Pet Passports

pollyanna24

I have tried looking these up, but it all seems very confusing, so I just wondered if it was worth the effort for say, two weeks abroad once a year, or should we just leave the dog at home? We would be driving to family members in Europe.

From what I can gather, the process is:-

1 Microchipping (already been done).

2 Vaccination against rabies (she's vaccinated, but not sure if against this).

3 Blood test after vaccination and then a 6 month wait before we could take her abroad.

4 Between 24-48hrs of bringing her back to the UK, she would have to wormed by a vet (how do we go about this when we are in a foreign country and don't speak the language).

Is there anything I've missed? It seems like a lot of work, and I'd be petrified we couldn't bring her back into the country. I would guess 2-4 would have to be repeated each time we wanted to take her out of the country?

Carmen

Polly, you seem to have everything covered.
Providing you get the rabies shot done yearly (requirement in France) you will not need to do No 3 again.
Dogs have to be given a worming tablet AND frontline applied by a vet, for travel between the 24/48 hr time period, this is all recorded in the pets passport.
I presume that France will be the country that will apply to your travels, so be careful if you intend to take him through into another country because I have a feeling you may need to take some more precautions to satisfy each entering country!
As far as I know most vet's in France are familiar with the PP scheme and quite a few of them know enough english to to give your dog the Frontline and wormer to get you and your dog safely back to the UK.
I know that No 4 applies to dogs leaving France that are coming back to France. I am not sure wheather that is the same for dogs leaving UK and coming back to UK maybe your vet can help you on that one?

Bon Voyage

Carmen x

Carmen x

pollyanna24

Cor blimey. Thanks for that. The country in question is Austria, so I guess we would be entering France and Germany too! Eek.

Think we'll holiday in England from now on! Never liked the in-laws anyways! :rotfl:

Carmen

LOL @ Pollyanna :rotfl: :rotfl:
Carmen x

pboae

I've got my dog a passport and taken him to France a few times, it's not nearly as complicated as it seems!

The stuff for the passport is a bit tricky cos you have to get the timing exactly right. It goes like this:

Microchip first (you've already done this)
1st Rabies vaccination
2nd Rabies vaccination 2 weeks later
Blood Test 30 days after 2nd vaccination

Then you have to wait for your blood test back, and as long as it is OK, you have to wait 6 months after the date of the blood test (NOT the date you get the results back). After that the passport is valid indefinitely as long as you get the rabies booster on or before the due date in future. If you miss a booster, even by 1 day, you have to do it all over again.

Some vets only do 1 rabies vaccination, but having the booster after 2 weeks drastically reduces the odds of failing the blood test, so most do both now. The 6 months wait is effectively the quarantine period that they had to serve before. There is some confusion over the booster dates for later vaccinations, at the moment they are on a 2 year schedule in the UK (possibly moving to 3 years soon). Which means that if you had your dog vaccinated today (12/03/07) the booster would be due on or before 11/03/09.

However, in some European countries (e.g. France) they still have a 1 year schedule. So for the purposes of the dog's passport, as long as they have the booster after 2 years it will remain valid, but if there were ever complications while you were abroad, and they were in the 2nd year of their vaccination, a French vet might consider them to be unvaccinated. As far as I know this anomaly has never caused anyone any problems, but to be on the safe side I still get my dog rabies vaccinated every year. It also means that I don't have to worry if I go over his due date by a few weeks, because for the passport itself, he has another year to go.

So... once you've jumped through all the hoops in this country to get the passport in the first place, it gets easier. You keep the rabies vaccination up to date and you don't have to do any of that again. You do have to find a vet to do the flea and worm treatment. This is very easy to do, there are lists of recommended vets on the internet, but I have never had any problem finding a vet and every vet I have used speaks English too.

It is helpful if they have done one before, or if you have seen a completed passport form, just so you can check it has been filled in properly, but they are very straightforward really.

Coming back on the Eurotunnel there is a little booth you stop at first, you take your dog in, hand over the paperwork, they give you a scanner and you scan your dog and they check the numbers match, then you get a little sticker for the car window and off you go. I'm usually in and out in 10 mins, but once had to queue for 40 mins when it was really busy (bank holiday weekend).

I love taking my dog to France because they are *so* dog friendly. He can come to bars and cafes with us, even restaurants. We usually go self catering and have never had trouble finding accomodation, but most of the hotel chains allow dogs as well! I believe it is similar in Austria, though I haven't been myself.

Germany is less inviting. I would travel through Germany with my dog, but I wouldn't holiday there. Dogs are generally unwelcome in lots of public places, and there is a lot of breed specific legislation and size laws, with dogs having to be leased/muzzled, etc and I wouldn't want the hassle of dealing with it all.

Finally, the breed of your dog will have a big effect on where you can take them. Personally I would be very wary of taking any bull breed (including staffies) or rotties abroad, unless I had had advice on it from the relevant embassies. In the current climate of media hype it isn't worth the risk of having them being classified as type for one of the supposedly dangerous breeds.

pollyanna24

Thank you very much. That was very informative. I will ask my vet when my pup goes for her last vaccination. I never considered the idea that she might be considered a dangerous dog in some countries (yep, she is a staff). Ho hum, something else I now have to look into!

pboae

With a staffie I just wouldn't risk it. For France they are a specified breed :-( and you will need to have a certificate to show she is a full pedigree and KC registered. I think even then you would have to follow the guarding breed rules, i.e. register her when you arrived, prove you are a 'fit' owner (i.e. no convictions, over 18 etc), muzzled and on lead in public.

Staffies were banned completely in Germany, but the law was over turned and AFAIK a new law hasn't been passed yet, so it's a bit of a grey area. Parts of Austria are also looking to ban them.

If your dog is wrongly seized it is hard enough to get them back in this country. I can't imagine how much more difficult that process would be if your dog was seized abroad. (Have you seen what's been going on in Liverpool, with the amnesty, etc? it's disgusting).

pollyanna24

After I wrote that post last night, I had a look to see about staffies being banned in various parts of Europe. Looking back, I was being pretty naive, but it had never even entered my head that it might be more difficult as I had a staff.

Oh well, there are plenty of places in England she can go.

Am I going to find it harder to find b&B and self catering cottages that will let us stay there with her?

Believe me, looking at her at 12 weeks, it's hard to believe how she can be classed as a dangerous dog, but I have just read in the paper about a boy who had his lip bitten off.

Christmasshopper

Could anyone who has got a dog passport give me some idea of the costs involved please?

Heva2015

I (well...the dog ;-) have a pet passport and the main costs involved were the numerous vet trips. It might be worth asking your vet how much it would be to get your pet fully covered and all paperwork in order.

Asher

Before I found out you had a Staffie I was going to tell you how easy it is! My friend has two Yorkies that go back and forth over the channel a few times a year (she has a house in France).