What did you do with your dog crate? (and Golden Arrow)

[dawn]

Firstly, thanks to everyone for recommending Golden Arrow, they came in almost £1000 cheaper than Airpets, I'm going to cancel the Airpets booking, even though we've paid £50 deposit, still saves us nearly £950!!! I've been impressed with Golden Arrow so far, very speedy service, with quotes and telephone calls and VERY willing to answer all my dopey questions, which leads me to number 2.

What did you do with your crate? I asked Steve at Golden Arrow what most people did with theirs and he told me to put it on EBay! lol

I don't really want or need mine once we've got Hux through to Auckland. A friend of ours is collecting us at the airport, in our car and between the dog, luggage, 2 kids, 3 adults, I seriously don't think there's going to be any room.

Can we leave it at the airport? Do we have to pay them to keep it?

If anyone has any ideas for me or needs a 52"x24"x34" crate, I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

Dawn

[jubjub]

We left ours at the airport, not a problem (and no charge). I have heard of folks selling them on ebay, but we did not think of it, and would not have got it in the car anyway.

[Hannah-NL]

Depends on the crate I guess, we have Vari kennels for our Border Collies, they have already had them all their lives, they use them as beds, and when they go on a holiday their kennel goes with them and it's instant home for them
The Vari kennels can be taken apart and you can put the top half upside down in the bottom half, so then you could put any luggage inside the crate, on even the dog itself.
Then if you get home you can either keep it or sell it...
Since we will probably be in rented accomodation until we settle in our own home, we think it's a good idea to be able to tell house owners that we have our pets in their kennels when we go away, so they cannot do any damage.
So we are of course going to keep ours, since it's our pets beds..even our cat has one, but he only goes in there when taken to the vet

[dawn]

Ours will be custom made, from wood, I think I might ring the Airport live cargo dept and see if they'd mind us leaving it, because that's what we really want to do.

Sal, which airport did you fly into?

[Hannah-NL]

Oh I see, I can well imagine an airport not minding you leaving a wooden crate there, they might either reuse them, or use them in the woodburner

[dawn]

I hope so, I'll give them a call and let you know what they say.

[woo]

Having a fight with the hubby about bringing the dogs over!
We have an old lab who will never manage to survive the journey and a young laso apso( I want her to come), We have a few questions and wonderd if you can help, Will we find it difficult to rent a house if we have a pet?
Is shipping a small dog mega expensive?
can you help pls?

[dawn]

As a guide, we have a German Shepherd and it's costing us £2500, this includes all tests and airfares. The airfare itself is £2255. But he's a big dog and it may well be cheaper for a small dog.

We're going with Golden Arrow, if you have can give them measurements for your dog, they'll give you a quote. 01588 680240

[gil]

Hi Woo,
GA have quoted us £1,577 for our Staffordshire, Airpets £1,732 and Air Supply Shipping gave a two-tier quote £1,100 if we did all the running around to get the tests done and £1,900 if they did it all. (She's medium sized, requiring a 32 x 22 x 22 inch crate .)
I asked our vet for her opinion of Macy doing the long-haul journey, and she said she thought she'd be fine.
We will be using GA when we (eventually) sell our house and can go.
Hope that helps,
Gil

[woo]

Thanks gil thats a big help, cheers.
hubby thinks that will be the size of crate that we will need, however he is still arguing over the price..what a nightmare!
I will ask the vet about the old guy ( the dog not hubby!) although it may be an option!!!
I really want to take them with us just having a battle with the main man!
Thanx again gil.