# Need Advice on flying with vizsla puppy



## CDS (Aug 22, 2017)

We're flying out of Omaha to Ft.Lauderdale with one stop in St.Louis. I've already made sure the flight still has availability within the amount of pets on flight. Pet relief are at the connecting airport with enough time to visit. The problem I'm having is Southwest airlines if you use their carrier is 10 1/2" in height and if you use your own it's 8 1/2" in height. I'm worried about the puppy being beyond 10" in height to fit in the carrier. 
The breeders told me that the puppies at 4 weeks are already at 9" tall. Which is crazy. If in another month they may be too tall to fit suffiently in the carrier. You can't just scrunch them in there. They need to be able to get up and turn around. I'm really torn. I don't want to get the carrier and airline tickets and then get turned down at the airport. I'm not flying the puppy in cargo. Plus southwest won't anyway. Delta will only fly at 10 weeks to 6 mos, by then he may for sure be too tall for the carrier. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Is the breeder measuring to the top of the pups head, or at the shoulders?


----------



## pollo832 (Aug 25, 2015)

CDS said:


> We're flying out of Omaha to Ft.Lauderdale with one stop in St.Louis. I've already made sure the flight still has availability within the amount of pets on flight. Pet relief are at the connecting airport with enough time to visit. The problem I'm having is Southwest airlines if you use their carrier is 10 1/2" in height and if you use your own it's 8 1/2" in height. I'm worried about the puppy being beyond 10" in height to fit in the carrier.
> The breeders told me that the puppies at 4 weeks are already at 9" tall. Which is crazy. If in another month they may be too tall to fit suffiently in the carrier. You can't just scrunch them in there. They need to be able to get up and turn around. I'm really torn. I don't want to get the carrier and airline tickets and then get turned down at the airport. I'm not flying the puppy in cargo. Plus southwest won't anyway. Delta will only fly at 10 weeks to 6 mos, by then he may for sure be too tall for the carrier. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.


in 2016 I flew southwest and used the large sherpa pet carrier, I did not have any problems and my Osti slept most of the way, although it was only an hour flight. I worried about which carrier to get but in reality it was a very smooth process. I remember Osti's head did hit the top of the carrier but not by much and the people at the counter really were not concerned about it they were more excited to see such a beautiful puppy. If i remember correctly that if they would have been concerned about the carrier being to small the requirement was that the animal should be able to turn around inside the carrier which he would have been able to accomplish.


----------



## CDS (Aug 22, 2017)

Yes they're measuring from the shoulder to the foot.


----------



## CDS (Aug 22, 2017)

I don't know if when you flew the requirements were different. They're very specific on the measurements of the carrier. The carrier max height is 10" per southwest policy unless you use your own bag in which case the maximum height is 8".


----------



## pollo832 (Aug 25, 2015)

CDS said:


> I don't know if when you flew the requirements were different. They're very specific on the measurements of the carrier. The carrier max height is 10" per southwest policy unless you use your own bag in which case the maximum height is 8".


yes they were the same back then 13 months ago, I had no problem, I too stressed about it being not acceptable but it was no problem. I searched the interwebs and found many other people flying southwest with the same carrier and also had no problems so I just went with it and I was ok. The main requirement is going to be that the carrier must fit underneath in front of you, its a snug fit but it will fit. in my opinion the pup will be really cramped in the southwest carrier as i indicated my pup's head would touch the top of sherpa large carrier and a week or two longer and he wouldn't have fit it. 

I never took him out of the carrier but i did have the top partially unzip and kept my hand inside petting the pup, he slept most of the way.


----------

