Traveling to Kazakhstan with a Dog Part I

We've traveled to Russia before with the whole family.  The first time we did this was in June 2009 when our twins were just 14 months old, Polina was 2 turning 3, and Nika was just a few months past 4.  Many people thought that was crazy.  It was quite a bit of hard work, but it was doable and fun once we arrived at Babushka's house in Krasnoyarsk.  The fact that we made our first trip with the kids so young made our second trip there with everyone 3 years later seem like a cake walk.  We learned a lot about packing, organizing, and traveling together as a family. Now we are moving to Kazakhstan with the crew - plus we've added our dog.

This seems a bit crazy for us because in addition to worrying about travel for the six of us, we are having to do quite a bit of work to figure out Yuki's travel plans.  Right now we are feeling pretty confident that we are where we need to be with things, but we still have some things to do.  Hopefully this post will contain some information that is helpful for anyone else that is planning on something similar with their own pet.  I would also like to add that we've gotten a lot of good help and advice from one of my colleagues at Nazarbayev University.  He and his wife have a couple of dogs and they have been our main source of information on what we should plan on as far as pet supplies and dog ownership in Astana.

Yulia putting boots on Yuki

Veterinarian

Kazakhstan doesn't have a lot of onerous regulations on importing pets, but traveling with dogs requires quite  a bit of veterinary preparation. We've gotten her shots updated and needed to do a new rabies shot for her because Kazakhstan requires that the rabies shot is given within the last year, but not less than 30 days before you enter the country.  

Yuki will also need a veterinary check up and pet passport that is done within 10 days of traveling.  We are working to schedule this in Utah since we will have moved from Vegas by then. In addition to vaccines and some documentation we picked up a year's supply of worm medication.  

The veterinary process has not been quite as onerous as we were expecting.

Transport

This has been our biggest issue.  We are flying on Delta from SLC to NYC, and from there we are on Turkish airlines the rest of the way.  Delta does not fly pets as luggage between April 15 and September 15.  They will fly her as cargo as long as the temperature at take-off is below 85 degrees Fahrenheit.  We are fairly confident we'll be okay because our flight leaves SLC at 12:30 a.m.  Flying Yuki as cargo adds a few wrinkles to the front end and NYC portions of our travel.

Because she is flying as cargo we need to check her in early at the cargo area.  Their office closes at 9:00 so we need to be at the airport by 8:00 p.m.  This isn't too bad since we'll have a lot of bags to check and our family that is dropping us at the airport can get home at a late hour instead of getting us to the airport late night and then not getting home until it's extremely late/early.  This is a minor, minor inconvenience.

The main complication with transport is that in NYC she will be transported to Delta's cargo facility rather than luggage.  That means a separate part of the airport instead of the terminal where we are landing.  We have a five-hour layover, but are not sure if we'll have to re-check our bags (Delta and Turkish are not alliance partners), and whether everything will be on time.  Our options are for me to get a cab, find the cargo area, get Yuki, and then get back to our terminal to check her as luggage - or - for us to hire a company to pick her up at cargo and bring her to us.  We have opted for the second option to allow for some wiggle room in case things are not 100% smooth.  Once she is dropped off to me at the terminal, I'll check her as luggage and we'll be set through Istanbul and on to Astana.

Supplies

I'll end this post with some fun.  It was suggested that we bring some dog boots for Yuki to help her walk in the snow and ice (ice especially).  My colleague even sent a link to some boots.  While Yulia was picking up other supplies she saw some boots at the pet store and got them to try.  The picture at the top of this post is Yulia putting those boots on to Yuki.  

It turns out that those boots were a bit big.  She was also REALLY bothered by the long "socks" that are built in.  The ones that were suggested are just little ankle boots.  We also measured her feet and got the right size.  We've ordered those and they are on their way.