Pickup Day & Travel Home

Bringing your puppy home is exciting—but remember, it’s a pretty big day for your puppy too! New people, new smells, a car ride or airplane, and eventually a completely new home.

Whether you’re picking your puppy up here, flying in to get them, or meeting your puppy at the airport, keeping the trip home simple and calm will make the transition easier.

Driving Home With Your Puppy

If you’re picking up your puppy and driving home:

• Bring a few towels or puppy pads—you never know!
• Bring bottled water and a small bowl, especially for a longer trip.
• Your puppy may sleep for a good portion of the ride. That’s perfectly normal.
• Motion sickness can happen, particularly with young puppies.

• Skip the stores, restaurants and “let’s show everybody the new puppy!” stops. There will be plenty of time for that later.

• Your puppy will have breakfast before leaving my home, so there is no need to stop and feed another meal during the trip. A full tummy plus a car ride can be a pretty good recipe for motion sickness!

If you want, you can offer your puppy a few pieces of dry puppy food to nibble on, but I would keep it to just a few pieces until you get home.

Please do NOT put your puppy on the ground during the trip home.

🦠 Keep Those Paws Off Public Ground

Please do NOT put your puppy on the ground during the trip home.

Even though your puppy has already received three sets of vaccinations, I would rather be safe than sorry. Rest areas, gas stations, airport floors and designated airport pet-relief areas may have been used by dogs that were sick or not vaccinated.

Airport pet-relief areas may seem like the logical place to take a puppy to potty, but they are used by a lot of dogs.

I do not want your Spartan puppy using them.

I’ll provide a puppy potty pad for the trip home. If your puppy needs to potty, use the pad in the vehicle or another controlled area rather than putting your puppy down in a public dog area.

If you’re carrying your puppy through an airport, keep them in their carrier or carry them

-don’t let those little feet hit the airport floor.

And if there’s an accident? Better to have an accident in the car than unnecessarily expose your puppy to something along the way.

 Flying Home With Your Puppy

If you’re flying in and taking your puppy home with you, we’ll coordinate the details ahead of time so you know what to bring and what to expect.

Your puppy will travel in an airline-approved carrier according to the airline’s requirements. Keep the trip as quiet and uneventful as possible, offer water as needed, and expect your puppy to sleep quite a bit.

Once you land, head home when possible rather than adding extra stops to an already very big day.

🛫 Picking Up a Puppy Shipped by Air

I’ll send you the flight information once everything is booked, including the airline, flight number, arrival time

and your puppy’s Air Waybill (AWB) number.

Before you leave for the airport:

• Double-check which airport your puppy is arriving at.
• Confirm the airline’s cargo pickup location. This is usually not baggage claim.
• Bring a valid photo ID that matches the name on the Air Waybill.
• Have your AWB number with you.
• Plan to arrive about 30 minutes before the flight lands.

At the cargo office, give the airline staff your ID and AWB number. They’ll confirm your puppy’s arrival and let you know when your puppy is ready to be released.

Bring a towel or blanket for the vehicle and some bottled water. Once you have your puppy, I recommend heading straight home and letting them decompress.

🐾 What Happens Before Your Puppy Flies

I take your puppy to my shipper the day before the flight. They’ve been doing this for years and take excellent care of my puppies.

Your puppy stays with them overnight so they can rest and get settled. Early the next morning, they take your puppy to the airport, complete the check-in process and make sure your puppy is safely placed on the correct flight.

I’ll provide you with the flight information you need so you’ll know when and where to pick up your puppy.

You Made It Home—Now What?

Once you get home, keep things quiet and simple. Your puppy has had a very big day and doesn’t need a houseful of visitors or a long list of new experiences.

Let them potty, explore a small area, have some water and settle in.

Next Stop: Step 2 — Bringing Your Puppy Home →

You made it home! Now I’ll walk you through that first day—introducing your puppy to the family, setting house rules, establishing a routine, letting them get plenty of sleep, and making that first night a little easier.