Weeze

We collected him at excess baggage (yes, really! Right by the luggage). We had to declare him on the agriculture form and as soon as they saw us approaching the agriculture bit with a dog we got led to a side room. Showed our paperwork which they weren't fussed about as soon as they found out he was from the uk. Got asked about any pet food with us, which we had none of. Then we got sent on our merry way. Less questions for the dog than for us and our visas!
The drugs dog got told off as he stopped searching bags to come and see Sam dog!

Ailidh

Thanks - our other dog is a border collie! I'm sure she'll be fine with the flight..

The Sky Kennel Giant (which - unhelpfully - the site says is 'out of stock') might work for the deerhound though she's 90 cm at the shoulder.

I'll check out that model on other sites to see if I can find it.

You flew from Amsterdam with KLM? Was your dog on the same flight you were on? Every time we land in Houston we get stuck for a couple of hours trying to get through customs.. I hate to think how hard that would be on the dogs!

Weeze

Yep, dog was on our flight. It was a while ago, but I seem to remember they said they took the animals off before the people and they waiting in an air conditioned bit inside and were put out the same time as the bags. Can't say ours was bothered by the whole thing. We were lucky though, others haven't had such good experiences. We were updated at the airport, in the lounge, at departures and inflight on his progress.
We took our crate to the vets to get them to double check the sizings for us.

Edit: while I remember, heartworm. Get your dog to the vets when you get here and get your heartworm test and pills. Nasty, nasty things!

Ailidh

Hi, Well I had a long chat with our dog's breeder, she's also a vet. I had put this off, because she is the most temperamental, impossible-to-please person! She said she'll enquire with some other breeders in the Deerhound Club and it's likely someone will sell me a used crate. She said they have to be built to order. She told me she has sent a stud dog to the States for a year. He made the trip just fine.. but his crate's in the States till it's time for him to come home. She's suggesting we can give Xanax to our old girl for the trip. She doesn't appear to find the situation worrying and she's the hardest-to-please person I know: we had to make half a dozen visits to her + provide character references before she would allow us to buy our dog.. and then she made us sign a contract (in German) agreeing to an endless list of things we could and couldn't do! I am too terrified of her usually to tell her anything that she might think was negative (like making a dog fly for 12 hours!), but she took it in her stride and reassured me things usually go well. A couple of years ago, she purchased an adult stud dog from Australia and I guess THAT trip was a lot worse for the poor dog - who arrived safe and sound.