The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
I finally purchased my ticket to California on Sunday and today have heard back from Lufthansa Medical Services. Apparently they have changed the way they do things and now reserve seating in advance for passengers with SVANs (Service ANimal). I requested a window seat. This gives Carbon a wall to tuck up against and assures that no toes or tails are crushed by a trolley.

Lufthansa took it upon themselves to instead reserve an aisle seat on a bulkhead. The medical services person kindly explained that they had no more window extra leg room seats left and that if I want a normal window seat I can request that instead. Consistent with my past experience, Lufthansa is quite good with service dogs.

So now a quandary. Disadvantages of bulkhead aisle: (1) high likelihood that a tail or stray paw will drift over into the leg room space of the person sitting next to me; (2) high likelihood that a tail or stray paw will drift over into the aisle and get mashed by a human or trolley; (3) speaking of trollies, greedy Labrador nose WAY too close to food trolley as it passes; (3) less restrictive space means higher likelihood that Carbon will melt into other passengers' space; (4) no chance for a free seat next to us; (5) no place to store my small bag; (6) I just hate aisle seats in general because people tend to use your head as a balance aid when passing by.

Advantages of bulkhead aisle seat: (1) Carbon will not have to back up; (2) In theory he'll have more space without having to tuck under the seat in front of us; (3) easier for me to get up without making a whole row of people move for me.

Anyhooooo... I've got my SD 1x1 class tomorrow, so will ask our trainer to see if she has an opinion. If it was Brogan, I'd 100% opt for the regular window seat. With this being Carbon's maiden voyage, not so sure!
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
snowbunny said:
I'd go bulkhead aisle and expect Carbón to charm the person next to you into allowing him to ooze into their foot space. The food trollies are high enough to not bother me. It would be a good training opportunity for something like sustained chin rest with distraction :)
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Good points. And good motivation to soldier on with chin rest as it's been boring me to tears lately. ;)
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Lisa said:
The food trolley/Labrador nose would settle the issue for me :wasntme:
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It's pretty frightening, to be honest. Things that I never had to think about with a food-avoidant Rottweiler!

On the other hand, with Carbon I never have the frustration of slaving over his dinner and then having him turn up his nose. Ooooo, it used to make me so grumpy when Brogan did that!
 
A

Aitch

Location
Buckinghamshire UK
It comes down to what is best for Carbon. A sniff at a food trolley will be just that as he won't be able to snatch anything anyway but space to be comfortable would be the breaker. I have only flown with dogs to America and back again but it was traumatic if the dog was limited in space (which I can understand).
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
Aitch said:
It comes down to what is best for Carbon. A sniff at a food trolley will be just that as he won't be able to snatch anything anyway but space to be comfortable would be the breaker. I have only flown with dogs to America and back again but it was traumatic if the dog was limited in space (which I can understand).
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He'll have plenty of room to lay down and stretch out either way. The only difference for Carbon is that a bulkhead seat will be loads easier to get into (no backing). My concern for the aisle seat is that a stray foot or tail could get run over by a trolley. I'll have a chat tomorrow with our trainer. I've already been thinking of something to contain him, like rolling up a piece of vet bed and using it as a sort of bumper along the aisle to help keep his tail from wandering. Or maybe I just tape his tail to his leg? I'm used to dealing with a no-tail dog after all. (yes, I'm joking).
 
Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
HAH said:
This is a good idea. They always have blankets on board, maybe you could use one of them?
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Lisa said:
Erg I would say not...I mean I suppose they launder them in between flights? But still...I wouldn’t want to use a blanket that’s been on the floor. :shake:
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I'd probably feel too guilty to plunk one of the in-flight blankets down and possibly get dog hair all over it. On the other hand most of the pillows and blankets on a long haul DO end up on the floor.

Out of curiosity, I googled "how often do airlines clean blankets":
Don’t be fooled by any plastic packaging over those blankets either. In the year 2000, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees accused some of its clients of repackaging their blankets without ever cleaning them, Bravo reported. A few years later, The Wall Street Journal released a report explaining that most airlines only clean their blankets every five to 30 days.And, in 2017, comedian Nicole Byer shared the horrifying tale of her flight on Delta when she found a piece of human feces inside her first class blanket.

So that justifies my grand tradition of never touching the things. First thing I do when I get on a long haul? Shove the blanket between the seat and the wall and forget it.
 
Lisa

Lisa

Moderator
Location
Alberta, Canada
Emily_Babbelhund said:
I'd probably feel too guilty to plunk one of the in-flight blankets down and possibly get dog hair all over it. On the other hand most of the pillows and blankets on a long haul DO end up on the floor.

Out of curiosity, I googled "how often do airlines clean blankets":
Don’t be fooled by any plastic packaging over those blankets either. In the year 2000, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees accused some of its clients of repackaging their blankets without ever cleaning them, Bravo reported. A few years later, The Wall Street Journal released a report explaining that most airlines only clean their blankets every five to 30 days.And, in 2017, comedian Nicole Byer shared the horrifying tale of her flight on Delta when she found a piece of human feces inside her first class blanket.

So that justifies my grand tradition of never touching the things. First thing I do when I get on a long haul? Shove the blanket between the seat and the wall and forget it.
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Ewww...:puke:

Yup, I never touch them either.
 
Natalie

Natalie

Oh difficult decision... I think I would fear tail or paw being run over the most. I wonder if the bulkhead seat will have enough room for him to lie horizontally in front of you rather than vertically as you would expect with a window seat? Though guess he may then be encroaching on the other two people's leg room. I guess a lot of this comes down to how much your closest passengers like dogs..... if it were me, or any of us here, we would be beside myself with excitement and would do everything to help you accommodate Carbon, but you could equally get a grumpy so and so.

Hope your trainer can help out.
 
M

M.F.

When I fly, I like to drink a lot of water. That means I need the loo a lot—like every hour if I’m not sleeping. So, I always book an aisle seat cos I hate having to disturb my neighbours every time I need to get up. But I also hate feeling trapped in my seat, “knyping”. There’s a nice Afrikaans word—sounds like what it means! Used in the Anglicised slang form to mean clenching the nether regions.

So, I guess for you, if you chose the window, how trapped will you feel? If you won’t feel trapped, I’d opt for the window seat for the reasons you give—no trolley (those things hurt!) and no people stepping on Carbon. But extra room on the window?? I don’t think so. The wall curves, so you have extra elbow room, but not extra room at your feet. I'd check first with the airline about how much extra space you’d get. Or seatguru.com.
 
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