airport runway. Some (maybe all) airlines require you to zip tie the door shut at check-in. That scared me - I would want airline personnel to let them out in case of emergency - so I included scissors in the envelope taped to the back. And extra zip ties, so we could get in and out of the crate during the layover.



• I bought yellow duct tape so I could write information on it. I used a sharpie permanent marker to write the dog's name over the door, our cell phone numbers, our addresses, microchip numbers, flight numbers and airlines and flight times, etc.



• I taped a photo of the dog on top of the crate, with a sign, "Hi, my name is Tasha, I am very sweet and friendly I should be on flight (#) on (date) at (time), being transferred to flight (#) on (airline) at (time). I don't recall exactly, but I think I detailed that she needed to be taken to baggage claim after the first flight and highlighted it.



• Because Danzig has severe separation anxiety, I also taped a photo of both dogs on top of the crate and wrote a sign asking them to "Please keep us together so we can see each other." Those requests are highlighted. I taped all the signs down with clear packing tape. On Danzig's crate I included a note that he is very shy and might growl but not to be afraid of him, he's just scared.



• I used those clear FedEx shipping label holders to include copies of their documents (vet health certificate, quarantine paperwork). I also put the dogs' photographs and signs inside these plastic holders before taping them down in case I needed to edit them before the trip. Everything taped down with clear packing tape. The way baggage is handled, you want everything taped down solid.



• I taped a USPS Priority Mail envelope (made of Tyvek - tough stuff) to the back of the crate. Inside the envelope - waterbites gel (because you can't put gel in your carryon), extra food, extra zipties, scissors, extra duct tape, and those rope leashes you get at the vet for free, just in case. I used a bungee cord to help keep the envelope shut as well as duct tape.



• I placed "LIVE ANIMAL" labels all around the sides with "UP" arrows. The airline travel kit by Petmate comes with some of these labels and the water/food dishes that attach to the door. The labels also have a place for writing feeding/water instructions, which will be specific to your dog or cat. Northwest also provides such a label that you can print from their website.



• I used bike water bottles to hold extra water, after making sure whoever (airline employee) could easily remove the bottle and fit the nozzle through the door/cage holes and squeeze the bottle to dispense water into the dish (in case of a delay). Initially, I bought water dispensers for guinea pigs to attach to the inside of the door, but I couldn't get the dogs to drink and they were leaking so those went back to the store. I bungeed the water bottles to the crate. I also put a strip of duct tape over the bottles on the day of travel to secure them, and we were easily able to take them on and off during the layover to use them. If you don't have bike bottles, Arrowhead and Smartwater make bottled water with squeezy top dispensers.



• We had a special carryon bag just for the dogs. This contained their quarantine paperwork, leashes, treats, medications (TravelEase/ Happy Traveler) and cleaning supplies/poop bags. You don't want them having an accident in an airport without some way to clean it up immediately.



• I got those circular white metal rimmed paper tags - you see them most often used on keychains for identification - and made temporary tags with flight information to put on their collars. I read another suggestion to make collars out of white underwear elastic and write the flight info directly on the elastic to make sure there's no way it will get lost.

• I happened to have extra bungee cords so I used them to fasten the doors shut so they wouldn't swing open during the non-zip tied portions of the journey (overkill and probably not necessary).

Note: Check the airline's weight limits for your dog combined with the crate before adding too much flair!



I know, I went a little crazy on this project. I've seen other dogs traveling with absolutely nothing on their crate but the baggage tag. By the time they're checked in there will be so much more "flair" on the crate because the airline adds their own RED "UP" arrows and other various tags and labels and baggage stickers. So you may want to keep it simple to avoid too much information.
All the embellishments survived the flights. I already posted these pics before, but here they are again, showing the crates coming off the first airplane. Later I'll post pics of the layover, the pet relief area, the quarantine station, the moment we were reunited in HNL, etc.


Note the small cargo door size - a reason to check to see if your crate will fit.





Another question relates to how I "bribed" airline personnel. Well, I didn't really bribe them, and it probably wasn't necessary, but I wanted the pilots to know they were on board and to pay attention to the ventilation systems in cargo. They control the climate and air down there. I also wanted to make sure the flight attendants knew where we were sitting so they could give us the status updates (that the dogs have been boarded) so I wouldn't run screaming from the plane if there was a chance they were lost luggage. I prepared goodie bags with a really cute photo of the dogs. I included a note with the goodie bags (in this case, chocolates) that said the pictured dogs are flying with us today on (detailed flight information) and that we were sitting in (assigned seats) and to please make sure the appropriate ventilation systems/temperature controls were working properly and to let us know any information as it became available. I gave the treats to the pilots/flight attendants as we boarded each flight.

For the question about crate size - I also had the same idea that I wanted my dogs to be as comfortable as possible and be able to stretch out, so I wanted two 500 (extra large) crates for them. See my earlier post http://move2hawaii.blogspot.com/2008/11/some-things-you-might-want-to-start.html
With the airline restrictions, we had to get 400 size, and it turns out that was better. Your pet will want to feel secure and cozy. In the case of turbulence they won't be bounced around as much (remember no seatbelts for dogs). Tasha is the taller dog, and her ears touched the roof while standing, but we had no choice and it worked out being fine. Besides, these crates are a complete bear to lug around, especially two.
I think I already mentioned this, but if your pet hasn't been in a crate before, get one now and start getting them used to it. We even tried to associate them with happy times by loading them in the crates to go on adventurous hikes. We also held "treat time" inside the crates. This way, when it's time to fly, they will hopefully want to go in the crate.

For the question regarding the health certificate, there is an instruction sheet you can take to your vet to have the health certificate prepared. It is located at
http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/AQS-39.pdf
I will go over more details in my future post about final preparations. If you go to http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/aqs-checklist-5.pdf - under step 5, "Documents," it is the third check box requirement.
Whew, pau for today. Mahalo again for your questions and reading along.

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!