I fly with my dog Brodie the Goldendoodle all over the world. We pretty much always sit in first class.

27.08.2023 - 10:39 / insider.com

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Cliff Brush , a full-time content creator who lives in South Florida with his big, fluffy Goldendoodle named Brodie . The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I worked in a corporate job as an accountant and a business consultant for six years before the pandemic hit, and like a lot of content creators, that's when it all took off. So I resigned, and now I travel the world full time with my best friend who's a giant Goldendoodle named Brodie.

Before he was born, I never had a social media presence, Brodie forced my hand. Everywhere we went, people would always want to take pictures and videos of him. He was just such a character and was getting so much attention. I figured if people love him this much out in the real world, they're going to love him on the internet too.

I always wanted a big dog, and Brodie just didn't stop growing. I always say it's like Clifford the Big Red Dog — the more love you give him, the more he grows.

Before content creation, I always had a strong desire to travel, but with most typical nine-to-fives, you just don't have that luxury. The first thing I did when I resigned from my job was take a road trip with Brodie across the country.

After that, we started traveling for fun. I wanted to show Brodie the West Coast, so we went to Los Angeles. Then I wanted to show Brodie New York City. Now it's really become an event, and we're invited out by brands or by these large events that want Brodie there.

Now we're traveling once or twice every month. It's a fun opportunity, I can make good content out of it, and Brodie will have a good time, which is very important to me. Brodie has to be able to appreciate wherever we're going.

A post shared by Brodie The Goldendoodle (@brodiethatdood)

Brodie is my service animal, which grants him access to being in the cabin of any airliner. That's how we're able to fly in the cabin with a large dog.

Brodie has probably been on over a hundred flights in the last two years, so we've had time to try every single arrangement to figure out how am I most comfortable, how is he most comfortable, and how are the people around us most comfortable.

Flying economy is pretty much out. Since Brodie is so large, I can't just get one economy seat. We used to do two economy seats side by side, but it's still really tight. Now we pretty much always do a first-class seat. Sometimes I get him his own seat in first class, but just one first-class seat really works.

Brodie goes right underneath my legs and he'll sleep the entire flight. He'll pop his head up when it's lunchtime to ask for some food maybe, but that's it. People are always surprised when they watch me walking onto the plane, like