Come fly with me

[Schouiffy]

Alrighty..

well - Lycia is doing fabulous after her French vacation… we are both settling back in the rhythm of things. However we are moving to a different city in the next month so we'll see how that goes (and how forgiving my new neighbors are of her howling when i'm gone.)

My question is this: We are flying back to California next spring for a period of 4 months while I do work stuff. I wanted to go ahead and buy the crate now so she has a while to adjust, and we travel a lot so it will be useful.. my current crate is a stay at home crate, completely not portable. So the pet store by our house carries the Clipper carriers which i like a lot. We were looking at The Marchioro Clipper Idhra, size 5 (33"x23"x24") … when she is in it, it looks perfectly suitable to me.. and the next size up would fit a small golden retriever. However because she has those big Basenji ears - they just barely touch the top of the crate when she is fully sitting up. Lycia is a petite B as well - she barely is tipping in at 7.4 kilos at 9 months old. So my question to you is - are we going to get busted by the plane police if we use this crate? I just didn't want to spend the afternoon calling every carrier in the world if someone was familiar with flying - esp in the Euro / US.

Thanks much!

[tanza]

@Schouiffy:

Alrighty..

well - Lycia is doing fabulous after her French vacation… we are both settling back in the rhythm of things. However we are moving to a different city in the next month so we'll see how that goes (and how forgiving my new neighbors are of her howling when i'm gone.)

My question is this: We are flying back to California next spring for a period of 4 months while I do work stuff. I wanted to go ahead and buy the crate now so she has a while to adjust, and we travel a lot so it will be useful.. my current crate is a stay at home crate, completely not portable. So the pet store by our house carries the Clipper carriers which i like a lot. We were looking at The Marchioro Clipper Idhra, size 5 (33"x23"x24") … when she is in it, it looks perfectly suitable to me.. and the next size up would fit a small golden retriever. However because she has those big Basenji ears - they just barely touch the top of the crate when she is fully sitting up. Lycia is a petite B as well - she barely is tipping in at 7.4 kilos at 9 months old. So my question to you is - are we going to get busted by the plane police if we use this crate? I just didn't want to spend the afternoon calling every carrier in the world if someone was familiar with flying - esp in the Euro / US.

Thanks much!

Looks fine to me and the size should be fine, maybe to the big side.. I go to the "smallest" I can get away with, as the bigger it is, the more they can "slide around.

The only thing I noticed is how is the top and bottom put together? Looks like it is just plastic type clip? I would be concerned that the way they tend to throw them around or they get knocked around, those type clips might pop open.

[Schouiffy]

It's not just a plastic clip - there are drill bits also… and extra holes for those plastic loops the police use.

I think it's large too - but it's regulations that their ears are not supposed to touch the top... :0/

[tanza]

I know what you mean about too large…. And I would doubt that if you got the next size smaller there would be a problem with the airline.

And that is good that there are drill bits and extra holes for the plastic loops...

[seko]

I have one looking just like that, the problem I had are the plastic bits holding the door, if your dog ever chew them, the door is falling off :eek:

[basenji_fan]

Leaving the US you shouldn't have a problem at all with that size of crate, they really don't care as long as the dog can stand up and looks comfortable.

I know Europe is a whole different thing, I'm not sure what rules are in Switzerland, but I know for friends that traveled to Germany the dog need a hands width between the top of their head and the inside top of the crate when the dog is sitting. For the UK is completely different and no part of the dog can touch the top of the crate, another friend moved to the UK and she has a mini Snauzer (sp?) and she had to buy a crate for a small lab or golden retriever (the size 6 from the link you posted) because her Snauzer had cropped ears and even though she was leaving from the US, she was flying on British Airways they wouldn't allow this little 15 dog on the plane without haveing this huge crate.

Your best bet is to call the veternairian that works for the aiport you're leaving from or the airline and ask them what the regulations are for flying with your pet. By your post it sounds like the ears can't touch the top, is this right?