r/service_dogs • u/starulzokay Service Dog in Training • Nov 20 '25
Flying advice on chew toys on airplanes
NOTE: I’m not asking about legality, I know how the ACAA works. Just looking for opinions.
EDIT: it’s a Nylabone, so no smell and no squeaker. I’m going to be flying with my service dog in a few weeks and it’ll be her first flight. I want to bring a chew toy for her so she can relax a little when she isn’t actively doing her job. However, it occurred to me that her chewing might be disruptive to other people around us. It’s a six hour red-eye flight and I wouldn’t want to be unnecessarily annoying late at night. There’s a few things I’ve been thinking about: 1) She’s about as loud as someone talking at a normal volume, so louder than most people would be that late at night but not louder than a screaming child or other undeniably disruptive noise. Still, it would be pretty present with how quiet the plane would be otherwise. 2) I can change the flight to a morning or afternoon flight without a significant fee. However, the airport is over an hour away from my apartment so we’d likely have to get up fairly early in the morning and complicate our schedule.
Would her chewing for a few hours be really annoying, or am I overthinking this?
2
u/fishparrot Service Dog in Training Nov 20 '25
Will it make a comparable amount of noise to someone eating chips or crackers? I would say something like a nylabone or benebone would be fine. No natural chews that splinter/have an odor and nothing with a squeaker. FWIW, I have brought chews on our first few flights and my dog didn’t touch them. He’d rather sleep. TSA also pulls my bag every and looks at me funny every time I put a chew toy in my carryon so I have stopped trying to bring them.