Dog lovers beware. If you live in a developing country, you may fall in love with a sad street dog or two. It
happens to some suckers…like us. Bringing the rescue dog home can be a maze of paperwork and procedures. Each country has a different set of hoops so get started early.
Check which airlines will fly pets from your visit-country to your home-country. Since our dog was too big to fit under the seat, he had to fly as live cargo. There was only one airline which would take him during the summer months.
Reservation
Make a reservation for your dog. Most flights have a limit of how many dogs they will take per flight. On our flight it was a limit of five and we were number three. My friend who sends puppies to the States all the time advised us to pay for the ticket the day of because you won’t know until the travel day if the temperature limits will allow him to fly, and getting the refund is a hassle.
Temperature Limits
If you are flying from a warm country to a warm country, there are sometimes blackout dates where they will
not fly pets. We were told this is because the planes may sit on the tarmac and they don’t want to endanger your pet. The airline we flew with also had a daily temperature limit. If the temperature is predicted to be over 90 degrees at any location where the plane needed to land, the dog could not go. In our situation, because we were flying him in August, we didn’t know until early the day of his flight if he would be allowed to fly.
Back up plan
If you are scheduled to fly out the same day as your dog, make sure you have a back-up plan if they do not allow poochie on the flight for temperature reasons, paper reasons, kennel reasons, and my favorite–random reasons that make no sense. Will you change your flight and stay with him, or do you have friends who are willing to do the run around for you to make sure he eventually gets on the plane.
Kennels
There are strict guidelines as to the type of kennel you can take on a plane and the size that is required for your dog. They will refuse the dog if the kennel doesn’t fit their requirements or if they feel your dog is too large for the kennel. There are specific guidelines, follow them. We heard of a few dogs that weren’t allowed to fly because they were too large for their kennels. When we bought ours, our dog was right on the borderline between a medium and large kennel, so we opted for the larger one. I suggest you give the people at the airline no reason to turn your dog away.
Misc. Instructions
The airline will also give you specific instructions as to the signage that needs to go on the outside of the crate, the dishes for food and water that go in the crate, if you can or can’t put a pillow in the crate (usually no pillow, but something flatter is allowed), the amount of food you tape to the top in a plastic bag, etc. Follow all of these instructions in detail.
Smells from Home
A tip from our friend who ships lots of puppies to the U.S. for adoption suggested that we throw in a shirt that one of us has slept in for a while, because it will smell like a loved one. We did that.
Elusive papers
There are hoops you will have to jump through to get the proper papers to have your dog leave the country and enter his new country. Make sure you have everything covered on both ends of the trip. On our end we had to get vet papers from only certain certified vets, then a stamp from the U.S. embassy, and another clearance stamp the day of his flight. The only catch with getting that stamp was that he needed to be cleared for his flight by 4 a.m. and the office that issued the stamp didn’t open until 6 a.m. But after finding the right person, and a few pretty-please
dollars later, we had our stamp. Encouragement fees are required to get things done in certain economies. You can
opt to hire a broker who will help you get all the necessary papers, for a fee of course. This is a good option for people
who have no connections or who have little patience for a lot of run around.
Doggie Drop-Off and Pick-Up
If your dog is too big to fit under the seat, he will be traveling as live cargo. That means you may drop him off and pick him up somewhere other than the airport. Both our drop-off and pick-up points were in light industrial areas, a mile or two from the airport.
Our doggie saga Guate style
The airport was 3 1/2 hours from our house, and our doggie drop off time was 4 a.m. We left at midnight, to allow for any unexpected nonsense. We got to the cargo depot before 4 a.m. They didn’t want to let us in, because our papers had been delivered directly to the airline from our vet. First mistake. We should have gotten a copy of those papers sent to us. We ended up showing them some random email that my friend and I were sending back and forth about me sending the dog to the U.S. It was nothing official whatsoever, but it was all in English and I was hoping I could bs my way in. It worked and they let us in to the secure cargo area. His papers were all approved, we paid for the ticket, and away he went into cargoland. At the end of the day my husband picked him up in Miami, safe and sound.
We found out later, when we saw his papers, they were totally wrong. It was a miracle he ended up in Miami at all. I don’t know when the papers got switched, but he arrived in Florida with papers for a dog twice his size, twice his weight, a different color, different breed, different gender, going to Denver, Colorado, named Licorice. Don’t know how we would have tracked him down and gotten him back if he would have ended up in Denver, CO. So we all
had a big nervous laugh about it, and took him out to celebrate his successful immigration with a huge doggie steak.
