Has anyone taken a dog from the U.K. to Canada. I'm just wonde ring what the procedure is and roughly what it cost? I have a very small (3 kgs) yorkshire terrier, six years old. Any advice?

Check out IATA website - gives you all information and British Airways. We are taking our two collies and our cat with us and the price I was quoted from BA was £150 per animal plus airport taxes. Vet check in Canada is $33. Most expensive part is getting the Pet passport which you will need if you ever want to bring your dog back to the UK without quarantine.

Yeah - the pet pasport is a good one to bear in mind - it's not necessary for Canada but you may decide to return to Blighty or go for an extended visit and as it takes more than 6 months to organise the piece of paper for clearance it's always handy getting a head start. One thing I would suggest to get the ball rolling is to get a microchip fitted which isn't expensive and then arrange for a rabies test which again isn't too costly (make sure the vet. puts the microchip number on the rabies certificate). A month after the rabies test you have to get a blood test sent to a specific lab. which is the costly part and you have to wait 6 months after the blood test results before you can apply for pet clearance. (What we did was file the blood test results with the rabies certificate and keep it safe - that way you can apply for the pet passport once you get into Canada ie you won't have to stay in the UK for 6 months waiting for the pet passport!!) Someone also mentioned that having rabies shots is also handy in case you need to put your pet in kennels as many kennels in North America (inc. Canada) require certain things like rabies and kennel cough vaccinations. Lastly, don't forget on arrival to check out things like heartworm tablets (I think heartworm is spread by mosquitos which can be a problem in some parts of Canada/US) and tick prevention is also well worth the cost as they spread many nasty diseases to dogs and humans.

Re: the size of your dog - you may be lucky and be able to take her/him with you on the flight - I think the rules are that if you fit the cage/travel crate under the seat they can travel with you rather than go in with the cargo. Continental have a good guide on travelling with pets at http://www.continental.com/travel/po...ls/default.asp - I know for our dog we had to buy a crate which was plastic - ie soft holders or wire cages were not allowed but the rules may be different for smaller dogs. You will also need a vet. certificate to show the pet is able to travel OK and I would suggest getting the travel cage a few months or weeks before going to get them used to sleeping inside - maybe go for a drive in the car too with the dog inside the crate! Hope that's some help.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by crazydaisy
Yeah - the pet pasport is a good one to bear in mind - it's not necessary for Canada but you may decide to return to Blighty or go for an extended visit and as it takes more than 6 months to organise the piece of paper for clearance it's always handy getting a head start. One thing I would suggest to get the ball rolling is to get a microchip fitted which isn't expensive and then arrange for a rabies test which again isn't too costly (make sure the vet. puts the microchip number on the rabies certificate). A month after the rabies test you have to get a blood test sent to a specific lab. which is the costly part and you have to wait 6 months after the blood test results before you can apply for pet clearance. (What we did was file the blood test results with the rabies certificate and keep it safe - that way you can apply for the pet passport once you get into Canada ie you won't have to stay in the UK for 6 months waiting for the pet passport!!) Someone also mentioned that having rabies shots is also handy in case you need to put your pet in kennels as many kennels in North America (inc. Canada) require certain things like rabies and kennel cough vaccinations. Lastly, don't forget on arrival to check out things like heartworm tablets (I think heartworm is spread by mosquitos which can be a problem in some parts of Canada/US) and tick prevention is also well worth the cost as they spread many nasty diseases to dogs and humans.

Re: the size of your dog - you may be lucky and be able to take her/him with you on the flight - I think the rules are that if you fit the cage/travel crate under the seat they can travel with you rather than go in with the cargo. Continental have a good guide on travelling with pets at http://www.continental.com/travel/po...ls/default.asp - I know for our dog we had to buy a crate which was plastic - ie soft holders or wire cages were not allowed but the rules may be different for smaller dogs. You will also need a vet. certificate to show the pet is able to travel OK and I would suggest getting the travel cage a few months or weeks before going to get them used to sleeping inside - maybe go for a drive in the car too

Thanks alot for your message. We won't be coming back to the U.K. so I don't have to do the pet passport thing? Basically I need the vet certificate, rabies and possibly microchip? When do I do all of that, just before we go?

I don't think she would fit under the seat, she's the size of a cat, a small cat, but I can't see the box fitting under a seat. Where do you get the box/crate from?

Thanks alot

No experience of dogs, though we brought several cats - same principle - but I have a colleague who came here with a dozen malamutes (she breeds them) and our experience was similar. There are two or three companies in the UK - do a web search - who specialise in shipping animals for emigrants. In both our cases we put our animals in kennels in the UK until ready to receiove them then called these companies who collected them, did all the vet checks and innoculations and paperwork, put them on a plane and called us with the arrival time. Allwe had to do was clewar them through customs etc at this end, pay a small fee and all was fine. Very very easy and a lot less worrying than the DIY option and, to be honest, not all that expensive copared to the flight cost which you pay anyway.

Checke them out.

Oops - sorry to confuse, the rabies/microchip and blood test are all mainly for the pet passport so not to worry if you didn't want to go down that route.

All that would be needed is a vet check for travel IF the air carrier asks for it (usually you will get a list of things to bear in mind before travelling eg what to place on top of the cage - bottle of water, live animal sticker, name and address etc. and also whether the animal is allowed to be sedated or not, as some carriers allow it some not. Once you've thought about which air carrier to go for ask for their rules or ask to see a website pinpointing guidelines on travelling with your pet - with continental this information is held in the special needs section so you may need to go hunting for it!).

The cages I'm not sure about from the UK - we got ours from a pet supermarket here in America. Your vet. may be able to advise a good place to get a crate local to you, but if I come across anything I'll let you know.

Hiya - I found a website here on airline approved travel crates - just to give an idea on prices and gives you an idea of what to look out for!
http://www.thingsfor-pets.co.uk/acatalog/ - (click on crates/carriers and then chose airline approved ones)

Can you bring the car over for me, click on the nissan, the first one on the list, sounds like a good deal, or someone is taking mickey


http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WW...50&modelexact=1



cheers

If you are absolutely sure that you will not be returning to the UK then all you need is the travel documents from DEFRA which has a part for your vet to fill to say that your pet is fit to travel. You can get the rabies vaccination done when you arrive in Canada at the same time as you have the Airport Vet check. It costs approx $55 incl. Rabies Vacc's.

I got all my crates from Sky Kennels, you can find them on the web. Cat kennels were about £35 each and my dog ones (collies) were about £85 each.

Would not advise going through a pet shipping company as it is a real rip-off, you can easily do it yourself for a fraction of the price. Airpets Oceanic at Heathrow quoted me £3,500 to transport my 2 dogs and 2 cats to Canada whereas British Airways quoted £600.

Good luck.

I just remembered a similar topic here at http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=184185 - it has in there some tips on what to do before the flight and clearing through customs etc. Good luck!