Pet Life: On Having a Dog in Istanbul (The Adventures of Bruno)

Many will be quick to share the story of how prophet Mohammed cut his robe as to not disturb the slumber of a cat and how that has transpired to become one of the reasons behind Turkey’s love of cats. Street cats enjoy hand delivered treats morning and night as well as makeshift warm shelters during the cold months. Some neighborhoods even have multi-level apartment style kitty houses erected for the street cats.

So what about dogs?

My first few months in Turkey included several mini-trips, so my beloved Bruno stayed home in the US with family. After our last scheduled trip I decided it was time to bring my boy home to Istanbul. It was early December and made for a nice early Christmas visit. My now husband, boyfriend at the time, grew up without pets, and he also was nervous that the apartment wouldn’t allow a dog as Turkey isn’t really a “dog country” and his mother is terrified of dogs. As an American, where it’s so common for a family to grow up with a dog, the idea of not having a dog or leaving my six-year-old 2 kg chihuahua behind was not something I could comprehend. He had been with me since he was two months old. We moved from Connecticut to Florida, we’ve road tripped up and down the East Coast and moved several, several times together.

We started the process of investigating for Bruno’s arrival, and were happy to learn our apartment would allow him. We found a vet we liked. He would have to adjust from house and backyard living in sunny Florida to apartment living in Istanbul, but if I could do it, then I knew he could too.

Bruno sat with me in cabin on the flight over, his longest flight to date, but having over a dozen flights logged he certainly was no rookie to air travel. Pet policies and prices vary depending on the airline, and we paid $100EUR with Lufthansa to bring him here in December 2013. When traveling within Turkey we always used Turkish Airlines (OnurAir does not allow dogs, Pegasus and Atlas Air do). Prior to 2016, Turkish Airlines only charged based on weight (animal plus the carrier must be under 8 kg in order to be in cabin), which meant Bruno was flying for very, very reasonable rates. As of October 2016, they have introduced a minimum fee of $70 regardless of weight. Regardless of airlines, you will need to show the desk agent valid vaccination records/pet passport, health certificate and present your dog so that they can see he/she is in good health. I also recommend calling the airline directly before purchasing your ticket to guarantee you will be able to book a pet in cabin space as they are a limited number of pets allowed on board and there is nothing worse than purchasing a cheap non-refundable ticket to find out that there are already two animals or a person with verified allergies on board and that you need to buy another ticket.

My boyfriend and Bruno got along from the start, thankfully. Soon the two became best buddies. However, we did have some trepidation about his parents’ first visit to our apartment. Bruno being an alarm dog got off to a start with his barking and circling of their feet, alerting us that there were new people at home. Thankfully Bruno is easy to win over by offering a treat and he was quickly accepted by all as a member of the family… but what about the rest of the Turkey?

Well, on the streets we are often stopped by people asking to pet him, we hear lots of “Bu ne ya?” (‘What’s that?’ in a nice joking way), but my favorite are the teyzes who offer him all kinds of loving words as if he were the cutest baby in the universe, “çok tatlısın”, “yerim ben seni”, “çok şekersin”… It goes on and it’s really quite amusing.

We have lived in several apartments in Istanbul, we’ve rented homes in Bodrum and Kaş, and we’ve stayed in plenty of pension houses and hotels. Throughout, Bruno has never been an issue and has always been greeted warmly. The trick here is that even when somewhere says no dogs allowed you can call or email them anyway and ask. Especially with tourism as it is there will be exceptions. If you are emailing, include a cute picture of your well-behaved four-legged family member. You can always Whatsapp after to talk to someone as well. You’d be surprised how many places we’ve stayed both in the USA and Turkey that initially had a no pet policy. There are also some dog friendly hotels here in Istanbul. Bruno was with us at the Hilton Bosphorus when my husband proposed (60 EUR, maximum weight 25 kg), he stayed with us at the Conrad Hotel when our friends were getting married (50 EUR fee, maximum weight 32 kg) and the W hotel when we were changing apartments (16 EUR/day plus 64 EUR one time cleaning fee, maximum weight 16 kg).

Since we do still travel abroad and Europe requires more stringent regulations, we have found an amazing pet hotel that we adore. We have been using Pati Palas for three years now. The owner Eser is incredible sweet and opened the business in a müstakil evi located in Tarabya. Bruno is treated like royalty there and we are sent pictures of his lounging on Eser’s desk in a bed she bought for him so they could hang out together while she got her work done. Her prices range depending on duration of stay and weight of the dog.

We moved to Moda in the spring and enjoy the pleasure of sitting at many of the local cafés with Bruno and see many other dog owners doing the same. Big dogs, street dogs and small little peanuts like Bruno all enjoying the good life here in Istanbul.

Even now, Bruno is ten years old and even though we have a baby, he is the star of our family when we walk down the street. Teenage boys laugh at him for being so tiny, girls scream as if he was some celebrity crush sighting and we have been asked numerous times if we’d be willing to set him up on a date for stud service. Istanbul may be famous for its cats, but I think dogs will soon get their time to shine.