Just wanted to post our experiences while travelling with our puppy Cooper while PCSing to Osan. It cost us $170 to check our dog as excess baggage at the airport in Seattle on Korean Air. He didn't seem too fazed by the trip. The baggage handlers and TSA folks were great. He was hand carried by a baggage supervisor straight to security where the TSA rep looked over his kennel, and then taken straight to the airplane and put in the live animal portion of the plane. This is an air-conditioned, heated area in the back of the plane that is pressurized to keep the pets as comfortable as possible.

Our dog was too young to get his rabies shot 30 days prior to leaving the US. Since we had to wait until he was 12 weeks old, that put us about 2 weeks shy of our port call date. This meant he would have to be quarantined. Bummer...

The good news is that he didn't need to be quarantined for the entire 30 days, just until his rabies shot was 30 days old (2 weeks in our case). The other good news is that he didn't need to stay at the National Quarantine center for the whole time. At the airport he was initially taken to the National center overnight. The next day we went to the Yongsan Garrison Pet Center and they went right away to pick him up. (very nice folks at the pet center).

We decided on the quarantine route since 1) if we left him in the states he would have been either a burden on someone, or in a kennel in the US. and 2) even if he didn't need quarantined, we would have likely had him in a kennel until we found an apartment and got settled. In the end I think it worked out just fine. We miss our dog, but feel better about having him in country where we could at least visit him.

Another interesting note: almost every Vet we talked to in the US before leaving swore we needed a USDA certified health inspection. The USDA inspection requires an exam, then paperwork to be mailed to the regional USDA office to get stamped, then mailed back to the vet to be complete. All this within the 10 days before leaving the country. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Do not allow your vet to tell you this, they will even show you websites from the USDA customs folks. But think of it this way, who knows the Korean import customs better? A US gov't agency or the Korean government? We chose to follow the Korean regulations and were correct. All we had was the generic 10 day health certificate and there was no question about it when we got to seoul.

Finding an apartment that accepted dogs wasn't a problem either.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM us!

Beware of Parvo. It's really nasty here. Even if your puppy has had a shot for it he can still get it.

One thing I need to add to my husband's post: When you go to pick up your dog at the Pet Care Center at Yongsan, find out if they still need to take your pet to the vet on base to release it from quarantine.

Today I went up to Yongsan thinking I could turn right around after picking up our dog. When I got there, I found out that they needed to take him to the vet. I went with them and we almost didn't get seen because it was clinic day and the Pet Care Center had not made an appointment. Thankfully, after I pleaded with them and told them I was up from Osan AB, the wonderful staff in the Vet center fit him in their schedule.

Just another thing to remember to ask.

Thanks for the info. I will be making the same journey this weekend with three large dogs (Chihuahuas) :-)