Owen Reynolds Personal blog

June 27 to July 9th, I visited Austin and Dallas Texas for a long over-due vacation that wasn’t tied to work. As I often do, I brought my 10 LB 12 year old Maltipoo with me ; her name is Coffee bean. As a single guy since 2019, she means the world to me. Who wouldn’t love this faaaaaaace?

My dog is not the best behaved when it comes to other dogs, she’s genuinely pretty good with people, but she’s absolutely stellar when it comes to cars/planes. This blog post will be about travelling with my dog (mostly by plane) over the last 8 years. Consult it in full, and you might find some useful tips if you want to do the same. While travelling, I often ask pet owners (nicely) “why aren’t you travelling with your own similarly sized beast? “

Coffee bean’s first flight, was Winnipeg to Montreal, where I moved in 2015
The below is a running list of flights she’s accompanied me on 😊

1. Winnipeg, Canada 2015 (for the move from Winnipeg to Montreal!)
2. Toronto, Canada 2018
3. Winnipeg, Canada 2019
4. Winnipeg , Canada Sept 2021
5. Kentucky, USA Oct 2022
6. Florida, USA 2022
7. Texas, USA June-July 2023
8. Omaha, Nebraska, USA October 2023
9. Guflport, Florida, USA Dec 2023
10. Fairhope, Alabama, USA April 2024
11. Scottsdale, Arizona, USA April 2024
12. Winnipeg, Canada July 2024
13. Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, USA Oct 2024
14. Winnipeg, Canada Dec 2024
15. Montreal to Florida May 2025
16. Montreal to Winnipeg July 2025

Booking the flight: Once you book your flight, you’ll need to call back the airline to book your dog separately. It’s about $40-70 CDN per flight. Most airlines have a max of 4 in-cabin flight slots available. Which makes sense, can you imagine if there was no limit? Our little critters were smell each other and bark up a storm at 35000 feet for sure. I hate crying kids as much as everyone, but a plane full of small barky dogs would be torture. Another note, you won’t be able to check-in to generate a boarding pass as you normally would when travelling with fido. Your seat is reserved, but each of the 4 airlines i’ve used so far: Air Canada, West Jet, United, Delta. I’ve not been able to pre-check in. Doesn’t bother me, as this usually only saves you a few mins once you arrive at the airport

Choosing the right bag, if you’ve got a cat-sized dog that is 15 LBs or less, get this delta brand bag. I’ve had it for 8 years, and it’s still in excellent condition. I use it when travelling with my dog by car or subway as well, but it’s made for air travel, where you have a bag that you push under the seat in front of you. Dogs used to be wolves, wolves like dens and caves. As such, dogs like to have things above their heads, sleeping under your bed, chair etc. When you’re not travelling , try to get your dog used to sleeping in your airplane carrier it makes the entire flight experience easier

Papers: If you’re travelling to the states, you need to provide travel papers to show that your dog is in good health. Any vet will provide them, with the visit to the vet needing to be done within 7 days of travel. For the 3 trips I’ve done to the states, I’ve only been asked once. I generally find that keeping just my dog’s cute little head popped out of the bag as I go through security, or chatting with the TSAs will remove the need to produce papers. Similar to how jack-ass celebrities use their fame to get out of a DUI 🤣If your dog is ugly, or you have a non-Siamese cat (the only cats worth a damn) your mileage my vary 😉. Regardless, get your papers and bring em’ !

People reacting to your dog ; As above, if you’ve got a basic cat (not a sexy Siamese) or an ugly dog, this probably won’t happen, but people love small cute dogs; airport staff , other passengers, cab drivers, etc. I’m an out-going person and do enjoy chatting with strangers. So, for the days I’m travelling, I’ll prob have 5-10 random interactions with random people who ask about my dog’s details: age, breed, weight, temperament, etc. If you’re a more private person, and don’t like interacting with strangers, travelling with your cute dog might take you out of your comfort zone

Before boarding / in-flight: Buy a water bottle that looks like this once you go through security

It works well, as it’s got a twist-off cap that is the perfect size to give your beast a drink of water while in flight. The longest flight I’ve had my own dog on is about 4 hours, but that’s a long time for any pet to go without water

The next in-flight tip is a personal choice, but the flight rules dictate that the pet must be kept inside the carrier throughout the flight. As such, I like to let my dog hear my voice and let her lick my hand once or twice per flight. However, if you think your little pall is sleeping inside the travel case, leave ’em alone

Rest stations for pets ; these are useful to use on connecting flights, or if your flight is delayed. They are often located in odd places in airports, ask someone close to your gate to guide you

Hotels vs AirBNB: The above stuff would describe the common experience of travelling with my own small dog, this last point is a bit more subjective. My own dog doesn’t like hotels, in the same way she doesn’t like apartments / condos. Like me, she has perfect hearing, so, the sound of house keeping shuffling around, people coming and going from their rooms, kids running down the halls, elevators opening and closing ; all the stuff that annoys me, annoys her tenfold, and she ends up growling and barking a lot.

So, for the last 3 trips to the states, I’ve booked AirBNBs that are the entire house. If you do your homework, a lot of these types of rentals are in nice parts of the city, and can be cheaper than the equivalent hotel

I’ll update this blog post accordingly for more trips with my little wooly traveler 💓

Owen Reynolds @ an Austin, Texas airport hotel