Tips for having dogs as passengers

[Fipdublin]

Your experience would be much appreciated 

jack

[EricJ]

Avoid the Mitt Romney method.

[1964-M20E]

If it is your dog start with a short flight maybe 30 minutes up and off form airport and return.  Try him out with mutt muffs if he is agreeable to keep them on.

Make sure you have a collar or harness on him and I pass a leash between the rear seats and tie it to the tow bar so he can move but limited to rear set only.  Depending on the size of the dog and once you know how your dog will react to flying you can drop the leash.

The first time I took my previous dog Cookie up in the plane she did real well had her in the front seat on a short leash we did a 30 minute flight.  The next fight was 3.5 hours a few weeks later.  My son and I went to Houston to pick her up my current dog Julet.   We got her from the shelter and 30 minutes later she is in the plane for a 2 hour flight to New Orleans.  She did real well my and son sat in the back with her.  Cookie is on the left and Julet on right

I've done several pilot and paws flights with great success.  Any where form 2 hours to 5 hours in the air and only once did the dog have horrible gas while flying.  I looked back at her and said really.

 

 

[ArtVandelay]

Leave the flaps down for entry and exit.

[Fipdublin]

Thank you very much! Ill google mitt muffs  haven't heard of those.

[Brian Scranton]

29 minutes ago, teejayevans said:

Leave the flaps down for entry and exit.

This is great advice. Otherwise the pup steps on it...

Also, you'll need to take a photo with headphones on your dog and then write something clever like, "Dog is my copilot."

[Ben E.]

Do you guys know how well the mutt muffs work?  I have a lab and I was thinking about getting the mutt muffs, but I'm skeptical of whether they will actually be able to make a decent seal on a floppy ear dog.  If not, then they're just a non functional fashion accessory like those "coats" I've seen on every lap dog in NYC this winter.  The ones that just cover half of the dog's back and ignore the fact that the dog already has a coat. 

[Fipdublin]

Thank you very much! Ill google mitt muffs  haven't heard of those.

[Fipdublin]

Thanks also for the tip on putting the flaps down. This is getting off topic a bit, but we have the full gear set up for our Greyhound. We are new to this but they are supposed to have a single layer of skin unlike most that have 2.

So you guessed it a full adornment of coats and boots. I would hate to think she is just being a fashionista!

 

 

 

[Ben E.]

As someone whose business includes financing pet accessory businesses, I can say that my clients' use of my firm's marketing money has paid off well.

Most of the coats I have seen just cover part of the back and have a strap that holds it on. It seems to me that heat loss would be underneath the dog where the organs are. In any case, if your dog shivers without the coat then it sounds like a coat is the right move.


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[yvesg]

Two words: Dog hair! Everywhere...We took the two Beagles several years ago... no more!

Yves

[cnoe]

Do you guys know how well the mutt muffs work? I'm skeptical of whether they will actually be able to make a decent seal on a floppy ear dog. 

IMO they (Mutt Muffs) are most important for an erect-ear dog but still provide benefit to floppy-ear breeds (which already have some inherent protection with the canal being covered by their pinnae). Mutt Muffs not only provide additional attenuation but also help keep everything in place. Don't try to stuff (a floppy-eared dog's) entire pinna in the muff, just make sure the canal is covered.

You likely want to withhold food and water for a few hours pre-flight. Benadryl may help with anxiety and/or motion sickness issues. And short-snout breeds are reportedly less tolerant of high altitude.

Flap position during loading is a great suggestion too.

Shedding is a non-issue with some breeds such as poodles and poodle mixes. YMMV.




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[Andy95W]

1 hour ago, cnoe said:

 

 

Matching sheep skin covers for the front AND back seats!  Cool!

Oh, wait...  

[carusoam]

Depending on dog size...

Do your weight and balance calculations to know what happens when it jumps to the baggage compartment.

My dog went there and didn't come back. Similar to Hiding in the storage hold of the Millennium Falcon... 

In the long body it gets quieter the further back you go...  probably the driving force for the dog to go there.

Some thoughts about teaching my old dog a new trick. It only went flying once.

Probably get the mutt muffs the next time it goes flying. 

Other dog topics include O2 useage.  You can search around here for that too.

