They are animals. You can’t be 100% certain of that. Is the dog trained to handle turbulent flight? Besides, I’m talking about people on the plane who are uncomfortable or just plain scared of dogs. It is a reasonable fear, especially for a person who has been attacked by a dog. To most people, dogs are cuddly pets. To some, they are ravenous wolves—especially breeds that retain a lot of their wolflike appearance.
I could be wrong, but since the dog served two tours in Afghanistan I would doubt that he would be spooked by turbulent weather. These dogs are highly trained, even more than service dogs which travel in the cabin on a regular basis. Traveling in the cargo area is not always safe.
You have a good point about other passengers possibly being apprehensive. Perhaps the dog and handler could have boarded last and deplaned first. From what the article said they were going to the DNC for security purposes, not on a pleasure trip.
I guess because I watched a special about 9/11 prior to reading this article, it crossed my mind that if there had been a couple of military dogs on those flights, things might have turned out very differently.
I know what you are saying.
I used to have the police bring in their drug sniffing dogs to show the kids in our class (I taught health) and do a demonstration. They were GOOD but they weren’t perfect. They are dogs after all. Much better trained than the average dog.
I have shown in obedience, and even the best of those dogs mess up sometimes because something else seems like a better thing to do. Now, I suspect this dog would have been perfectly fine, but I’m really surprised that this wasn’t cleared with the airline ahead of time and the pilot informed.
When I ship a dog, which I do on occasion, I have to make arrangements. I would assume you do the same when you take one in the cabin.