cars68

hi i have been reading about taking the dog to oz is there any other way to do it without using a company who do everything? is there anyone who has done it themselves? im in the uk, hope to go to melbourne this october! would love some help with this,look forward to reading replys.caroline

IRBaboon

I believe that most of the big airlines will only accept animals through an agent but you could email them to double check. I suppose the airlines prefer it because they know everything should be in order when an agent is doing it.

esperanza

I started looking in to doing it myself, largely because I hate middle men and always find myself chasing them up anyway! But as previously suggested, the airlines that I contacted said that they no longer deal direct with clients, only through companies. I guess individuals doing it just caused too many problems.
However, there are companies who will just book the flight itself for you and allow you to apply for permits etc yourself, which might allow you to cut out some of their profit margin. Personally I found there was so little in it (as on top of the flight you're then paying vets fees, lab costs, permit charges, etc etc) that I decided to just leave it all to 'the experts'. Our dog flies next week, assuming his final blood test comes back ok, and so far I have no complaints about the company we are using. (Will be able to give more info in a couple of weeks!)
If you do a search for 'export pet thread' you will find a really comprehensive thread with lots of other people's experiences, opinions and quotes on - it's long, but well worth a read.

cars68

fantastic, thankyou,great help

esperanza

very welcome, glad to be of help!

kevinbloomfield

If your dog is good at retrieving sticks maybe you could chuck one a really long way and get the dog to swim to Australia?

cars68

thats really helpful thanks!

Gazzap

We just got our first puppy (as a family) back in December.
My suggestions to 'get rid of him' and buy a new one on arrival met with shrieks of 'NO, DADDY!'
So I guess we gotta take ours....<mutter mutter, moan moan> :curse:
I saw a post about a vets in Bristol where it cost approx £1800 all inc- seems not too bad , when some seem to have paid £3k

cars68

thanks,think i1`ll stray him,only joking! its loads if money

willywonka

weve got a german shepherd and have been quoted £2,500 to ship her out, and then 30 days quarantine, and then 500 oz dollars to fly her from either melbourne or sidney to forwarding destinations.....as she is like 8 years old were gonna re home her, dont think she will make the journey.

esperanza

That seems too good to be true... is it a very very small dog? Remember that on top of what the company charges you (which may not be all inclusive, they aren't all) you can also expect to pay vets charges and then $800 or so for quarantine in Australia.

Re the stick throwing idea, what if the dog tried to swim back to return it to you? Poor pooch would be pooped!

kevinbloomfield

no problem, hope it helped