One MSer actually included his dogs in the mission statement when looking for his plane. Read the writings of @Samurai Husky

Best regards,

-a-

[Fipdublin]

It looks like the muffs work.

thanks for all the great information 

yes the coat we have is a two piece - top and belly 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Fipdublin
Added

[aviatoreb]

9 hours ago, Andy95W said:

Matching sheep skin covers for the front AND back seats!  Cool!

Oh, wait...  

I noticed the same thing, except the doggy is a slightly darker shade.  Either Andy will need to get his dog bleached, or bring the seat covers in for a slight darkening die.

Just be sure to tell your passengers not so sit on your lovely doggy.

[mccdeuce]

I use mutt muffs for my pup. She tolerates them. But only once the engine is on. 

We have a blanket on the back seats that she normally stretches out on and goes to sleep but yesterday she decided to join me up front mid flight. I am also leaving her for 2 weeks for work and she always seems to know...

[Ben E.]

I use mutt muffs for my pup. She tolerates them. But only once the engine is on. 
We have a blanket on the back seats that she normally stretches out on and goes to sleep but yesterday she decided to join me up front mid flight. I am also leaving her for 2 weeks for work and she always seems to know...

Beautiful dog. Do you ever worry about having her up front? I've only flown with ny dog once and wanted her up front but was concerned about the possibility of her interfering with the yoke or trying to climb on me on short final or some other inopportune time.


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[mccdeuce]

I think IMC yes I would not have let her come forward. It was a beautiful day, she didn't go near the yoke and she is not the type of dog to get on my lap. She wants to be close. But not too close. So for that I don't worry about it. 

I think it just depends on your dog. 

[Ben E.]

That sounds reasonable. My dog is the same way but my paranoid side starts running through what ifs. I will probably try it someday.


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[aviatoreb]

I took my puppy Strava for the first time about 2 weeks ago - I was guessing she would love it because she loves riding in the car with me - although in the car she just wants to sit in my lap while I drive - I do worry about that and the airbag if there were ever a problem.  She is 14lb so no problem sitting in my lap there.  She's 9months, so not growing lots more but still a young girl.

I don't want her in my lap when I fly for aviation safety reasons.

So I put on here body harness for the flight and clipped her to the co-pilot seatbelt attachment point which gives her just enough lead that she can't get over to me or even over to the trim wheel.

She was not happy....but really I messed up as I didn't get her used to the harness first and so she was nervous and unhappy from the time we left the house, and even in the car, where she is usually as happy as a clam.  So because of that I took off the harness and flew with her just clipped in by her neck collar - which is not what I wanted, and anyway by then she was already nervous and shaky a little - I flew for just twenty minutes and ...she never calmed down really but she tolerated it.

[aviatoreb]

I will likely try again this weekend.  We did some work since then - she spent most of a week wearing her harness to get used to it (for the car too....I want her wearing that in the car).  Truly the harness was upsetting her at first and for the whole first day wearing her harness she was moping around the house acting like something terrible was happening, just wearing her little pink harness.  But by the next day she was acting her normal bouncy happy puppy self.  So after almost a continuous week of wearing her harness she seems perfectly ok to wear it and now we put it on to go in the car, so hopefully she is associating the harness with fun.  So hopefully the next flight goes well.

I want to get her ear muffs but given the difficulty of getting her adapted to the harness, I am doubtful it will work if she is building anxiety just to wearing unusual stuff, much less in the unusual environment.

[aviatoreb]

How come all of my pictures are rotated 90 degrees?

Here's Strava and our other dog, Cupid, who you see is a big girl.  I never thought of flying with her since she is not a big fan even of driving, plus as a much bigger girl, she would be more of a handful in and out of the plane.  She is 10 now, but she has been acting like a puppy again since we got Strava.

[cnoe]

I think it just depends on your dog. 

+1


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[Guest]

On March 18, 2017 at 11:16 AM, aviatoreb said:

How come all of my pictures are rotated 90 degrees?

Here's Strava and our other dog, Cupid, who you see is a big girl.  I never thought of flying with her since she is not a big fan even of driving, plus as a much bigger girl, she would be more of a handful in and out of the plane.  She is 10 now, but she has been acting like a puppy again since we got Strava.

I like the picture of your big girl more than Marauder's big girls.  Sorry Chris.

Clarence