Is it an easy process to take your dogs to Canada???

I used Ladyhaye (www.ladyhaye.co.uk) to do all the paperwork and make all the arrangements. You can do it yourself but if you get it wrong or forget something your dog may not get here.

We had two dogs (Giant Schnauzer & Yorkie) and two cats to bring over last June, it cost £1,400 plus the required vaccinations.

Cheers

Russ...

That's not quite true since there are no paperwork requirements and no vaccination requirements for a dog from the UK to enter Canada More info here - http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Transporting_Pets

Depending on the weight of your dog and your routing OP, you'll have limited options for the DIY route but the cost savings are phenomenal if you can do it

Quite. And companies such as Ladyhaye have a vested interest in making it seem difficult and complicated in order to justify the huge amount they charge! They play on the insecurities of their customers. "Just leave everything to us (pay us $$$) and you won't have to worry about a thing"

Of course, if you can afford that and are willing to pay to "leave it to the experts" it's up to the individual. I quite understand people going for that. At the end of the day when you are coming to the finishing line (as it were) of the immigration process, it is tempting to let somebody else take charge of at least one aspect! However, it is not as necessary as they claim.

Also some airlines will not carry snub-nosed dogs i.e. Boxers, Bulldogs etc.

Biiiiink is correct, you need a fit to fly certifiicate, you do not need rabies shots, (Although you will when the dog is resident in Canada) or any other shots for that matter.

I have sent quite a few dogs over now, and the only time I had a problem was when the airline, (Air Canada) lost the dogs paperwork and he had to wait until a vet checked him to be allowed out of customs.

I have paid around £450 - £500 when sending dogs to Toronto. But I would see if your airline will allow a dog as excess baggage, that is definately the cheapest way to go.

I dread to think what my bill will be when we come over, ...I currently have 12.....eeek!!

Actually that's not strictly true, if you check out the Canada food agency link. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/...chien_2e.shtml

Dogs, if they don't come with an export certificate, must have a valid rabies certificate or they will have to have the vaccination on arrival in Canada.

You're right. Having thought about it I remember the reason we had the vaccinations is because we were going to have them kenneled for a couple of weeks before we moved into our new house. The kennel wouldn't have them without the vaccinations.

In the end we brought the moving in date forward so we didn't have to use the kennel. Or need the vaccinations.

We did contact Air Canada to see how much it would cost to do it ourselves. For the Schnauzer alone it was £1,250. But AC no longer carry dogs on passenger flights.

But you are required to have DEFRA paperwork to show any animal is fit to fly. This must be obtained no longer than 7 days prior to travel.

Russ...

The "Fit to Fly" documentation does not have to be DEFRA. A letter from your vet identifying the breed, sex, weight etc of the animal and saying when they examined them (usually within the week) and found them fit to fly is sufficient.

The DEFRA paperwork (export certificate) can take the place of rabies vaccination certification.

We bought two dogs over last May. They had rabies vac and needed a fit to fly certificate. We arranged everything ourselves and they came on the same flight as us with Air Transat. We had to buy crates which cost about 150 pounds for the two and the cost for the dogs to fly was $250 each. We also had to make a small payment at the airport when we arrived of about $30. It was very easy to do.

We did exactly the same, back in October 2003, and the cost was $125 at that time to Calgary. However, I'm not sure this route still exists??? There seems to be more and more people saying AT no longer permit this.

This is a quote from their website:
We would like to remind you that no animals of any kind are accepted on flights going to, from or connecting in the United Kingdom (except service animals – see below). Animals are also not accepted on flights going to or connecting in Ireland (cargo only) or Jamaica.



Doesn't say WHY though .... anyone know why this might be?

I believe that the word "from" might actually be an error!

Becuase we could not bring Archie over with us we chose to use a company -my son took him to the vet and had the company fit to fly certificate, we chose to have the rabies shot cos it put my mind at rest that nothing would go wrong. It cost me 806 pounds to get Arhcie over but to me it was worth every penny. We did have a problem that the connecting flights were not right but they put Archie up in Calagary in a kennel overnight and flew him into Regina the following day.

The wbsite is
http://www.petairuk.com

True I was just making the point that nothing is required to get your dog through Canadian customs - for the OP not to worry on that count. There are no vets or vaccination at airports (as I was led to believe when I first joined this forum), so even if you're asked to vaccinate against rabies, your pet can still enter Canada - you just have to go to your local customs office and show proof of having had it done within whatever timeframe they give you.

Still, that's all academic if you can't get a flight Seems to be more and more difficult, glad I got mine over when I did - he was on the last ever Air Canada Glasgow-Toronto flight, and I assume because they were all redundant the next day and had other things on their mind, they even forgot to charge me for him

We transported our two (collie x and lab x) over in November last year. We decided to use a company as we had to come over in 3 flights (Aberdeen-Heathrow-Halifax-St John's to make it easier, also because they included up to 5 days boarding which we needed to fit in with our plans at the time. We used a company called Pet Travel Services who were pretty good and took care of everything - paperwork, flight bookings, built to measure crates, vet checks. It also meant that when our dogs were delayed in heathrow due to the flight to halifax being cancelled (snow), there was no problem at all they were well looked after and we were kept up to date with everything.

Sorry to hijack your thread with another Dog related question

Im really worrying about this - I have a boxer and want him to come with us!.

Im confusing myself because one minute im thinking its ok for dogs to go as Cargo and then next thinking that most planes don't do that now so I'll have to go another route?

IM SO CONFUSED! Im so worried too! Anyone sent a Boxer over, as cargo, in a crate purchased yourself? Air Zoom/Air Canada or someone else?

All help appreciated - I looked at sites Defra/AC/AZ but stopped short of calling them just yet - I'll do that tomorrow to ask more questions.

Would just be interested in boxer owners experiences though.

Thanks
Nats