Hi, This is steve, Pansys other half and the one who organised take our 2 OES's back to the uk.

Absolutely NO international airline will allow you to take a small dog on it as cabin backage. In EVERY case the pet (dog, cat, ferret etc) will be classified as cargo and it has to return to the UK from specific airports and arrive at specific airports. The pets metabolism can be affected during the flight and they almost certainly would NOT travel with you on the same flight (you'd have to make a seperate journey to the airport to pick them up.)

It is not permitted to take pets on to eurostar however you can take then on to the eurotunnel. An option you could have is for a friend to come over in a car for the day (to france) and meet you for the return journey. You and your dog would make the journey in that vehicle.

A further alternative is that P&O have recently announced that they will permit small dogs however they have to be left in the lower decks (ie car deck) for the duration of the journey. This can either be in a vehicle or alternatively in a lcokable transportation container. Those are pretty much all the options open to you unless you charter a boat to cross the channel.

In all cases above you will need to see a Vet between 48-24 hours before your return journey and get your pets vaccinated against tapeworm and ticks. There are specific drugs that need to be used and a tick or flea collar is not acceptable. Additionally your pet must obviously be up to date with their rabbies innoculations (each one is valid for 3 years I believe but please check). After being given the rabbies jab you will need to wait a few months and then have a blood test to proove they have the rabbies antibodies (I assume you are familiar with this requirement. This all needs to be documented in the pet passport. The pet would need to be scanned prior to boarding to confirm the chip number is as on the pet passport. Rules for guide dogs are slightly different but I suspect not valid in this case.

The following links might be of use to you:-

http://www.seat61.com/Europe.htm#pets

http://www.poferries.com/tourist/con...g_your_pet.htm

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAn...vel/DG_4000019

Hope this helps

When we brought our dogs to Italy our vet in the UK said the rabies jabs he had given them were valid for two years, but our vet here in Italy says they have to be done every 12 months - and be very aware that if you miss the anniversary by even one day you have to start the whole rabies thing again from scratch, including waiting 6 months after the blood test before they can travel to the UK.

Hi our dogs had the Nobivac Rabies vac my vet marked it down as valid for 3 years, my Italian vet said 2 years, but when we bought them back a few weeks ago Swissvet also said three years all over europe. I double checked with Defra on length of time they said three years. dogs passports are dated for that length of time.

You mean we are putting our very nervous dogs through the trauma of annual vaccinations unnecessarilyNot that we ever mean to take them back, but you never know when there may be an emergency back in the Uk.

I was going to suggest this is a nice money maker for him, but thought that was cynicism kicking in, apparently not....

I 've seen pets on internal flights but never on flights from Italy to England. Would it help if you flew to the north at least with the dog as cabin baggage, then train / drive from there. I know you don't want to drive, but going from the north would cut you quite a bit off.

Perhaps things have changes in the last 7 years (many things have when it comes to airline regulations), but in 2003 my wife flew over to Italy from London with our cat in the cabin - in fact, with the travel cage on the seat next to her - and that was with Alitalia. At the time, it was the only company covering that route prepared to do it that way. Payment was per kilo as excess baggage.

They were treated excellently, boarded first and the stewardesses cooed over the cat the whole time, even offering some fresh salmon from the first class menu. So, I'd say it's worth enquiring with Alitalia.

Hi
the OP announced in another section of the BE Forum that he has decided to go by car, after all...

Well in fact we decided not to go because it seems the ONLY practical way is by car. which we don't want to do

Oh, sorry about that....
That's the problem with having a dog - we always leave ours in kennels, but that apparently wasn't an option...

I think alitalia will accept animals in the cabin but not sure if it covers europe or just internal flights. I do know that its definatly not allowed into flights into UK, DEFRA don't recognise alitalia as a registered carrier anyway.
Good luck, having looked into it and almost done it 18 months ago I know how stressful and exhausting it ca be.