Travel with Pets - Flying dogs from Europe... Need advice

My daughter and her boyfriend are traveling home from Frankfort to Boston on Lufthansa in early July. Friends of ours (Basset Hound breeders) are asking them to bring two Basset puppies with them. A few facts:

The puppies will be 2.5 months old at that time and likely at or above 9kg.
My daughter and her boyfriend have no ownership interests in the dogs.
After they get to Boston, one goes to Idaho and the other stays in Boston.

Questions: What is the best way to do this? Are they a carry-on? Does my daughter have to physically transfer the dog goint to Idaho to an American (or whoever) flight? We are talkiing about 7 hours in the air from Frankfort to Boston and they are puppies. If I know I cannot hold it that long, I doubt they can either.

Please. Any thoughts on this? And maybe it might be cheaper for the breeder to pay for them to fly over as air cargo and not have my kid involved at all. I really do not know. Anybody?:confused:

My daughter and her boyfriend are traveling home from Frankfort to Boston on Lufthansa in early July. Friends of ours (Basset Hound breeders) are asking them to bring two Basset puppies with them. A few facts:

The puppies will be 2.5 months old at that time and likely at or above 9kg.
My daughter and her boyfriend have no ownership interests in the dogs.
After they get to Boston, one goes to Idaho and the other stays in Boston.

Questions: What is the best way to do this? Are they a carry-on? Does my daughter have to physically transfer the dog goint to Idaho to an American (or whoever) flight? We are talkiing about 7 hours in the air from Frankfort to Boston and they are puppies. If I know I cannot hold it that long, I doubt they can either.

Please. Any thoughts on this? And maybe it might be cheaper for the breeder to pay for them to fly over as air cargo and not have my kid involved at all. I really do not know. Anybody?:confused:

I am pretty sure 8kg is the limit for a cabin pet so they would have to go in the hold.

Any thoughts on this? And maybe it might be cheaper for the breeder to pay for them to fly over as air cargo and not have my kid involved at all. I really do not know. Anybody?:confused:

With the greatest respect possible to you, your kids and the breeder, why doesn't the latter have the animals shipped properly as air cargo?

If anything, heaven forfend, was to go wrong at any point then the breeder would have proper redress in law. If the dogs are shipped professionally they will get better treatment than the humans on board their flight, with proper veterinary care at every point in their journey..

Most importantly, your friendship with the breeder is doubtless worth far more to you both than him/her saving a few hundred bucks in shipping charges.

I understand what you aree saying. This is a relatively new breeder and we are just trying to help her. Nothing more.

With regard to your statements regarding "better treatment, " in the news recently has been a spate of articles reagarding INhumane treatment that has resulted in the death of animals and other cases where an unattended animal getting loose at OAK or SFO and being lost in the maze for months. That's better?

It was felt, that for such a long journey, a personal touch might be better. Hey, from SFO to LAX, yeah, ship them, probably OK. For something that long, somebody for gets water and they dehydrate... bad news. Cost isn't the overriding factor here. Thsi breeder has been waiting for months for these dogs and wants to be POSITIVE they reach her intact.

if you have the time, go to aa.com.....in the upper right corner is a place to search.....type in pets & click.....might be worth your time....

Something sounds fishy to me. The most obvious red flag is the age of the pups. 10 weeks old is pretty early to be leaving a reputable breeder. I would steer clear of this.

Please continue to follow this thread in the Travel With Pets Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

read what aa says.....too much applicable info to post....

I understand what you aree saying. This is a relatively new breeder and we are just trying to help her. Nothing more.

With regard to your statements regarding "better treatment, " in the news recently has been a spate of articles reagarding INhumane treatment that has resulted in the death of animals and other cases where an unattended animal getting loose at OAK or SFO and being lost in the maze for months. That's better?

It was felt, that for such a long journey, a personal touch might be better. Hey, from SFO to LAX, yeah, ship them, probably OK. For something that long, somebody for gets water and they dehydrate... bad news. Cost isn't the overriding factor here. Thsi breeder has been waiting for months for these dogs and wants to be POSITIVE they reach her intact.

You publicly asked for advice. I tried to advise you.

You then negatively - and publicly - took issue with that suggestion, suggesting that my counsel was "inhumane".

I've learned a lesson from this exchange: never try to help a person who did not even have the grace to say "thank you". Next time ask the ASPCA.

You might want to research the entry requirements some more. When I bought a Scottish Fold kitten in the US and brought her with me to Europe, there were very specific age requirements for how old she had to be, when she had to have her rabies shot (and microchip) and how many days/weeks before travel she had to have the rabies shot. IIRC she had to be at least 12 weeks old to travel to Europe and she had to have the rabies shot 30 days before travel. I suspect that the US would have similar requirements for animal entry.

As far as the puppies being able to "hold it", there are these Pampers-like products called puppy papers that are absorbent and are useful in lining the carriers for "accidents". I put one in the carrier for my kitten but she didn't have any accidents. She managed to travel from CT to Cyprus (3 different flights) with me and did quite well. I di have her in the cabin with me the entire time.

My daughter and her boyfriend are traveling home from Frankfort to Boston on Lufthansa in early July. Friends of ours (Basset Hound breeders) are asking them to bring two Basset puppies with them. A few facts:

The puppies will be 2.5 months old at that time and likely at or above 9kg.
My daughter and her boyfriend have no ownership interests in the dogs.
After they get to Boston, one goes to Idaho and the other stays in Boston.

Questions: What is the best way to do this? Are they a carry-on? Does my daughter have to physically transfer the dog goint to Idaho to an American (or whoever) flight? We are talkiing about 7 hours in the air from Frankfort to Boston and they are puppies. If I know I cannot hold it that long, I doubt they can either.

Please. Any thoughts on this? And maybe it might be cheaper for the breeder to pay for them to fly over as air cargo and not have my kid involved at all. I really do not know. Anybody?:confused:

I think you already have your answer in your own words, I have bolded them in red above.

I wouldn't get involved in the international transport of an animal that wasn't mine or my sons. I have spent a lot of time in and around airports. I can tell you I have seen basset hounds, beagles, german shepherds, chicken and rabbits come in one day and rejected the next and sent back to the shipper due to paperwork or the animal wasn't represented correctly. Once an 11 year old basset hound came in with a Vet certification that he was 1 year old, a day or so later the receiver brought his vet out and the basset was about 11 or 12. Not breeding stock from Germany they paid the big bucks for but a worn out girl, bless her heart.

I know they are puppies but who needs the paperwork and responsibility of transporting someone's else's dog? I am also against shipping animals as cargo, I recommend taking them in cabin which would mean the new dog owner would need to go retrieve them. If I go somewhere with my girls they fly in cabin with me and I pay for another person's ticket so I can have one and my friend can carry one. They are small girls and I could put them in the same crate but I don't want to. They fit but they have very little room if there are two in one carrier.

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