Poppy’s
Travels
The dog has a passport too
Poppy has been to more countries than most adults I know. She did not ask for any of it. She is a Cavapoo who was supposed to be a Kansas dog, and now she is a dog who has walked Strøget in Copenhagen and slept off jet lag on a couch in Arendal. She did not choose this life. She just goes where we go.
Getting her there the first time
The paperwork came before the packing. A trip to Overland Park Veterinary Center for her health certificate, a microchip scan, the whole appointment built around one goal, a piece of paper that says she is allowed to leave the country.
She flew Delta in the cabin, tucked under a blanket between me and Avilene the entire flight. KLM left a handwritten note welcoming her on board on a later leg, signed by a flight attendant named Hilde with a little paw print drawn next to her name. Small thing. I still have it.
She rode most of that first trip in a soft sided carrier under the seat in front of us, which she tolerated the way she tolerates the vacuum, which is to say barely, and only because she trusts us more than she trusts her own opinion about it.
Where she has actually been
Denmark first. She walked the length of Strøget in Copenhagen like she had somewhere to be, stopping every so often to let strangers tell her she is the best thing they have seen all day, which she agrees with.
Belgium, where she posed in front of the Waterloo memorial with more patience than either of my sons managed that day. The UK, where she stood on a ferry deck with the wind doing something unfortunate to her ears and did not care even slightly. The Netherlands, where she has now been photographed in front of more canal houses than most Amsterdam residents.
The first jet lag was rough on all of us
Nobody warns you that the dog gets jet lag too. After the long flight and the drive south to Arendal, she was done. Flat out on the car seat on the drive in, then flat out on the couch for most of the next day, still wearing her harness and her little travel backpack because nobody had the energy to take it off her.
She came back to herself in about a day, faster than the kids did honestly. Dogs seem to reset on sunlight and a walk the same way people do. We just did not expect to be managing her schedule on top of everyone else’s.
Questions people ask about Poppy specifically
The ones that come up once people see the photos.
Is she nervous about flying?
Less than I expected. She is not a fan of takeoff, but she settles once we are level. A dog who is already anxious at home is going to be more anxious on a plane, not less, so we did not start here. She had a calm temperament first.
Does she need her own passport?
No. Dogs travel on their paperwork, not a passport. An EU pet health certificate for us, a microchip, and a rabies vaccination on the right timeline. The full order it has to happen in is on the Traveling With a Dog page.
Would you recommend bringing a dog on a first big trip?
Not usually. Do the first trip without the extra variable, then decide. We already knew what we were doing with international travel before we added a dog to it. Adding both at once is a lot to learn in one trip.
More in Before You Go
Written and kept current by Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with Adventures We Seek. If something here is out of date, tell me and I will fix it.
Tell me who is coming and how long you have.
That is usually enough to know if this is a ship, a train, or a car with the windows down.
