Pet Carrier Training

A mobile home – that’s how I see Nomii’s pet carrier. It needs to be a space he feels safe in and will be comfortable staying in for hours especially on flights.

Training your dog to like its pet carrier is very similar to training it in many different things. You integrate it into its way of life and this takes time.

Having a good handle on what motivates your dog – play or food – is important as you design your dog’s pet carrier training program. For Nomii, I turned using the pet carrier into a game, built positive associations and experiences with the pet carrier, and slowly nurtured comfort and confidence in being confined in the carrier.

The first time we had to travel with Nomii, we started pet carrier training 3 months ahead.

In the beginning, it was about leaving the carrier in sight around the house so it isn’t a strange object. Then we put it down every now and then for Nomii to sniff for short periods of time. He is a very curious dog so he started chewing the bag and scratching the lining and we would distract him every time he does it.

Once the bag isn’t a scary thing to Nomii, which didn’t take long, we started throwing tiny pieces of cheese into the far end of the bag with the command “get in bag”. He would dive right in, and then we would use “stay” to get him to remain in the bag for a while, before releasing him with “Ok!”

So this became a game for us – he would literally bounce around whenever we take the bag out – and very soon, we didn’t have to use “stay” for him to stay in there.

The next stage was for him to accept being zipped up. Again, start slow with seconds in the bag. As we extended the time, we combined it with taking him in the bag to the car, and then driving to somewhere fun. It would be to the park or daycare but being in the bag came to mean something good happening at the end of the experience.

Because of the foundation we built, the second time we had to fly with Nomii within US domestically, we just had to reacquaint him with the bag and it didn’t take more than a week or two. We went straight into the game stage of training – throwing cheese into the bag etc – and he remembered the “get in bag” command very quickly.

Nomii is also crate-trained so this definitely made it easier for him to feel comfortable in the bag. The den-like nature of his pet carrier made him see the bag as a safe place for him. On layovers, he would choose to lie in the bag, head out, versus being on the floor. This helped him deal with the many different stimulations on the journey and I think it made for more comfortable trips for Nomii on the whole.