Flying with dog

Yes, they do check, and if it's at all questionable, you're much better off making plans for your dog to fly cargo and choosing an airline with good pet accomodations that way. (IE Delta or Continental). I've flown several times with different dogs (my own Cardis and I've transported for rescues- a small papillon mix and a BC mix) and in general, even though the Cardis WOULD fit under the seat, they've gone Cargo. The only dog who fit in the standard that the airline wanted to say was okay for in-cabin travel was the papillon mix (5 pounds or so and 9" at the shoulder)- everyone else flew cargo. If you don't have a hard crate that's okay for cargo, you'll have to buy one from them (sometimes you can borrow)- in the transport case, we'd planned for that (The BC mix was a puppy, about 4 months old that despite bieng under 30 pounds was REALLY leggy) and in the case of my Cardis, I luckily had a larger hard-sided carrier in the truck and enough time to go get it and put the soft carrier out there.
 
Cait

Here's the USDA pet travel site; at the bottom of the page they have links to all the airlines and their policies.
 
[linkhttp://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/pettravel.html]http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/pettravel.html[/link]

I flew with Loki when he was a puppy. I borrowed my friend's carrier and she has a dachsund. I didn't know that a 8 week old Elkhound would be taller than that, so it turned out that he actually could not fully stand up. He slept the whole way, anyway, so it didn't make a difference to him.
 
But nobody from the airline checked. I did have to take him out of the carrier and walk him through the metal detector going through security. I then had to put him back in with the security people watching, so that seems like the only time anyone looked at him in the carrier.

I borrowed my friend's carrier and she has a dachsund. I didn't know that a 8 week old Elkhound would be taller than that,

I think EVERYTHING is taller than a Dachshund

ORIGINAL: jennie_c_d

I borrowed my friend's carrier and she has a dachsund. I didn't know that a 8 week old Elkhound would be taller than that,

I think EVERYTHING is taller than a Dachshund

 
Lol! Too true. []
I have no idea why I didn't think about that before borrowing the carrier. I just figured, he's a puppy--he'll fit! He had the longest legs though!

Obviously it would depend on the person doing the checking, and how much of a dog lover they were []

At the end of the day, the airline doesn't want to look like it promotes animal cruelty, so they'd probably check.