Getting your puppy home

Getting Your Puppy Home

Four ways your puppy comes home, and every one of them has happened: we meet you in Arizona, ground transport brings your puppy to your door, a flight nanny carries it in the cabin, or you fly in and take it home yourself. Never a cargo hold.

Meet us in Arizona at a public place we agree on. Ground transport, door to door, driven the whole way. A flight nanny who carries the puppy in the cabin and hands it to you at arrivals. Or fly into Phoenix, meet me, and take your puppy home in the cabin with you. Never in a cargo hold, at any distance. The photographs on this page are our puppies going home each of those ways.

We are a closed kennel

We run a closed kennel. Until a puppy has finished its vaccinations its immune system is still developing, and visitors can carry in germs on their shoes and clothes without ever knowing it. So we do not have visitors at the house, and we meet families at a public place we agree on together, for pickups and for meeting the puppies.

It is the same reason we ask new families to keep their puppy away from dog parks and strange dogs until its vaccinations are complete. A little care in the first weeks keeps the puppies safe, and it is a small price for a healthy start.

Meet us in Arizona

Families in Arizona and the neighbouring states meet us at a public place we agree on together, with the puppy, its health record and everything it is going home with. We go through it all with you and you leave with your puppy in your arms.

Linda drove all the way from Tennessee to meet us for Sam. Chrisy went home to Bakersfield from a meetup, and Daisy’s family met her the same way. We are about two hours north of Phoenix and under an hour from Flagstaff, and we choose the spot to suit you. In summer we suggest a morning, out of the heat.

Linda from Tennessee smiling in her car with Sam, a gold and white Shih Tzu puppy, asleep in a blue bed on her lap

Chrisy, a brown and white Shih Tzu puppy with a pink bow, asleep on her new owner’s lap beside a floral carrier in the car

The Harpson family standing beside their car on the day they collected Milo, a brown and white Shih Tzu puppy

Ground transport, door to door

For anyone further than a day’s drive, a transporter collects the puppy from us and drives it to your door, or to a handover point near you. The puppy travels in a carrier, fed and watered on the way, and is handed to you in person. No depot, no holding facility, no cargo.

Queen went to Sardie in Utah this way, and Sardie sent us the photographs the same day. Fluffie was collected from our transporter by his mum, who had already been shopping for him. The cost depends on the distance and I quote it for your address rather than putting a number here.

Sardie in Utah taking a selfie beside her car with Queen, a gold and white Shih Tzu puppy, held to her cheek

Sardie in her car with her eyes closed, holding Queen, a gold and white Shih Tzu puppy, to her face

Fluffie, a gold and white Shih Tzu puppy, on the car seat beside a new toy and a bag of food after being collected from the transporter

A flight nanny

A flight nanny flies with the puppy in the cabin, holds it the whole way, and hands it to you at arrivals. Door to door it is one day rather than three, which is why it suits the east coast. Lula flew to Mirabelle this way, and the photograph below is the two of them at home afterwards.

It costs the nanny’s fee plus the ticket and the airline’s pet fee, quoted for your airport. We will keep you updated with photos right up until your puppy travels.

Mirabelle at home on a rug, holding Lula, a grown gold and white Shih Tzu with bows in her topknot

Two children sitting on the floor at home, holding Nate, a brown and white Shih Tzu puppy

Shanice in Tennessee sitting in her car holding Kardi, a black and white Shih Tzu puppy

Fly in, and fly home together

The option that makes a toy breed different from every big dog. An 8lb Shih Tzu puppy fits in a soft carrier under an airline seat, so you can book a return to Phoenix Sky Harbor, meet me there or come up to Sedona, and fly home the same day with the puppy on the floor in front of you. It never leaves your sight and it is home by bedtime.

Practically: airlines charge roughly a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars each way for an in-cabin pet, you book the pet on when you book your seat because they cap the number per flight, and you need a soft-sided carrier of the size your airline specifies. Phoenix has nonstops to most of the country, and the state pages give the flight time from here to you.

Why never cargo

A Shih Tzu is a flat-faced breed and it does not cool itself well. A cargo hold is loud, unattended and variable in temperature, and most airlines will not carry a flat-faced dog in one at all, for good reason. We never use it. Every one of our puppies travels with a person, in the cabin or in a car.

Driving home

Whether you collect or a transporter brings the puppy, the drive is the same: a carrier on the passenger seat or footwell, fed a few hours before rather than immediately before, a stop every couple of hours for water and a few minutes on a pee pad. Ours are used to a carrier before they leave, which makes the first long drive a sleep rather than an ordeal.

From May to September, leave early. The desert between here and the coast is hot by ten in the morning and the car has to be cool before the puppy goes in it.

The day itself

Whichever way the puppy travels, the pattern is the same. A light meal three or four hours before, water up to the last minute, a pee pad in the carrier, and a piece of bedding that smells of the litter, which does more for the first two nights than anything you can buy. You get the written record in your hand and my email address, and then you take the puppy home and let it sleep.

The most common mistake on the first day is inviting everybody round to meet the new dog. Give it three or four quiet days first. What to have ready before it arrives.

What it costs

Meeting us in Arizona costs nothing. Ground transport is priced by distance and a flight nanny by the airport, and both are quoted for your address and passed on at what they cost; there is no handling fee on top and neither is built into the price of the puppy. Flying in costs your ticket and the airline’s pet fee, which you pay the airline directly.

Tell me your town and you will get the actual options and numbers for your address rather than a range.

How a puppy reaches your state

Each of these pages gives the flight from Phoenix, what the climate there asks of a flat-faced dog, and how buyers from that state have done it.

Anywhere else is the same conversation. The puppies available.

Not sure which option is best for you?

Get in touch and we will help you decide.

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