When it comes time to take a flight across the state or even to a whole new world, when you want to take your dog with you, one thing that is a must have is that of a airline approved dog crate. While there are many great airline approved dog crates which are available, one thing important that you must keep in mind before you fly is that you will also have to have a "Live Animal" sticker on it as well as a water bowl. These are important and while many are already approved, without the sticker and the water bowl; your dog will fall on the do not fly list.

Now assuming that you are also ready to get the stickers as well as the bowl, you will need the crate. Unfortunately not every one is approved for flight. Matter of fact there is one major company whose inventory is almost all approved for airline flights and that is of course PetMate. The PetMate brands for the better part, are ready to go.

Of course that does not in anyway help your decision process as PetMate offers a large variety of dog that you can choose from that are airline approved. The most well known of these though, is that of the traditional ones. These are the same ones that are also specifically utilized by the various airline companies for transporting of animals.

Unfortunately for most people though, these traditional crates while durable and long-lasting, well they lack that little bit of uniqueness among them. For this reason you still have a great number of choices from which you can choose from. For example, you have the PetMate Vari-Kennel Jr. which is stylish and colorful. These come complete with a black colored carrying handle and a black door, but the rest of it is composed of a high commercial grade polyethylene plastic copolymer which is non-porous so it will not attract odors and will also be very easy to clean off.

As a matter of fact, the entire PetMate Vari-Kennel series is composed of nothing but designer airline approved dog crates. There are many great color choices and sizes in this series that you get to choose from. The most important thing though is that irregardless of which model you choose, that you have the "Live Animal" sticker on the crate as well as the water bowl. Furthermore you have to make sure that the kennel is actually the correct size for your dog.

In order to determine the correct sized one for your dog, it is time to take out the tape measurer. First off you are going to measure from the highest point of your dog’s shoulders to the ground. Add four inches to this height and that will be the height you will need in your crate. Next measure from that same point on the shoulders to your dog’s hind paws and once again you are going to need to add about four inches to this measurement for the length of the crate. Finally for the width, simply measure from shoulder to shoulder. However the width is not nearly as important as the height and length of the kennel.

James Nash is the owner of http://www.YourDogSuppliesStore.com - In his store he sells many airline approved dog crates with more being added almost daily. YourDogSuppliesStore also sells a wide variety of dog supplies at blowout prices!