Moving from East to West Coast - ever use 'Pet Transport' Service? (clean, cost)
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Nobody I know has ever used one, so I'm hoping this reaches a wider audience. We're moving next month from the east to west coast. FAR. Around 2,700 miles. My dog isn't tiny, so we can't bring her along on the flight (I've heard horror stories about riding under the plane).
The two-legged members of the family (husband, baby, and myself) should really fly. Taking an infant on that long of a drive sounds pretty awful to me.
Now, I'm a little bit of a nutcase when it comes to my dog. We've never even boarded her before! She really is like my first child, so I'm struggling with how she should travel. I saw the option for ground pet transport. Essentially, a company takes your dog on the drive for you... multiple drivers, so they allegedly don't stop overnight. Any experience with these services?
Have you looked into Pet Airways ? This is a private air transport service for pets.
The airline is for pets only so they all ride in the cabin. They don't service every city, but depending on where you are starting and ending this could be a possibility. Not cheap, but probably no worse than coast to coast auto transport travel. Also much quicker obviously.
I would drive if it was me. Having flown my dogs and driven long distance, I would drive. If you make lots of stops, would it be that bad? A baby on a plane can be it's own nightmare. Been there too! At least you can stop where and when you want when driving. Is your dog crate trained? If not and you do end up flying her, please get her used to a crate beforehand.
Have a safe trip!
Have you looked into Pet Airways ? This is a private air transport service for pets.
The airline is for pets only so they all ride in the cabin. They don't service every city, but depending on where you are starting and ending this could be a possibility. Not cheap, but probably no worse than coast to coast auto transport travel. Also much quicker obviously.
I think Pet Airways went out of business a couple years ago, but it doesn't hurt to double check.
Have you looked into Pet Airways ? This is a private air transport service for pets.
Petairways went belly-up in 2013. The sad part was nearing the end, they had a worst safety record than the airlines for taking care of pets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by abbybernstein
Any experience with these services?
Unfortunetely, you have to dig deep into these services as many just pickup the pet, put it on the next flight to your destination, and hold it at a kennel until your ready to pick it up. Others use a series of pet transporters that are nothing but trailers with cages. One service just cotracts with over the road truckers to have the dog in the cab with them, although some just shove them in with the load. And you have various other forms of services in between.
The number one thing you need to do is ask them specific questions about how they operate, how the pets are transported, where they stay overnight, what about breaks, etc, etc, etc.... Ask as many questions until you are satisfied. You will know if something isnt right with their answers.
There is a service that operates between NJ and Oregon with another route between Georgia and California. They use large climate controlled buses, outfitted to carry pets in individual pods. It has a pet break area, clean water, padded bedding, and other comforts. Besides the driver, it also has a pet attendent. They have scheduled stops along the way (driver/attendent changout) where the pets can be taken out for breaks. It is by far the best way to transport pets. The bad thing is their schedule is limited (maybe only 1 trip each way on each route per week) and they are a specialized to-the-trade-only carrier.
If you use a local/regional transporter, have them provide the name, DOT number and USDA number of each transporter they will be using for the entire trip. Check them out (maybe they use the above service) to ensure they are the type of service you want to use.
There are alternative services (unlicensed) such as seen on U-Ship or a craigslist ad, and they may work very well. Just remmeber it's not only about the trip, but what happend if something goes wrong.
Thanks guys- I hadn't realized Pet Airways went out of business. I have an acquaintance who used them a few years back.
Then under the circumstances I would probably take hubby, baby & pooch and we'd all drive. If you try to fly the dog in June or July it's already getting too warm to risk it. It's the heat that gets them sitting on the tarmac. Airlines are not very truthful about getting the dog from holding areas to or from the plane, especially if you don't have a non stop flight. Never fly a dog anything other than non-stop.
OP here. Thanks for all the advice so far. If it weren't for the baby, we would certainly be driving with our dog. However, the baby eats every 2 - 2.5 hours during the day, and that's a LOT of stopping. If we drove at night while she sleeps, then nobody else would get much sleep! Plus, we would have to be near silent as to avoid waking her. I fear the trip would be very difficult for all of us. Finally, with driving, we would potentially arrive AFTER the movers, since we'd take so long. That's not good.
I'm very upset after reading one of the previous posts that said some of the ground transports will plop your dog on a flight. That's awful. You'd think they would be entirely too nervous to lie about that, in case of something going wrong.
I may be naive, so please help me out if you can. The one I'm interested is Royal Paws. They would only take my dog alone on the trip. I'm sure this is very costly, but I'm willing to do it. Even their facebook page has photos of the happy dogs on their route in the car.
This is a little hypocritical on my part because I don't crate my dogs when we travel, but it's a choice I make. Royal Paws states that pets can be "confined" if you want. So my concern is your dog is with strange people and confused as to where you are, they stop for a break and they dog manages to push past them and escape. That's just my concern, they may be a great company, I would search for unbiased sources for reviews, check with the BBB, google the owner and anyone else's name you can find. Personally I still wouldn't do it.
Never travel long distance with your dog loose in a car. If there is an accident, hard stop, etc., your dog goes flying at the least or gets out and runs off at the worst.
I also worry about a dog loose in a car with a constant turnover of drivers. It won't be the same two people the entire trip. Your dog has to constantly learn new people and this can make for a very unhappy loose dog who may bolt.
If you use this service, make sure the dog is crated. If he's taken out and exercised every few hours,he'll be fine. Good luck.
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