I booked Dogtainers to transport my cat and dog from New Zealand to the Middle East. During the enquiry process, Dogtainers appeared well organised, professional and responsive, so while their quote was higher than others, I went ahead as I believed my pets would be in safe hands. Once I submitted my booking request (10 weeks from my requested travel date), it went downhill. To start, the booking form said deposits paid by credit card would be processed in the next 3 working days and their office would call to do this. After a week with no contact, I followed up with an email, played some phone tag, and after 11 days was able to pay the deposit. After this, aside from an email to confirm my request and state their NZ team would be in touch re the next steps, in the 5 weeks following, no communication was initiated by Dogtainers. I emailed after a few weeks to check in but didn’t get a response so I followed up with a phone call (where we discussed flight options, that Dogtainers would submit booking requests for the flights discussed, and they’d update me soon). At this stage, I believed all was under control in the background but Dogtainers wasn’t great at communication. Just over a month out from our travel date, I was worried as Dogtainers hadn’t come back to me to confirm the flights discussed or if any changes needed to be made, and I needed to know for the import agent. There was no response to my email asking for an update so I followed up with a phone call 2 days later, where the team member seemed disorganised and disinterested. He couldn’t recall what stage the booking was at, then said he hadn’t heard back from the booking agent but that he would follow up, but when I asked when I could expect an update, he wasn’t sure. At this stage, alarm bells went off so I called another transporter to come up with a plan B. The second transporter was surprised that Dogtainers hadn’t told me that the airline wasn’t flying pets from NZ after mid November and we needed to either get them out before the final flight (in the next 2 weeks!) or do a double export through Australia (which would incur a significant additional cost). I confirmed this with the airline directly, who told me that pet transporters had been advised of this some months before. At this point, I realised Dogtainers had dropped the ball and I was worried that if Dogtainers had dropped the ball on something this major, changes to one of the biggest airlines in the world, changes that directly affected Dogtainers’ NZ business (an airline that Dogtainers lists as a partner on their website), how could I trust Dogtainers to safely transport my pets? I lost all confidence in Dogtainers. When I called Dogtainers’ head office in Australia to cancel my booking and explain why, their international transport manager also wasn’t aware of the airline’s policy change, nor was he apologetic that his team had dropped the ball. He also didn’t seem interested in resolving the issue or learning about the experience to ensure this didn’t happen again. And while Dogtainers agreed to refund my deposit, it took 7 weeks (and me following up several times) for the refund to be received. Dogtainers’ website states they: are “pet travel specialists”, “take the stress out of international pet travel”, and “can manage the logistics of world pet travel for Any Animal, Anywhere, Anytime”. Sadly, my experience demonstrated this isn’t true; Dogtainers didn’t action or follow up on my booking in a timely manner, they neglected to keep up to date with airline policy, their communication was awful, they lacked empathy and awareness that their business is transporting pets who are much loved family members (not a piece of luggage), and ultimately, they didn’t do their job and caused significant stress during an already stressful time. Fortunately, the second transporter was able to save the day. Within 4 days of my initial call, the second transporter had my pets booked on a flight, and just 2 weeks later, they flew my pets out of NZ on one of the airline’s last pet allowed flights. I understand an international move with pets will be stressful but using a pet transporter should reduce the stress, not increase it. I do not recommend Dogtainers.