Hope somebody can help. My husband has secured a job in Calgary and we (wife and kids) are going out in August. Has anyone brought dogs into Canada from the uk. I've heard conflicting info about this. Do they need rabies jabs etc. Where do you get the Government paperwork for the dogs. We have purchased the correct boxes for the dogs and both dogs are chipped.

If you do a search for "dog" on Canada Immigration forum you'll find quite a few answers to your questions, but in summary:

Yes dogs (& cats) can be brought into Canada and there's currently no quarantine. They will require a rabies jab so you might as well get it done in this country so they are covered from day 1. If you think there's even an outside chance you may have to return to UK for extended period, I'd invest in a UK pet passport to avoid quarantine upon returning to UK.

Check out the DEFRA web site for paperwork, I can't remember off hand whether you need an import certificate stating your dog is in good health to fly.

If it's anything other than a rat sized dog it'll have to fly in the hold of the aircraft. It can go either unaccompanied or on the same flight flight as you (best option). You can pay a crazy high price for a company to ship your dogs over or you can do it yourself for probably a couple of hundred pounds (depending on weight of your dog). Lots of people have done it themselves and said it was easy.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Henry for that info. I visited a site yesterday that said that if the dog/pet was from a non rabies infected country ie. UK then the dogs don't need a shot.
http://gocanada.about.com/b/a/031808.htm This is the link.

Did you mean DEFRA in the UK or a Canadian equivalent?

I think we will be doing it ourselves as we had a quote from a company based at Gatwick who wanted over a £1000..

Hi,
They might not need rabies to get into Canada but they'll need it once they're there , so we've got ours done ready. I think the rabies jab may not work immediately (at least I gather this is so given the fact that for a pet passport you have to wait x number of weeks before they test the dogs blood to see if the vaccine has taken).

For pet passport info you can visit the UK defra site, but for straight importation of pet dogs this is the Canada Food Inspection site:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/...rt/dogse.shtml

This site will tell you what certificates you need etc. Looks pretty straightforward

Whether or not your dog needs a rabies shot to enter Canada is something I don't know having never brought a pet to Canada. But I've had a few pets in Canada and getting a rabies shot and getting keeping their boosters is a very good idea. The potential consequences of not doing it are pretty grim.

Much cheaper doing it yourself. We brought our pets over and it was a breeze. I got Passports for them all - chipped and rabies vacc'd before they left the UK. You don't need import or export permits if they are rabies vacc'd but you will need them to get an Authorised Govt Vet do a Health Check on them before flying. You need to do this a few days before they fly. It is really easy and painless doing it yourselves. When you arrive at your destination in Canada the animals will be waiting in the Baggage Hall for you and you just collect them and walk through the Declare Channel and there will be a vet waiting for you who will check the documents and sign them in, then you go over to the cashier and pay the nominal amount and then you will be on your way. When you are taking pets into Canada they like to process you as quickly as possible and reunite you with your pets quickly.

Confirmed - we've had this out with both authorities. If the pet has been in the UK for the last 6mths, you can bring it in without a rabies vaccination, you need certification that the UK is rabies-free (statement from DEFRA vet) and confirmation that the animal has indeed been in the UK for the previous 6mths (presumably also from DEFRA vet).

However, as the city of Winnipeg slaps CAD 200 fines on unvaccinated dogs it all seems a bit pointless. Calgary may be different, I don't know.

We won't bother having our dog done in the UK, we'll let them vaccinate him at the airport upon arrival in Winnipeg. Can't be bothered getting blood tests for him, etc to prove that his antibody count is high enough.

Just a little addition to the rabies thing.... although you don't need a jab to get them into the country and we weren't asked to proof of jabs by anyone subsequently - not in Calgary, Saskatoon or Swift Current we were asked by a kennel in Saskatoon so if you need to kennel them you will have to get them done to avoid the rediculous convo I had with someone. If you do go ahead, please check with your vet as to how long prior to travelling that you need to have them done as getting them done too close to travelling date can provide false/positive results and I think she said that one product had a different lead time to another.

To give you some positive feedback, they guys at Calgary airport were great and as soon as they learned we didn't have meat products but two dogs they went into overdrive to get us through and out to them. We had arranged for a company to collect them for us but really it was an unnecessary expense. We shipped them with airpets and kenneled them at a place to be recommended in Carstairs.

Just a quick addition. Yes there is a fine in Calgary for unvaccinated dogs. And when we came in to Calgary we were asked to prove our dog was rabbies vaccinated. It was part of the customs checks. I hope this info helps.

Phil

P.S. I beleive they will vaccinate your dogs at customs if they are not allready vaccinated and charge you for it. They will not be cheap!

Hi we are going on July 11th and taking our westie with us..he has had rabies vacine and we are going with an export company called Ladyhaye who are collecting him of us at the airport on the 11th(manchester)...they are handling everything just need his rabies card and fit to travel letter a week before he flies from a LVI vet...he is travelling on same flight to toronto with zoom - never used them before?? Hopefully it all goes OK - will let you know!!

Weve got a Cairn and a Schnauzer. How long did you have to wait between jab and blood test? Are the LVI vets listed somewhere? We will also be travelling with zoom from Manchester. I will look into Ladyhaye.
Thanks

your own vet should be LVI - had rabies jab approx 6 weeks ago - not sure how long you need it by....ladyhaye will tell you......when u going then?

Hello, we are taking our 2 springers with us and i work in a vets.

The passport works like this:

Your dog has to be vaccinated with routine vaccs.
It has to be microchipped.
It has to have a rabies vacc
A month after the rabies vacc the dog has to have a blood test to show the vacc has worked (apparently a slight percentage dont work, but it is only a slight percentage)
When the blood test comes back the passport can be issued.
Before leaving get a fit to fly letter from vets.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT BIT.
If you are returning to britian - the animal cannot return within 5 months of the blood test, so prepare early, if the blood test comes back and you are one of the unlucky ones it has to be vaccinated again and the blood test repeated after another month.

You do not have to have the passport to enter canada, but the rabies vacc has to be done either before landing or within 10 days of landing, so its better to have it done before leaving.

Dont want to bore you but also think about worming....
In britian heartworm is very rarely known of but it is in canada (apparently). This is a killer, at present the only wormer that covers heartworm aswell as regular worms is MILBEMAX, you can only get it from your vets as it is a prescription item.

Hope this is of use to everyone and you dont think i am lecturing about worming your pets.
If you need anymore advice give me a shout, if i dont know i will find out.

Jaynie and spaniel trying to type.

Our dog is on Revolution, it deals with fleas, ear mite, mange mite, tick infestations, heartworm and roundworm. I don't know if you can get it in the UK but the vet here suggested it for dogs that are often in the country. Something else is better for purely urban dogs.

Thank you for that I will try and track some of that down here, that sounds. better than the worming tablets and frontline I use for fleas and ticks. Is it a tablet, spot on or paste and does it work by weight, sorry so many questions.

My dogs are like my children so the better protected my fury kids are the better. I cant wait to get out to canada, my fury kids will have to be boarded for around the first month, i am looking at a place called dogs at camp on the internet as my auntie suggested it cos its near her, it looks great fun but out of suburbia so the more protection they have against bugs the better, and im hoping to be able to visit them on a daily basis.

Thank you for the info anymore keep it coming, hopefully we will be on a plane soon.

Jaynie (fur faced typist now gone to bed)