When PCSing to Hawai’i with dogs, things can get tedious and challenging.
A. First, you want to assess the situation and count how many days you have until your report date. You will need about 60 to 90 days to plan and get your fur babies ready to fly.
B. Then, you’ll want to go to a Military vet (avoid civilian vets if possible) to get your dog up to date on rabies vaccinations, bordatella, and dhpp. Your dog needs two rabies vaccinations in their lifetime with one of them being within 11 months of flying. If you are getting your dogs first rabies vaccination you must wait 30 days until getting the second one. If your dog has both of their vaccinations already, they can get their rabies titer sent to a lab. This step is the most important and needs to be done as soon as you get orders for Hawai’i.
C. Then, you need to assess your dogs breed. If you have any type of snub-nosed dog be a mix or not, your dog will be restricted on most flights. If you don’t have a snub-nosed dog you can skip this step. Currently, Hawaiian and Alaskan are the only airlines I know of that will fly those breeds. If you are near a large airport like JFK or LAX it’ll be super easy to book flights with your dog. If you are in a smaller city, you will need to drive your pet to the bigger airport. There are other options out there like ground shippers and pet moving companies, but they are pricier. Choose the best option for you and your budget. We used a pet moving company to ship our two pets and the price was a little over $5k.
D. Once your FAVN results come back (passed) from the rabies titer, there is a 30 day waiting period for your dog. If you choose to fly your dog before the 30 day waiting period, your dog will be held at the Animal Quarantine Center until the waiting period is up. If your dogs FAVN rabies titer results come back as failed, you will need to send a new blood sample to the lab (return to the military vet to get this done). If you choose to fly your dog with a failed FAVN, your dog will be held at the Animal Quarantine Center for 120 days.
E. Once you get closer to your flight date you will want to send in your pets AQS form to the Animal Quarantine Center. This form should be sent in 10 days before your pets arrival to save about $60 in fees. The checklist and AQS form is available on the animal quarantine website and using the link below. The form should be sent with both of your pets original rabies certificates and a cashiers check/money order for $185. If you’ve followed every step correctly up to this point your dog will be released to you at the HNL airport. If not, your dog could end up in quarantine.
• order your petmate/sky kennel early (kennel should be a size too big for your pet)
• get air tags for your pets kennels
• do your research and figure out the best option for you
