The Irony Of Service Dogs On Planes

Many of those who contact us are looking to get their dog “certified” as a service dog or emotional support animal (an American term by the way that has no real meaning in Canada beyond a definition of “pet”) so they can fly with their dog.

Often these folks don’t have a disability, or when they do, it is not severe enough that they ever thought of training their dog to help them until they faced needing to fly them on a plane.

When people are faced with the prospect of putting their beloved dog into the bowels of an airplane, in a crate, and (even scarier) entrusting them to airline baggage handlers, they often feel desperate to get permission to bring their dog into the main body of the plane with them.

We can’t blame them!

We have all heard horror stories about dogs being left in the sun on a hot day, lost in a storage locker, or escaping and running amok at the airport. Most of us have lost personal possessions at least once to checked bags that never appeared, or were lost and then found with contents missing.

Many of us love our pets as much or more than some human members of our family. How could we take such risks with our babies? Especially when your dog is anxious, elderly, or otherwise likely to be frightened and suffer.

Here’s the irony:

If your dog had the ability to qualify as a service dog… they very probably could handle being shipped in a crate by cargo just fine.

Recently one of our puppies-in-training took a trip to Ontario. Rather than go through the bother of getting permission for a not-yet-service-dog to fly in the cabin, not to mention the stress of managing the puppy on a long flight, our clients just checked him in with their baggage.

Service Dogs Are Crate Trained

Future service dogs are crate trained in puppyhood for two major reasons.

1. Often a crate or pen is the safest place to put a puppy when we can’t supervise them directly. Playpens and cribs exist for human babies for the exact same reason.
2. A service dog visiting a theme park like Walt Disney World is likely to be offered a crate or dog run while their humans go on the ride. They will also be put into cages when they stay at a vet clinic or go to a groomer. So service dogs must be comfortable with waiting and relaxing in a restricted space, to protect them from being stressed by these situations.

Because of this, the puppy was used to sleeping in his crate, which he saw as his personal bedroom. The flight was overnight. Traveling by plane, to him, was not a big deal. It was just sleeping in his bedroom as usual… in a noisier location than usual.

Service Dogs Are Easy-Going And Resilient

Service dog work, by its very nature, requires resilient and happy dogs. Service dogs have to be the type of dog who can take new situations in stride and rarely worry about much of anything.

Not all puppies, even crate-trained puppies, could take a flight to Ontario as casually as our puppy-in-training did. He’s naturally adventurous and easy-going. He was happy to see his family on the other end, enjoyed his vacation in Ontario, and flew home without any problems. That’s a service dog type of personality!

If your dog’s anxiety makes you hesitant to put them in cargo, then they may not have the necessary temperament for service dog certification even if you do have a disability that the dog helps you with.

“So why do service dogs get to fly in the cabin?”

You may be wondering why service dogs – who are usually crate trained and calm to begin with – get to fly in cabin, while your ailing and anxious dog cannot.

First of all, we wish this were not the case and we are not in any way justifying or defending the rules of airlines – just explaining the facts of them.

While we wish that you could bring your precious fur baby onto a plane more easily, there are two very good reasons why service dogs get to fly in the cabin.

1. Service dogs are valuable. Dogs with the right temperament and personality for service dog work are unicorns that are not easily replaced. Each one represents years of training, genetic testing, health testing, and they either perform an irreplaceable service (we do not yet have technology that warns us of oncoming hallucinations for example, and your Apple Watch can’t tell you if your food is contaminated with gluten) or a service that can only be done by extremely expensive technological equipment. We live in a capitalist society where financial value means more to businesses like airlines (and their insurance companies/lawyers) than the emotional value of a beloved pet.
2. Service dogs perform a service. Yes, a steward can lead a blind person to the restroom, tap a Deaf person on the shoulder, or fetch an epi-pen from someone’s bag. But it isn’t the airline steward’s job to be your disability aid, and many of us dislike asking for help from a busy stranger who is clearly already overworked.

Pet Friendly Airlines Exist

That’s right! There are several airlines that are not only open to flying larger dogs in the cabin of the plane, but actually pin their entire business around this. Airlines like RetrievAir and Bark Air specialize in letting your pet fly in the cabin. While their list of destinations is small, this is a growing industry that you should support if you possibly can.

Many airlines, like Delta and United, allow smaller dogs in the cabin. Some airlines, like Lufthansa, even allow medium and large pet dogs in the cabin on certain flights.

There may not be enough options, and the possible solutions may not suit you as well as you would like, but chances are that certifying your dog as a service dog is not the solution to your problem.