PDF guide · Diona The Trainer
Your dog is ready for the flight.
It's not ready for the city.
Flight-Ready is the plan I run with a dog in the weeks before it moves overseas. Ten chapters, then the tools: a landing audit you fill in, the timeline with your own dates, a fridge sheet and a letter for whoever is holding the lead while you're already there, a crate log and the handover checklist.
Diona The Trainer
Flight-Ready
The training your dog needs before you move overseas
Diona Chu
BVSc · MEd · Melbourne
The flight is the part your dog sleeps through.
You've got the paperwork, the agent and the crate on order. Here's what nobody tells you: the part that goes wrong is day one in the new place, when the dog won't wee on concrete, screams in the lift and has to be carried past every dog in the building.
A relocation is a dog changing every rule of its life in one week. The box it sleeps in, the surface it toilets on, the way it gets around, the size of its home, the people holding the lead. You can't rehearse the flight. You can rehearse all of that, here, in the weeks you've got, while there's still a garden to fall back on.
So the guide starts with the crate, because it's the slowest thing to build and the only thing you can't fix after landing. Then it makes you write down what a Tuesday looks like for your dog in the new place, precisely, and train the differences. A dog moving to a Manhattan apartment and a dog moving to a house in Texas need opposite plans. The guide shows you how to work out which one is yours.
It's written from Melbourne, for dogs leaving Australia, and it works in reverse for a dog arriving here out of quarantine.
Get the guide
$49 AUD
Instant download. Ten chapters, about forty minutes to read, then the tools at the back do the work: type into them on any device or print them. Buy the crate this week; everything else follows from that.
Buy Flight-Ready, $49 AUDPDF delivered on the thank-you page and by email. Works on any device.
It downloads the moment you pay, so it's non-refundable. Everything you're getting is laid out below.
Just want the one-page version? The free two-page checklist has the timeline and the three rules, no email needed.
Want me watching the crate and the kerb on video while the family runs the plan? The guide is the first step of the four week online program. Start with a consultation.
What's in the guide
Chapter 1
The flight is the smallest part
What actually goes wrong in the first week, and why you're preparing a dog for a life, not a plane.
Chapter 2
The crate is a bedroom, not a box
Where it lives, why it's never covered, the night the door closes, moving the crate with the dog inside, the airport noise, and the second crate nobody plans for.
Chapter 3
Where is your dog landing?
The audit. Toilet, transport, home, weather, dog culture, alone time, sounds. Two columns, circle the differences, and that's your plan.
Chapters 4 to 6
Three worked examples
The toilet (from grass to concrete, and why a marking dog can't empty its bladder), getting around (lifts, trams, the subway bag, or the car-only life), and the home that changed shape.
Chapter 7
The people holding the lead
You've flown ahead. The plan has to survive the least consistent person in the house, so it's three rules on the fridge. Plus flight day, and why nobody cries at the crate.
Chapter 8
The timeline
Eight weeks out to flight day, in order. Less time compresses it; the order doesn't change.
Chapter 9
Landing
Day one to day seven, the three things to watch for, and the mirror version for a dog arriving in Australia out of quarantine.
Part two · the tools
Seven fillable pages
The landing audit (now vs there, differences circled), the timeline with your dates and tick boxes, a printable fridge sheet with the three rules, a letter to hand whoever minds the dog, a fourteen night crate log, the handover and packing checklist, and the sources.
Chapter 10
What I can do from here
The four week online program that runs the timeline with you wherever you are, the settle-in pack for the first month landed, and the Hachi Way trainers for a dog that needs hands on a lead first.
Who this is for
Owners relocating overseas with a dog in the next two to three months.
Owners flying a dog into Australia.
Parents, siblings and friends minding a dog for someone who has already flown ahead. Chapter 7 is written for you.
Pet transport agents and relocation companies who get asked "what should we do before the flight" every week and have nothing to hand over.
Who it's not for
A dog that can't walk a busy street without the lead going tight, or can't pass another dog in a corridor. That dog needs hands on a lead before it needs a guide, and the guide says so. Book a consultation instead.
240+ five-star Google reviews
From owners who did the work
★★★★★
We were struggling with our dog's reactivity. Her insights into dog behaviour and step-by-step instructions have been a game changer, resulting in a much calmer dog. We couldn't recommend her highly enough.
Nicole Mayne
★★★★★
Before starting, we could barely get through a 10-minute walk without my 5-year-old dog Bodhi being spooked by something. In just 4 sessions the transformation has been incredible. We now walk for 30 minutes or more.
Angela L
★★★★★
I'm so much more comfortable walking my dogs outside now and not having to worry about triggers. My dogs are so much calmer and happier since training with you.
Linda
Questions people ask
Does this cover the paperwork?
The checklist, yes. The rules, no. Import rules, crate specifications and airline policies change, and your pet transport agent is the source for those. The guide tells you what to ask them and when.
Will my dog be fine on a 14 hour flight after reading this?
A dog that sleeps in its crate every night, has ridden in it, and has heard the airport, sleeps through the flight. A dog that hasn't, doesn't. The guide is the first thing. The weeks of doing it are the second, and no guide can do those for you.
My dog is moving to a house with a yard, not a city. Is it still useful?
Yes. Chapter 3 is an audit of the landing environment, and the three worked examples are patterns, not prescriptions. A dog moving to a driving suburb needs the car and long hours alone built up, not lifts and trams. The guide shows you how to swap in your own list.
How much time do I need?
Eight weeks is comfortable. Four is workable. Less than that, the order still holds and the crate still comes first. If the flight is next week, read chapter 7 and chapter 9 and message me.
Is it Australia-specific?
Written from Melbourne for dogs leaving Australia, mostly to the US, the UK and Asia, and for dogs arriving here. The dog rules are the same everywhere. The paperwork isn't, which is why the guide sends you to your agent for it.
Your blog posts cover a lot of this. What am I paying for?
The plan in one place, in order, and the tools. The posts answer single questions. The guide is the whole sequence counted back from your flight date, plus the fillable landing audit, the dated checklist, the fridge sheet and letter for whoever has the dog, the crate log and the handover list. If you'd rather assemble it yourself from the posts, that's fine, they're free for a reason.
How is it delivered?
Instant download from a thank-you page after Stripe checkout, plus an email copy of the download link so you can find it again later.
Is there GST on the price?
Yes. $49 AUD inclusive of 10% GST. A tax invoice is automatically emailed with your receipt.
Can I get a refund?
No. It downloads instantly, so it's non-refundable once you've bought it. Your rights under Australian Consumer Law are unaffected. If the file won't open or something's wrong with your copy, email [email protected] and I'll sort it out.
Free on the blog
Read these first
Start here
How do I prepare my dog for a long-haul flight and a move overseas?
The flight is the smallest part. The landing audit and the eight week timeline.
The crate
How long before a flight should I start crate training my dog?
Six to eight weeks, and the last fortnight is the part everyone skips.
Sedation
Can I sedate my dog for a flight?
No. What the AVA and Qantas say, and what works instead.
The toilet
How do I teach my dog to wee on concrete before moving to a city?
A cue, a turf square, and the marking habit that stops a dog emptying.
Buy the crate this week. Read this tonight.
Get Flight-Ready for $49 →
About Diona
I'm a Melbourne-based dog trainer with a degree in veterinary science, a Masters in Early Childhood Education, and fifteen years across zoo, wildlife, assistance dog and private training. My assistance dog Murphy and I work with clients across Melbourne and online.
I wrote this after preparing a past client's dog for a move to New York and realising every relocating owner I'd met had done the paperwork and nothing else. This is the nothing else.