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Traveling with Dogs: Comfort, Training, and Real-World Tips 03-02-2026
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Traveling with a dog is a journey filled with small details that make a big difference. In this episode Rachann talks with Joyce Johnson from Fora Travel about everything from choosing the right airline or ground transport to keeping pets comfortable with familiar items, calm routines, and thoughtful preparation. Health certificates, vaccines, microchips, and reentry rules are explained in a friendly, approachable way, along with everyday essentials like food, water, toys, and cleanup supplies. This conversation helps you feel confident, organized, and ready for the adventure ahead.
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Audio file
RCP Podcast Traveling with Dogs Total Release Date 3-2-36.mp3
Transcript
Our pet care with a personal touch is not just a motto, it's really what we do.
Sounds like I might want to check in.
Visit us anytime on our Facebook page, Mariah Belle Manor Kennel, or MariahBelleManorKennel.com.
Can you give us your name and tell us what you do at Forward Travel?
What is the difference between a travel agent and a travel advisor?
Yes, because there's so many options out there and it's so time consuming.
You also have experience in the
What is your experience in the dog world?
I have currently six French Bulldogs that are all champions or grand champions.
How did you find this job was for you?
Because I travel so much, I have friends and family constantly reaching out to me.
Can you help me plan my travel?
There's always skills to transfer.
I don't think that at 18 or 20 or 25, you can pick a career for life.
I think you have to be willing to constantly try new things.
And that's basically how I've lived my life.
I'm really good at this, but I need to learn something else.
And then I would change careers.
It's so easy, as long as you just do your research and make the effort.
You probably made very many listeners very happy this morning.
In planning all the travel and having the dog experience that came from the show world,
What do I need to do to get the dog on the plane?
So you have to have health documentation.
Your pet should always be microchipped.
You want to make sure that your pet can fit either under the seat in front of you.
I might want my small Bichot in the seat next to me, but I also have
That's a Shepherd Mountain Dog mix.
Do I pay for a seat for them next to me?
Depending upon the airline, you have to really reach out to them what they want.
A lot of the larger dogs, they suggest to put in the hold, blow, in the belly of the plane.
I don't recommend doing that at all.
The dog sits freely on the floor or in the seat next to you.
It's more of an upscale pricing, but it's a great way to travel if you can do it with your pet.
You don't have to put them in the hold and they're not in a crate.
When you say that they can move around freely, that means they can get up and down the aisle.
Well, it's not a traditional plane layout.
It's a lot more roomy and it's a smaller plane.
And so yeah, you can move them around.
You can have them in like a dog bed at your feet if they're more comfortable there.
As long as they get along with everybody and the dogs on the plane, they have to have good manners.
Yeah, it's pretty interesting how it's evolved to really accommodate people and their pets.
What is the typical person who takes advantage of such a setup?
So if you're on a private plane with your dog, it's easier.
You're not in these big, long lines.
You don't have to wait amongst people trying to board at the gate.
You walk out to the tarmac and you're up the stairs and you're in your seat.
Some of it is price restrictive.
And that actually makes sense.
Is that something that you as a travel advisor can help with?
It's one of those things that they need to secure.
I don't know the dog's history.
I don't have access to their medical records.
you have to make sure it's vaccinated.
You have to go through the USDA accreditation to attain an international health certificate.
It's also dependent on the age.
So if you have a puppy when they can't have their rabies vaccinated,
So we're not going to just hop on a plane and go.
We're going to make some plans.
We're going to talk with an advisor.
Now I have to ask what may seem like a crazy question.
When I get on a plane and travel, my ears pop.
Is there something that we do?
How does the pressure affect them?
You'll see them yawning a lot.
Sometimes yawning helps relieve the pressure.
Yawning is also related to if they're a little stressed.
If your dog starts yawning a lot on the plane, it might be a little stressed.
Their ears might be bothering them.
You just have to be really reassuring.
You can rub behind their ears a little bit.
They will pop just like ours do eventually.
It's all relative to the cabin pressure.
I always like to bring a toy from home that they've been playing
You want to make sure you pack food.
You want to have their medications, a leash, poop bags, and copies of all of your documentation.
It's just like packing for your kid.
When we come back, I have one of the most interesting questions.
Where do the dogs go to the bathroom when they're traveling?
That's a good question, and I do have answers.
Welcome back to Raising Connections.
Today we're talking about traveling with dogs and especially air travel.
Once you're on the plane, it's a little bit more difficult.
What does the inside of an airport dog bathroom look like?
They don't have toilets, so what's in that doggy bathroom?
There's like a watering station, a trash can, poop bags, and so you would put your dog on it.
onto the grassy area and let them do your business.
And then a lot of times there's like a sanitizing mist that's sprayed over it.
It depends upon the airport or they might have somebody come in and clean.
I've never walked into one in an airport that wasn't relatively clean.
I've never had one that smelled terrible.
So I think they do a good job of maintaining hygiene.
Did the dog bathrooms come from the travel world, or do they come from the service dog world?
People are respecting that the service dogs as well as the dogs who
traveling for pleasure or for need are all respectful of the ability to travel.
I do find that because nobody wants to sit next to a stinky dog.
They're not a dog person or a cat person.
There is a little bit of practice to everything.
There is a little bit of training.
You want to make sure that your pet is going to be as comfortable as possible.
Finding those safe places for your dog or cat is very important when you're traveling.
Are there specific things that you advise your clients
to prepare for in training other than a crate when the dogs travel.
Well, it would be their, the carry-on, their dog carrier, their cat carrier.
Can those carriers have wheels?
