Our only problem was that the dog (a rescued Jack Russell with serious anxiety when it comes to cars after finding him in the middle of rush hour traffic!) barked the ENTIRE trip. No kidding. 8 hours, give or take, of him barking his head off. Plus one of the two cats wasn’t thrilled with it either and he cried most of the trip. My mother had to travel back without me and she had it worse with not having me to talk them down. We have since found out about some t-r-e-a-t-s (in case Burger’s reading this) that have a sedative in them to relieve some anxiety.

They have them for cats and dogs. It took a few for the dog to get slightly calmed down. He was still anxious. But they did work really well on the cat! They’re available at major pet stores.

Wouldn’t wish that on anyone…but if you do then they are an option!

I can totally see that Tran! He’s never gotten that before. We did watch Mad Men at the beginning but sadly it just hit too close to home after working in advertising in NYC so we had to lay off (the client pitches literally stressed us out!). Maybe we’ll get back into it so I can watch John’s brother from another mother. Too funny!

xo,
s

One thing, be sure your prefered brand of food is available at your destination, or bring enough from home. I also bring water jugs from home if it’s just a weekend driving trip. Tummy upsets due to water/diet are no more fun for your pet than Montezuma’s Revenge is for you.

Molly is an Austrialian Shepherd cross, so a lint roller is an ‘always pack’ item, too. (Aussies shed something fierce.)

Hey Letty,

Good question! Burger sleeps in bed with us each night but when we leave the house he happily hangs out in his crate with the door locked (it keeps him safe and it’s how we’ve trained him since we got him). That’s also what we do in hotels when we leave (ask him to “park it” and he goes into his crate with his tail wagging) so it really seems to work for us. I’m not sure how dogs would take to it when they aren’t crate trained at home though, we try not to change his routine much when we travel to keep him comfortable. Hope it helps!

xo,
s

So good to know! Thanks for the tip.

xo,
s

Check it out!

I haven’t traveled internationally with a dog, but I have traveled with a cat (who is probably twice… maybe three times Burger’s size – he’s a fatty!), and here’s what I learned on our trip home from Japan:

As you mentioned, you will have to quarantine them in several countries (check ahead of time!), so it may not be worth it unless you’re moving to that country. I think that includes Hawaii too. However, the (mainland) US allows animals from most countries to come in to the country without a quarantine period (our cat wasn’t quaratined). Also, on international flights animals aren’t allowed in the main cabin, they must be checked with the luggage in a hard carrier. The airlines will not allow pets to fly for over a certain length of time without an opportunity to have food or water. I think it’s 13 hours or so. So you may have to change planes to shorten the length of time he or she without food and water at a time. I brought some cat food with me on the plane, but had to dispose of it before entering the US. Luckily, they allowed my cat to eat what he could before they trashed it. Also, we had to make some last minute adjustments to our trip because Dallas (our destination) was too cold (December) to land with a cat in the luggage area. They based it off the lowest projected temperature of the day, so even though we landed at 3:00 pm and it was 75F, 45 was the overnight low, so we had to fly through LAX, go through customs and back through security (which included a second screening of the cat), transfer him to a soft carrier, and bring him on the plane with us to Dallas. It was a crazy trip! The travel charge was relatively low, I think we paid $100.

I hope this sheds some light on international travel with your furry children! :)