cherry6

We are moving back on October 27th to the UK. We were going to wait until Dec 3rd, as our dog will have been clear to go back without quarantine then, but due to other circumstances (family member being ill etc) we are going sooner. This means our dog has to spend 5 weeks in quarantine in the UK. Has anyone got any experience in this? Any recommendations? We will be staying in Cambridgeshire, I have had contact with a quarantine kennel called Little Acres near Whittelsey, they are near to where we are going but seem to be a lot more expensive than the other kennels. We were going to use a pet shipper who was very reasonable ($1800 if we were going under PETS) but she is away till the end of the month and I am not sure if she will still handle it now its a quarantine thing. Anyone shipped the pet themselves and done quarantine?
Thanks
Cherry x

Jerseygirl

Someone in the last few days has written about shipping her dog herself. Take a read back over the threads regarding pets or do a search.

With regard to quarantine there have been some who have put their pets into quaratine but don't know whether they still post on here now. Again use the search facility to find the threads. If you can I would encourage you to ask a relative or friend to inspect the kennels on your behalf.

dannismith

Hi Cherry,

I am in the exact same circumstances as you are. I had been living in the US for the past 4 years and my boyfriend and I had planned to return to England. I arrived home on Sept 6th and he is there until Dec because of work commitments and therefore our cat is waiting with him.

Due to unforseen circumstances, he is no longer allowed to have the cat living with him at the apt he shares so therefore I am having him flown to England next Mon and he has to go into qurantine until Dec

I was very unhappy about this until I found a wonderful quarantine kennel about 10miles from my house which I have visited and was so impressed by. I found this facility by using the locator on the DEFRA website, you type in your postcode and it supplies you with the closest to your house as an animal entering under quarantine cannot stay in just any boarding facilities.

The owners of the kennels were so helpful to me and even found me a cheaper flight for my cat into Manchester instead of Heathrow, saving me £600 on Customs charges only charged at Heathrow.

If you need any more info let me know, I will dig out the links.

P.S The owner of the kennels told me that you get alot better rates on flight etc if you do not mention the PETS scheme and just say that the dog is entering the UK under quarantine conditions. The process is contacting the kennels, reserving a place for your dog, they will send you an Import License and stickers for his crate and then they have to collect him from the airport so you give their contact info to the airline

Good luck,

Danielle

cherry6

Thats interesting Danielle, thanks. I never thought about him coming into a different airport. The quarantine kennel I contacted say that the charges are:
352 pounds pick up, 79 pounds customs fees, 160 pounds charge for the dog to have a rest after flight (!), 110 pounds vet, then 10 pounds a day boarding fee. There will also be fees added on if clipping required etc. I would be grateful for any info you have, the DEFRA site I have seen and this kennel is the only one that isnt a 2 hour drive away.

Cherry x

coansha

Hi Cherry, many years ago(14) we did the typical sad dog on a beach story and bought a bedragled dog home from Tunisia, we did it ourselves and she sadly had to do a compulsory 6 months, which is obvioulsy not the case now.
I would add only one other thing to other sound advice and ask about visitations as we were allowed to visit and the distance from your home may be a factor in that.
We also wore a t-shirt for a day then left it in with her crate, we had 13 fab years with her and I still miss her, so bless you for taking your dog back with you as I see so many pets left when their owners swap states.

Bon Voyage

cherry6

Our dog is part of our family and therefore gets the same treatment as the kids (although he is obviously better behaved lol).
We have now decided against quarantine, I couldnt bear the thought of him being caged up and so we are putting him in with a specialist dog minder here for the five weeks and then he can fly and we will pick him up as normal in the UK with no quarantine. The dog minder has him in her home and he will be treated like her own dog, so hopefully this will be better for him as he is still in a home environment. We dont have any friends here we could leave him with so this is our best option, expensive ($900 for 5 weeks plus we provide the food) but it will be worth it for peace of mind.

coansha

Good for you, we took ours (she then had a friend of course) from uk to Spain, back to Uk and then to here. A small fortune but I would not leave a child nor my dogs.
I believe it all comes back to you and cannot concieve that people leave their pets at RSPCA because they cannot be bothered, obviuosly there are excepetions. We now have 3, I must be mental.
Good journey home, I envy you.

chillibeester

Hi Cherry,

I think you have made the right decision, of which I was just about to advise when I saw your update.

We also couldn't bear the idea of quarantine after reading about the lack of contact our kitty would have, and after no friends being able to him, left him with a very lovely cattery in Australia last year - but with a personal outdoor run, a cat hammock and daily run arounds within the cattery interior whilst they cleaned. It was cheaper than UK quarantine, more comfortable for him, and he had lots of loving attention as a long term resident.

We used dogtainers who arranged his final shots and vet visit, and he was delivered door-door in a van on the same morning he arrived in the UK (we received a call that his plane had arrived, then within 2 hours he was at home - in London) - all chirpy and as if nothing had happened!

One thing i was told by the vet was that the airlines preferred the use of a professional pet courier such as jetpets or dogtainers and it was a safer bet that our pet would be properly taken care of.

Well great decision and good luck!

redsmagicspoon

Hi
Just new here and was interested in some of the info on moving pets.

We are returning to the UK next month and we need to ship our dog.

We live in Germany and we will be moving to Cambridgeshire and we would be interested in Companies, prices, locations, pit falls etc.

This isn't the first time that Red has had to move as we brought her here from Ireland but the authorities are not so strict when moving out of the UK or Ireland only when moving back.

Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of waiting here for six months after her blood test and she will need to be quarantined .

If anyone can help us with some info we would be very appreciative.

Kind Regards

Roy