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There are a couple of ways to do this. You can fly into Springfield, MO (or perhaps some other point. We'd have to discuss this.) and pick up your puppy and fly home with puppy in front of your seat on the plane. More often, I ship your puppy alone.
This is less stressful for your puppy than it sounds and is very, very easy for you. By email or phone, we can arange a flight time and pick up location that fits both your schedule and the needs of your puppy. Air shippment usually costs $250.00 or $300.00, depending on distance and airline. I usuallly ship on Friday, out of Springfield, MO. Sometimes however, the best flights are at other times and I ship then.
I always vet check puppies before shippment. (This applies whatever the means of delivery.) Airline regulations don't allow puppies on the planes if any point on the journey is too hot or too cold. The part of the plane they fly in is pressurized and temperature-controlled, but we worry about walks from the termimal to the plane and from the plane to the terminal and any waits on the ground.
I have had some less wonderful experiences with ground transportation by third parties, so no longer employee hired pet ground carriers. Ground transporation by customers is a completely different matter, of course.
Perhaps we can arrange pickup at a location between you home and my kennel? (Since I make frequent trips for other reasons, this is not inconvenient for me.) Please call for details.
All puppies will have health papers when they leave here. After the last payment, I schedule an appointment with the vet and also start working on the flight. Most of the time the flight will be Delta or American Airlines. After I get the flight booked, I'll give you the flight times, flight number and airway bill number (AWB). It's very important to take that AWB number with you, because you may need to show it to the airline, along with your picture ID, to pick up your puppy. Some airports have the pet pick up in the reg. terminal and some have it at another location close to the airport. I'll find out and let you know where it's at before you arrive so it will be easy for you to go straight to where the puppy is. Airlines will have the puppies available usually 30-45 minutes after the plane touches down. If you can't be there right away, they will hold the puppies for up to 4 hours after the plane arrives. All crates will have a small food/water dish attached and will have some puppy food taped to the top of the crate.
After you pick up your new little one and get in the car, they might be a little thirsty or need to go potty. If you stop to let them out, please don't take them where other dogs have been. This is to make sure they don't pick something up. Also, it's best not to offer food until they get home. When you arrive home, the puppy will have had a long trip and it's very important to let them just look around a bit and rest. You may have to put them in another room away from everyone. so they can rest. This will help them build back up their immune system and let them just get use to the new surroundings and smells without having to worry about getting played with and held or passed around from person to person. I deal with some extremely tiny puppies and I like to make sure they are handled very easy the first few days. Of course at night you'll probably want to just sit and hold/pet them and thats just fine!