Holidays abroad - How easy with the dogs?

Sarah_Jane

Sarah_Jane

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Thinking of going to Holland and wondering what costs are involved in taking the dogs. I have 3 (2 greyhounds and a lurcher) and kenneling would be expensive. It would be practical to take them accomodation wise but not sure what costs, processes etc involved. Anybody done it?
 
I think they would cope well. We are going out in the horse lorry for a three day event. They are used to travelling long distances in the lorry and have plenty of room to move around, drink and sleep. I would be more comfortable taking them than leaving them in kennels.
 
Personally I would be a bit wary of taking my dogs abroad now after reading an article in the paper a few weeks ago. A family took their lab to France - he had all the right innoculations, passport, microchip etc etc etc.

However when they came to come home, the microchip could not be found and he now has to stay in quarantine for 6 months (also in that time he's had to have an operation and had to recover in kennels without his family around him).

I couldn't bear it if that happened to my dog.

No, we have nice kennels near us and my dogs will go there when we are abroad.
 
You will need to have them vaccinated for rabies, one month on you need to have a blood test to show they are innoculated, at this point you can leave the country, however you cannot return for 6 months. Once the six months is up you can come and go as much as you want, however you must see a vet before returning and each dog will need to be wormed and treated for ticks 24 hours before travelling. I think the initial passport is about £150, you pay £30 to travel on tunnel or ferry and the vets (in France) tend to cost about £30 a visit.

The French have a different outlook to dogs and they can stay in hotels and come into restaurants with you. Although I think it changing here too - last weekend we stayed in Exeter at a Holiday Inn Express with BD - who took to hotel living instantly!!!!! and there we counted 5 other dogs enjoying the hotel life there!!

Bumble Dog has travelled to France so many times she is on her second passport!!!!!!
 
I plan to take my dog on a trip to Wyoming this year (in America, dogs under 20lbs can fly in the cabin) and will stay at a dog-friendly hotel. In NY, dogs are welcome in 95% of shops, so my dog is more than used to mingling in different situations, loud noises, hordes of people etc. I think it depends on the dog, to be honest, as to how well they will travel.
 
Stinkerstonkersmum has pretty much summed it up except you also will need to get them all microchipped too before they start their vaccines and blood tests.
If you wanted to go abroad often with the dogs you would also need to make sure you keep them up to date with their rabies vaccines - you can't afford to go even 1 day over the due date or you have to have the blood test all over again. The other thing to watch out for is most brands of rabies vaccines in the UK last for 2 years and for most countries this is fine but if you travel to Germany for example they will insist on a yearly vaccine no matter which vaccine is used.
 
Sorry forgot to add the microchip bit - BD has been microchipped since a pup
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Thanks for that seems I have left it a bit late this time and as I doubt my trips abroad will be frequent proobably not worth doing it. Thanks everyone.
 
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I guess it depends on the airline you're flying...Our JRT who is 16lb wasn't allowed in the cabin to fly to the US. The limit was 3.5 lb to have a dog in cabin
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Was that with Air France? The American carriers are much more lenient, although that may be just for domestic travel. As long as your dog fits into the right size carrier, and can move around, they don't even check the weight.
 
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Thanks for that seems I have left it a bit late this time and as I doubt my trips abroad will be frequent proobably not worth doing it. Thanks everyone.

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I know you've now made your decision, but just to add my experience to the debate, as someone said, you do have to think about it 6-12 months in advance to get the vaccinations done, but if you should decide to get a passport, we had a great holiday in France a couple of years ago with the dog. I wouldn't consider it in the summer unless your car is air conditioned, and we did stop several times en route for her to stretch her paws, have a drink, and get water sloshed on her!

We stayed at 3 locations: Normandy/Brittany (loved it, and cafes allow you to eat on the terrace with your dog), the Vendee (best location of the 3, the dog loved swimming in the warm sea - so much warmer than she would ever experience at home, and the Loire (the dog was a bit of a problem here as I would have liked to go in the chateaux but had to admire them from outside). She picked up a tick in the Loire, so I recommend Frontline before you go, and the French vet will also do a Frontline treatment in order to pass the dog for returning to the UK.

Also in the light of the horror story in the news, I would get the vet to check the dog's microchip before you leave the UK.
 
Just have to add that we had a fabulous time driving our dog all the way to Corsica 3 summers ago - we spent 6 weeks driving through Italy and France and she had a grand time, every cafe and restaurant were more than happy to have her and no problems with hotel and campsites, all the beaches were fine too, in fact I would say that people were a lot more tolerant of her charging around and generally being her usual nut case self than in Cornwall!
However it was extremely hot for her as we didn't have Aircon and I wont go again until we do!
There is a website for organizing the vet on both sides which made it all very simple.
http://www.dogsaway.co.uk/
 
Absolutely agree - dogsaway were brilliant!!! When we found the tick, we phoned dogsaway who had already organised our vets appointment for our return, and they organised a vets appointment to get rid of the tick. I know it was pretty pathetic that (a.) we didn't know how to safely remove a tick without getting a vet involved, and (b.) we couldn't find a vet in France and book an appointment ourselves, but fortunately thanks to dogsaway we could hand the problem over. They are solid gold!
 
So glad we aren't the only ones! - we had to call them to find a vet in Genoa, because it was so hot we had let her hang her head out the window for far too long and she got a soar eye, poor thing, but Dogsaway were totally un-fazed and sorted it out.
Also remembered that French chemists have an animal section and you can get help in most of them.
 
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