Flight Nannies
What is a Flight Nanny? How does it work?
One of the most important steps is delivering a puppy. Reputable breeders have made a network of contacts that make getting a puppy to their new owners a smooth and easy process. There’s a couple different transportation options that breeders use. The quickest and most convenient is the flight puppy nanny.
Using a flight nanny is less stressful for the puppy, less transportation time in most instances. And allows a puppy to be delivered to the far reaches of the country.
Not being restricted just within driving distance of your home allows you to broaden your search when on the hunt for the perfect pup.
How Much Does a Puppy Nanny Cost?
A puppy nanny is a 3rd party service. There’s a couple great companies with dependable and trustworthy puppy nannies. The general cost is $500-600. When you decide on your puppy, your breeder will let you know what puppy nanny they prefer to work with. Sometimes, if the puppy is the last of the litter, or they have a good support system at home to take care of the other puppies, they may be able to nanny the puppy to you personally.
How Does a Flight Nanny Work?
When a flight nanny has been arranged, an agreement is made and deposit given to secure the nanny. Generally 2 days prior to the flight, the nanny will confirm the dates/times. They will send a group text between the puppy buyer, the flight nanny, and the breeder. This group text will be used to communicate any flight delays, issues, as well as keeping a log of the entire process.
Breeder arrives at the airport with the puppy. The puppy parents are able to see the communications between puppy nanny and breeder as they locate each other in the airport. A picture is taken of the breeder with the puppy and sent to the group message chat.
The flight nanny generally takes a picture of the puppy in the carrier, and at any layovers and sends to the group message chat.
At the destination airport, the breeder can watch the chat messages as the flight nanny locates the puppy owners, and then receives a picture of the puppy owners receiving their new puppy.
Final payment is made to the flight nanny when they deliver the puppy. They also appreciate a gratuity tip as it’s not easy to fly with puppies. They often take cash or a payment option like Venmo. This should be discussed prior to the flight.
How Do You Get a Reputable Flight Nanny?
Be very cautious if you decide to hire a puppy nanny for a cheaper option. It is not uncommon to hear of people posing as puppy nannies, only to take off with a puppy. Work with the one that your breeder has a relationship with.
Looking for Cheaper Options?
If you have any friends or family members with flight benefits, you may be able to hire a friend to pick them up for you as well for a discounted rate.
Of course, the other option is that you can find a cheaper flight yourself to fly into the breeder’s airport to pick up a puppy. Puppy airline tickets run $100-125 depending on the airline. By getting on a waitlist for a puppy, and then knowing when the puppies are born, you will be able to get a flight with 6-7 weeks advance notice for cheapest options. Flying standby may also be another option if you don’t mind that schedule flexibility.
Some breeders may have a special relationship with ground transporters that will take very small delivery routes for quicker service. But generally breeders decide against ground transport. Not only is it a very similar in price to a flight nanny, but the puppy takes 3-7 days to arrive at the puppy owner’s home unless it’s a special route.
Crate shipping (under the airplane), runs about $350. It is currently restricted due to Covid in most airlines at this time. When we hear of this option re-opening, we’ll update this article.
