Air Transport of Dogs from Canada

Good day everyone.

Two years ago, we flew to our home in Puerto Plata and brought with us a 1 year old labradoodle.  We purchased the 'checked baggage' ticket for the dog with West Jet for $75.00.   Everything went smoothly.

This past December, we booked our flights again, this time with two dogs, the same labradoodle who has grown up a bit more (52 kg with crate included) and his little brother who is a 1 year old goldendoodle.   When we got to the airport for our red eye flight, they weighed our dogs and found them to be over the 100 lb maximum limit.   We were informed to fly them 'Cargo'....except WestJet themselves do not have a cargo department.   Its done by  3rd party.  Cargo flights are $500 per dog.

After calling the 3rd party, we were told that (1) they would never ship a live animal on a red eye flight as someone needs to be with the animals at their holding facility at all times, so it would have to be a daylight flight.    We were then told that there is no guarantee that the dogs would even be on the same flight as us, whether the flight that is leaving Canada, or the flight that is returning to Canada.  That makes it very difficult when we are carrying all of the papers for the dogs.   

Question:   Has anyone had any success in bringing over a large dog with another aircraft carrier or 3rd party carrier?