Oh yes, and I highly recommend it.
and you have a lot of people and it's just like pulling your suitcase if it doesn't have wheels.
dog becomes very heavy after a few minutes.
In flying a domestic flight versus an international, is there a difference?
On average, it's between 125 to
We've got our dogs prepared to go to the bathroom on potty pads.
We've got them prepared to go into doggy toilets and airports.
We have their comfort bag ready to go.
We have their paperwork and their microchips ready to go.
We have our own stuff ready to go, and we have a meaningful trip planned.
What is the one thing that most of your clients forget?
that if you could tell everybody to remember, you would.
This is going to be silly, but it's real.
Never, ever put your pet in the carrier through the TSA scanner.
You always have to take your pet out and walk it through.
Yeah, I'm kind of blown away by that.
I wouldn't have thought about putting the dog through the x-ray at TSA or even how that works.
I guess I didn't think about the dogs going through clearance.
Sometimes people forget you can't x-ray your dog like that.
You have to take it out, have to walk it through, and often they'll do a pat down on your pet.
So again, this is where manners matter.
We've talked a lot about air flight.
What about other forms of travel, such as trains?
Let's say you go to New York City and you get on the subway.
They might grab an IKEA bag, cut holes for the leg.
legs and then throw it over their shoulder with their dog in it.
Buses, not usually, but again, that would be something, if it's a service dog, that's different.
And of course you can take your service pets on places where you can't take your pets' pets.
How do we navigate that portion?
So let's say you want to get an Uber.
Will this driver be okay with it?
There are ways to reach them and verify it.
You just have to be prepared for it.
There's a lot of pet friendly hotels.
There's usually a pet fee involved.
You can have no more than two dogs in a room with you.
But everything is done ahead of time.
There's no guesswork involved.
I would tell you that dog definitely needs to be in a carrier or it can't on the train.
We've now hit the hotel or our overnight accommodations.
That could be all sorts of places and all sorts of situations.
What's important that we settle our pet in?
What are the things that we need to know to settle our pet in for success?
I would settle that into the room, put their water bowl in the
so they're not dripping water on the carpet.
It's just a lot of common sense in how to take care of your pet.
A lot of them have very designated spots and you want to make sure that you use it.
Before you even go to your room, make sure your pet has used the facilities.
Situation that time change throws me.
Does time change affect the dogs?
You know, I have to be honest.
Well, there's going to have to be a trip where we have to figure that one out.
Okay, let's tell we're going to Europe.
Any of our listeners out there, we've got a trip.
in the hotel room or are there other accommodations we can use?
It's kind of required by some places.
rules in Europe are slightly different, and we would have to research all of that per country.
No, I think a lot of people, when they want to get away, they don't necessarily want to bring
I think the majority of people are going on vacation and it's like rejuvenating them.
It's harder to travel with a pet than it is to travel with a toddler.
People are much more accepting of toddlers than they are sometimes with pets.
Joyce, you have given us so much to think about.
of the night and go to the bathroom, or how they're going to handle that time change.
So let me know when we're booking that trip.
I will, and we can do it anytime.
No, they just need all of the health documentation and requirements, depending on the country.
It's the port of entry that you really have to have all the documentation with.
So you need to make sure we have both leaving and re-entry documentation for your dog.
And that's all through the USDA pre-trip planning.
That three to six month area, you want to make sure you have all your paperwork.
There's a couple of great other resources too, Rashawn, for people who travel.
So Bring Fido, that gives us knowledge about what to go.
Is that where the bathrooms are?
Fido has a lot of pet-friendly hotels, pet-friendly restaurants, pet-friendly activities.
It started out as just this tiny little website that has grown over the last five years.
They have hotels, Airbnbs, restaurants, events, services, activities.
Lots of things to know when we're traveling.
I have learned so much, and I like
For my dogs, when they change their food, they can have digestive upset.
I can't see myself taking a 50-pound bag of dog food on the airlines with me.
And then when you get over there, you can buy something.
And then you can kind of co-mingle it until you're onto the other stuff.
connections today, just thinking about how I would travel with my guys, Lady Jane and Pip.
What an interesting, interesting job you have and a career path you're on.
Or when they use an advisor, they experience the whole trip differently.
It's different because as an advisor, I'm going to get to know my clients.
I was there for four days a couple years ago.
And one of the things that we fell in love with was the artist Tintoretto.
He was a Venice painter who was phenomenal.
He made work at an unbelievably quick pace.
And if you walk through all the small churches all over Venice, you'll find his paintings in there.
And so I did like a Tintorento treasure hunt because his art is just so stunning.
I can give you this treasure hunt guide.
I can book everything for you.
I've been to Ireland like five times.
I'm going again this summer with a group of crazy women to do horse riding.
Ireland is like you step off and it's so green.
It's just that whole sense of ancient.
You step on the land and you can just feel the spirit of everything coming up.
My history, my Irish roots just seep into my bones and I feel like it's a place I belong.
jumping into a fjord in Sweden in the middle of winter.
I never jumped into water so incredibly dark in my entire life.
I want it to be because I really feel like that's how we heal our world.
We need to figure out how to embrace everybody.
You're never going to live along with
And I think travel is a huge key to that understanding.
The smaller the world gets, the more we understand the people in it.
Joyce, thank you for joining us.
If we want to get in touch with.
You, where do we get in touch with you?
It's kind of a play on travel with Joyce.
Or you can e-mail me at Joyce.Johnson@fora.travel.
We'll make some more connections.
This program is a production of Raising Connections Media Company.
Hosted and produced by Roshan Mayer and edited and mixed by Robin Temple.