MrsDS

Hi there,

We are moving back to the UK, from Toronto, in the Spring of 2020 and will be bringing our two older dogs (English Pointers) back with us. Does anyone have any recent experience of moving their pets to the UK from the Ontario area? I would appreciate any recommendations for pet transport companies. I am also exploring the option of arranging their transport myself if anyone has any personal experiences they can share.

Thanks so much for your help.
MrsDS

geoeng

I moved 2 dogs from Toronto to Manchester just over a year ago. Arranged everything ourselves and didn't have any issues. As long as you're aware of all the documentation for transporting pets and importing them to the UK, it's not really all that much work to pay someone else to do although it was a lot of trips to the vet (to make sure all the shots were done in the right order and in time including extra unnecessary rabies vaccines to be sure) and finding suitably large crates for transport. There are several blogs out there on the process and documentation, though I can't think of any specific ones at the moment.

We used Sea Air International Forwarders in Toronto to arrange the shipment via Air Transat and Ladyhaye International Pet Travel Agents Ltd as our agent in the UK (my favourite money grab in the process as they do next to nothing for a lot of money, but are a requirement). No issues with their service at all and they work together a lot, which was helpful as they ended up sorting some stuff out amongst themselves. It's a stressful process but quickly forgotten when you collect the dogs on the other side. Because they have to arrive via an approved route/carrier, there aren't a lot of options out there and you can't work directly with the airlines (except perhaps Air Canada but I seem to recall them being more expensive) as the dogs are shipped and handled as cargo. Happy to provide any additional info I can.

MrsDS

Thanks so much for this info geoeng! Very much appreciated!

Gloriajean

Hi can you tell me what kind of microchip for pets going to UK.

KayCooper

We just asked our vet (in Vancouver) to microchip them - we didn't get a choice on what make it was. I don't think it matters.

Gloriajean

Yes it does matter they have to have a microchip that UK can read .

KayCooper

From what I have learned (having just brought back a dog and cat from Canada to the UK), most north american microchips are able to be scanned by a UK reader. When blogs / websites talk about them being readable, they're generally referring to ensuring they haven't moved within the animal, and therefore are in the right position to be scanned. As long as the chip is ISO approved (most new ones are), you should be fine.

Gloriajean

Thank You. I’m leaving in Sept beginning I’m so worried about the babies .

KayCooper

I just wrote this post about the whole process

Bringing pets back to the UK (from "approved" countries)

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out...I promise, it's not as bad as people say