Foxy, Munky, Corky

The kids spending their first time in their new travel crates. We put them in there after they burned off some energy from the dog park.


Since our "kids," affectionately dubbed by Anthony as Foxy (Sete), Munky (Senna), and Corky (Chili), will have to endure being in the dog crate for extended periods of time, we thought it would be a good idea to start getting them acclimated to being in them. Since they are getting on board as cargo, they have to arrive at the airports about 3 hours before the flight time so the Austin to LA leg will end up being about 6 hours in their crates. The LA to Melbourne flight will be about 20 hours of crate time since they are sealed into the crate by the USDA vet, that we have to book and appointment with, but it'll be about 4 hours before the actual flight which in itself is about 14 hours. Then upon arrival in Melbourne, they could sit there for a bit until they're picked up by the quarantine people.

So for dogs that have lived in comfort either free roaming or in an open playpen, being in a confined crate will be like torture to them! Aside from trying to get familiar with the dog crates, we took away their water bowl and set up the water dispenser that they have to lick to get water from. Senna and Sete were easy to train and picked up on how to do it quickly but Chili, being our scaredy cat, ran away every time we brought it close to him or him close to it. It took him about a day and a half before he figured out he didn't have to dehydrate and how to get water from the bottles.

We don't worry too much about the quarantine, rather it's the long flight that we worry about. Well, we'll think good and positive thoughts for them.

- julie