How to Prepare Your Pet for Travel Day: A Canadian Guide

Travel day is the shortest part of a pet’s move and the part owners worry about most. From the coordination side, the honest picture is this: how the day goes is mostly decided in the three weeks before it. A pet that knows its crate, has eaten on the right schedule, and hands over calmly will travel well. A pet that met its crate the night before will struggle, whatever else you do.

This guide covers the preparation that changes outcomes for pets travelling within Canada or internationally, week by week and then hour by hour.

Crate familiarity does more for a calm journey than anything you can buy. Set the crate up at home with the door tied open. Feed meals inside it. Once your pet walks in without hesitating, close the door for a few minutes at a time and build up from there. Add short car rides in the crate the following week. By travel day the crate should smell like home, not like a trap.

Book the vet visit in this window too. You want a fitness check, up-to-date rabies records, and, for international moves, the paperwork clock started on the destination’s schedule. Some certificates must be issued inside a tight window before departure, so the timing is set by the destination country, not by convenience. Our pet travel checklist lays the whole sequence out in order.

If flights are not booked yet, do it now, especially in summer and deep winter when heat and cold embargoes narrow the schedule. Our winter shipping guide covers how carriers handle cold-weather routings.

Assemble the travel kit early so nothing is missing on the day:

Trim nails and brush your pet out, but skip full grooming and new shampoos. And keep food boring: this is not the week to try a new brand or new treats. Digestive upset is the most common minor problem in transit, and it is nearly always a new food introduced too close to departure.

Run a normal day with extra exercise. A long walk or a hard play session earns you a sleepier traveller. Give a normal dinner at the usual time, keep water available as always, and resist adding anything special to the bowl.

Then do the boring checks in the evening: confirm the flight, confirm the pickup time, label the crate with your name, phone number, and destination address, and set everything out by the door.

Exercise first thing in the morning. Offer a light meal a few hours before departure rather than a full breakfast, then water only. A nearly empty stomach travels better at altitude.

Do not make a medication decision on travel day. Both Canadian carriers discourage sedation, and they discourage it differently: Air Canada refers the question to your vet, while WestJet Cargo will accept a medicated animal only against a notice from the administering veterinarian and a sedation record handed over at tender. Either way the conversation belongs weeks earlier, alongside the crate and the certificate. Our guide to sedating a pet for a flight from Canada sets out what each carrier requires and the distinction the CVMA draws.

Keep the goodbye short and matter of fact. A long emotional handoff signals to your pet that something is wrong. After acceptance, pets wait in climate-controlled holding areas and are loaded close to departure. Our guide to how pets fly walks through what happens below deck.

Cats need a longer runway than dogs. Make the carrier part of the furniture for at least two weeks, somewhere warm, with bedding inside. A synthetic pheromone spray in the carrier helps some cats; test it in advance. On the day, follow the same feeding rule and pack a familiar-smelling blanket rather than a new one. At the destination, set up one quiet room with litter, water, and hiding spots before opening the carrier, and let the cat expand its territory at its own pace.

Water first, always. Offer a small meal once your pet has settled, not at the door. Keep the first two days quiet and predictable: same food, same routine, and short leashed walks for dogs even in a fenced yard, because a new neighbourhood is the easiest place to lose a disoriented pet. Most dogs reset within a couple of days; cats can take a week or two to own a new space.

Want this as a printable list? Our free two page checklist covers every step in order, from the first vet visit to travel day, with space for your own notes.

Three to four weeks covers the crate work and the vet visit for moves within Canada. International moves run on the destination’s paperwork clock, which can mean several months; Australia and New Zealand are set by the rabies titre timeline. Start the crate work as soon as the move is likely, not when it is confirmed.

A light meal a few hours before departure, then water only. Travelling on a nearly empty stomach reduces nausea and accidents. Never hand over a pet straight after a large meal.

Ask your vet, and ask weeks before travel day rather than the night before. The CVMA advises against heavy sedation because complications in flight can be impossible to address, while noting that some degree of anxiolytic medication is often recommended, and it asks for a test run at home first. The two Canadian carriers publish different rules for a medicated animal, which our sedation guide covers in full.

Absorbent bedding, a worn item of your clothing, a clip-on water bowl, a portion of the usual food taped to the crate, ID on the collar, and document copies in a pouch on the crate. Toys with squeakers, or anything that can be chewed into pieces, stay home.

Usually, yes. Every connection adds handling, waiting, and temperature exposure. On very long routes a well-timed connection with a proper comfort stop can beat a marginal direct option, and that is a judgement we make route by route.

Introducing the crate the night before travel. Crate familiarity does more for a calm journey than any product you can buy, and it costs only time.

Planning a move and want the whole journey handled? Request a quote and your coordinator will map the route, the paperwork, and the timing for you.

Checked August 2026.