There are certain breads of dogs that they will not allow to travel, it has to do with breathing and the length of their snout. It's all part of the IATA regulations, I don't much about it but it might be something to look into before hand.

When you join housing is assigned to you base on the family size, so there is no choice as to villa or apartment. As a first officer you have to be married with kids in order to qualify for the villa. My wife has 3 children from a previous marriage, the youngest is 18, and the company will only go as high as 19. We had thought about pressing for the villa, but in the end we are very happy with our "Half Villa" apartment. For the two of us it's huge.

So far I like Dubai. It reminds me a lot of Vegas. You can find just about everything you need at the stores, it's just more expensive. Taxis are plentiful and cheap, so you can get anywhere. Dealing with some of the utility companies can drive you insane. It took me 5 weeks to get my Internet setup, despite calling everyday. After a few months it went down again and it took over 2 months to get it back. Many thanks go to my neighbor downstairs for the use of his wifi.

Flying here has its ups and downs, some of the flights are just brutal. For example, pick up will be at midnight for a 2am departure to India and back. Other flights are great, I recently did a 5 day trip going to Singapore and Brisbane, then back to Singapore. Each overnight is 24 hours. Every month I get a mix of short and long flights, and with a prefbid type system, you can really set your schedule the way you want it. Bidding seniority rotates groups every month, so twice a year you get good schedules and twice a year you get ugly ones. September is my bottom bid month and it's my turn to sit reserve, but you only do it once a year.