How do you ship a puppy??
A handful of airlines ship live animals, and not all do it well, or all that willingly. There are, of course, strict FAA regulations regarding shipping live animals. There aresome that affect our business:
- Age of the puppy. The puppy MUST, I repeat, MUST be at least 8 weeks of age.
- Weather. The ambient temperature of the departure and arrival cities, for some airlines, must be above 28F and below 78F. Northwest Airlines is one that has this requirement. In weather that gets outside those parameters, we use Continental, who heats/cools their cargo area. Unfortunately for us, the closest Continental hub is Chicago Ohare, which is 3 hours each way, not counting any fabulous Chicago traffic.
- Health of the puppy. The puppy must be vet checked within ten days of flying. This costs us $40, which is passed on to the buyer as part of the shipping cost.
Other shipping considerations:
We try our best to accommodate your schedule, however, the airlines have very fixed schedules, the weather plays a large part, and we probably have several of your puppys litter-mates going out at the same time as yours.
Not all airlines take live animal cargo. Before you call to make shipping arrangements, please have at least two different major airports that are convenient to your home.
The shipping price of $250-275 include the $40 required travel certificate, $25-35 (depending on size) for the travel crate and bowls you keep, and actual airfare is usually between $165 and $200.
If you can find a less expensive shipper within reasonable driving distance for us, please let us know before making arrangements.
Some people may choose to pay to fly in themselves to pick up the puppy. That is great, and people can often find round trip tickets from major airports in our area for $200 or so. In that case you can bring your own travel crate for the pup and the only travel expense that I would need is the $40 for the travel certificate, which is still required.
Special considerations must be made to ship to Florida.
