🐕 Traveling with a dog in the USA: personal experience

Blogger Alina Vaikovich has visited dozens of countries. But lately she has been traveling with her dog, the French bulldog Buba. Together with her pet, Alina traveled to the USA, visiting several European countries. Piligrimos shares Alina's open letter, in which she talked about the difficulties of traveling with a dog, choosing an airline for such trips, as well as preparing documents and other nuances.

Buba and I visited three countries. Our journey began from the same country. First, we crossed the border with Lithuania, passed all the necessary checks and arrived in Riga. We stayed in Riga for five days and then took an AirBaltic flight to France.

We lived there for five months. During this time we visited Paris and Nice, from where we flew to America. The very first country, it turns out, was Latvia.

Our trip began by car on December 1, but the dog endured the entire journey quite easily. In the car she rode calmly on the seat, and on the plane she flew in a carrier. Also in France we traveled by train three times from Paris to Nice and back. Buba endured these journeys calmly.

Buba is a French bulldog. Not every airline allows you to travel with this breed. Because these dogs are brachycephalic. That is, their nose is flattened. Because of this, at high altitudes and high blood pressure, when they become nervous, their heart may stop.

So I chose the airline very carefully. Firstly, that brachycephalic breeds should be allowed on board. Secondly, our Buba weighs 8.5 kg. And 99% of European airlines allow dogs up to 8 kg, including carrier, to be carried on board the plane. Our dog's weight in the carrier was 9 kg.

And I studied absolutely every possible source. And “luckily” I didn’t find anything. After this, I started searching in English Google for information about air carriers that would allow dogs over 9 kg on board. And such an airline turned out to be AirBaltic.

The permitted weight there is up to 12 kg. And there are very large carrying sizes. In our experience, this is the best airline for traveling with a dog over 8 kg in Europe.

I also don’t like long flights when the dog sits in a carrier all the time. And Buba is offended, and I feel uncomfortable. I'm worried how she's doing. That’s why I like La Compagnie airline, because there you can take your dog out of his carrier and give him a drink. Everything is as loyal as possible.

For example, when we were flying from France to America, we were even allowed to take the dog out of the carrier. I took Buba in my arms and covered her with a blanket. So they lay with her and slept. La Compagnie is a dog-friendly company.

Which countries would you recommend visiting? There is no list as such, it all depends on preferences. But I recommend choosing countries with a temperate climate when traveling with animals. Traveling with a dog should also be comfortable for you. Still, not everyone will agree to this.

I enjoyed traveling with my dog ​​on the train. For example, we traveled from Paris to Nice, from Nice to Paris. Buba behaved calmly. You can even sit her down without carrying her, and she will ride calmly.

On our previous trips, we always bought a separate seat for Buba and sat her next to her. They took some kind of bedding, she sat down and looked out the window. And no questions ever arose for her. And in some countries, we often didn’t even buy additional space, since the carriages were almost always half empty. But in any case, be sure to lay a bedding. And Buba looked out the window in the same way.

I can’t say that with the advent of the dog, traveling became very easy or, on the contrary, somehow incredibly difficult. But, of course, you need to be prepared for the fact that traveling with a dog is more difficult.

Buba sometimes has difficulties in bad weather. We also feed the dog three times a day. This means that she needs to be provided with fresh food and water, so I plan my day accordingly. If there is an opportunity to take Buba with me, I will take this chance. If the weather or other conditions do not allow it, then again I look for some kind of middle ground.

In principle, I do not recommend traveling with a pet in very cold or hot weather. Because, for example, it was very cold in Riga in December . We couldn't take the dog on long walks. She was freezing even in her jacket. I can say the same about America: when the weather is very hot, it is better to leave the dog at home, because it literally suffocates outside.

It is definitely important to know: the dog must have an international passport, a vaccination certificate and a microchip. Vaccination and deworming are done every year in many countries. To leave your country of residence, you must have a health certificate 48 hours in advance confirming that the dog is healthy. In general, these documents are enough to travel around Europe.

What other nuances are there with traveling with pets? For example, I will no longer be able, if I want, to fly with a dog to Bali – flying with dogs is prohibited there due to the increased level of rabies infection. Also, I don’t want to put Bubu in the luggage compartment, and there are countries where you can’t fly with dogs on board the plane, for example, England.

If you give any recommendations, it all depends on how the person himself is inclined to travel with a dog. If we talk about traveling by car, it’s generally simple. Buy an excellent carrier, for example, there is a company called Ponictaloni. They have really cool carriers for getting your dog into the car. It was convenient for Buba to travel in this carrier.

In general, our dog, from infancy, always rode with me in the car in the front seat. She is not afraid to travel. So if you want to travel around the world with your dog. then she needs to be taught to travel from childhood. Try driving a car first. Then – by train. We knew that we would be moving and that the dog would have a long flight, so we worked with a dog handler. It is also important to accustom your dog to different noises.

I would also like to add that there are a lot of frightening various videos on the Internet about some kind of additional crazy search at the airport. In fact, we had similar inspections at the Lithuanian border. We were kept with the dog for two hours, because the hotels had to fill out some kind of declaration for it, they spent a long time filling out documents and checking the chip. Already in Riga at the airport no one looked at the dog at all. No one even weighed her. It's the same in Paris. And in America, too, no one looked or checked any documents.