Flying with Dogs: Our Canicross and Bikejoring Adventure
One of our personal goals for canicross and bikejoring is to travel and race with our dogs. So far, our races have been determined by how far we were willing to drive. We’ve always talked about going over to Europe and racing, but it’s a long flight, and we worry about how the dogs will fly.
We have been planning on going back to NB for a while now but recently decided to pull the trigger and use this as a test flight for the dogs. It’s a 4.5-hour flight direct to Moncton (if we take WestJet), and 6-7 hour flight time with one connection if we take Air Canada.
Jackie has done the research and knows all the rules, talked to people that have flown with their dogs and really we only worried about 2 of them.
1 – Will the kennel we need be the right fit and will Luka be too heavy to go under the plane as luggage?
2 – How much time will we need to do everything, and will they be ok once we drop them off?
Kennel Rules:
- The dogs must be in a kennel where they can comfortably sit, stand, and lay down with enough clearance.
- The combined weight of the kennel and the dog must not exceed 100 lbs.
- There are more rules, but these were the ones we worried about. Luka and his kennel weigh 95-97 lbs, depending on how much he drank or ate that day.
- Luka is hit or miss in the Kennel.. I was really worried he would scream his head off and they wouldn’t let him fly because he was in distress.
Arrival Rules:
- You need to have your dog dropped off at the overhead luggage area way before your flight actually leaves. WestJet requires this 1 hour before the flight, and Air Canada requires 90 minutes before the flight.
- You have paperwork to fill out, they make sure you have the required vet documents and they verify the weights of the kennel and the dog and make sure your kennel is the “right fit”.
** Make sure to read the FAQ’s about flying with pets and contact the airlines to make sure they have room on your flight and ask them what you should know before flying with your animals.
Preparing for the Flight
We had everything set and ready to go. We started kennel training 6 weeks before our trip, we started off slow, put them in the kennel for a few hours a day, we placed the kennel in the car and anytime they went for a drive.. They went into the kennel. We even went to the vet, and got some medication to relax them. It’s not a sedative but just something to ease the stress.
To make sure there weren’t any side effects we gave them the medication, put them in the kennel, played airplane sounds on Alexa, and left them.
At first Luka screamed and would kick and bang on the door, kick his blanket around , chew and spit it out.. But after about a month he stopped chewing and just made enough noise to let us know he wasn’t happy and he was in his kennel.
Test Flight Attempt #1
Everything was set. We were going to do a test flight with the dogs. We showed up at the airport 3 hours early; the recommended domestic arrival is 2 hours. We figured the extra hour would be enough. But we were wrong. At 9:28pm (our flight was at 10:30pm), while the agent was putting the last sticker on the kennel after doing all the paperwork and checking us into the flight, she looked at the clock and told us we missed the cut-off and we couldn’t fly.
We were just completely defeated and heartbroken, checked with everyone we could have checked with and it was a hard no. Had to call Aidan and he came back to the airport and picked us up and we came home.
Test Flight Attempt #2
We looked online and found another flight. But this time, the flight was with Air Canada, and it was Sunday morning at 6 am. We didn’t want to make that mistake again. So we asked what time the agents start in the morning. We were told 4 hours before the flight. Great. We would show up at 2 am. FYI.. They start at 3:30am.
We went through the paperwork, dropped the dogs off 1 hour and 45 minutes early, got through security, and watched the dogs get loaded onto the plane.
We pushed back and made our way to the runway.
Then we stopped, and the captain came on and told us we were having mechanical issues and we needed to wait for another airplane to become available.
The Airport Stay
We got the dogs, waited in line,to find out when our new flight would be.. New flight was booked for 1 am. We had Aidan wait at the airport with us until they took the dogs. He had to work at 2 pm. The kid was home sleeping, and we couldn’t call him to come get us and then drive us back again later, it just wouldn’t be fair to him.
We checked our luggage into secure storage and lived in that airport for 20+ hours. And before you ask, yes, we looked for hotels, but everything was either booked or cost $500 a night. But thinking back, It might have been worth it.
We looked for places that were either empty or didn’t have many people around. We set up shop and got really lucky, finding a corner spot that was really secluded. Jackie and I took shifts sleeping, but every so often we would both fall asleep at the same time.. Usually not for long But the good thing about having the dogs is they have really good hearing, and if anyone came near us, they moved. We hooked their leashes to our arms so if they moved, we would know it.
The airport had a couple of small fenced areas where you could let your dog off-leash, and they could use the bathroom.
We had some dog food with us, but with the airport having an A&W, I just bought them some beef patties and gave them that mixed with some of their dry dog food. Giving them some burger patties was the least I could have done for them.
They made us look like rock stars, and it was nice to let people see them and have them socialize with so many people in a really stressful environment.
The Weather Delay
Around 9:30 pm, it started to rain, lightning, and thunder. We kept hearing the announcement, “ground operation is on hold, ground operation is now back in service.” We heard this repeat for the next hour, followed by the dreaded text message telling us our plane at 1 am was now going to be 1 hour and 45 minutes late, causing us to miss our connecting flight in Toronto. After talking to Air Canada support, we learned if we took this flight leaving at 2:45 am, we would have to spend the full day at the Toronto airport, another 8+ hours.
We decided to go home.
Lessons Learned
Now that we have had about a week to catch up on sleep, this entire situation was a successful failed test flight scenario. Can you imagine if we flew to the UK, had our fun, and then this happened overseas? Talk about pressure and stress! When it came down to it, we were home. We just had to wait until someone came and got us.
We now know that our dogs can survive 20+ hours at the airport and be okay. We now know that they can be handled by other people, loaded, and unloaded into a plane. We now know that they are okay when the jets get really loud and the plane moves.
I think we will try again next week 🙂