Cinque21

Hello,
We are moving back to the UK after nearly 3 years in Florida. The company we used to bring our dog over does not provide service from the US.
I'd be very grateful for any recommendations.
Thanks!

BEVS

Golden Arrow are based in the the UK and have an extremely good reputation.

Perhaps contact them and see if they do or can organise a USA UK transfer for your pet(s). Or if not, who they recommend.

Do come back and let us know the options and how you get on.

We do love our pets so don't we

petitefrancaise

You should probably check with the airline you are planning on flying with as they may already have a company that they use. United for example use Petsafe.

Cinque21

Thanks for your replies.

I've checked with Golden Arrow, but they don't provide service from the US.
I've had quotes from Pet Relocation and Pet Travel Transport. If anyone has had any experience with either of them - good or bad - I'd love to hear it!

Jen2UK

We just relocated our dog from San Francisco Ca to the UK. The UK requires that pets be shipped as cargo so they can track every animal coming into the country. Your dog will be placed in the cargo hold. They do not allow dogs in the cabin. There are no cases of rabies in the UK, and they want to keep it that way.

We contacted the airlines and found which cargo company they use. Then we contacted the cargo company to find out their requirements. Go to gov.uk and search for DEFRA (Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs) for details about pet travel.

Your dog will need to be microchipped with an ISO compliant chip (15 digits), and have a current rabies vaccination after the chip was inserted. You will need to have your pet checked by a USDA Accredited Vet, and they will need to fill out a report for you. The report should be typed, and any signatures or had written marks need to be done in BLUE ink. Your dog will need a tapeworm treatment within 5 days of flying (which needs to be listed in the Vet report), and then you need to take the vets report, proof of rabies and tapeworm treatment to a USDA APHIS Veterinary Service to sign off prior to flying.

Even though we thought we had done everything required and had the sign-off in the USDA, our dog failed inspection at the ARC because our Vet only listed the manufacturer of the rabies vaccination, not the name of the medication itself. We got held up in the ARC (Animal Reception Area) in London for 6 hours waiting to get the corrected documents faxed to us from California. The ARC want everything typed into the report, and they insist that the specific name of the vaccinations administered are recorded in the report. We were not the only ones in the waiting room waiting for this issue to be resolved.

You also need to make sure that you have a flight approved box for your dog. They have specific requirements for the size and type of box you are shipping your dog in. Our dog is part Dachshund so she is long. Even though she is only 17 lbs, we ended up having to ship her in a box for a 60-70 lb dog based on her length.

We got our dog booked with the cargo company first. Once we knew which flight she was on, then we booked ourselves on that same flight. We had to take her to the cargo area 4 hours before the flight. She was the only dog on our flight. The airline stewardess was able to confirm for us that the dog was on the flight, but they were not able to check on her during the flight.

In the end, we all made it to the UK safely. We felt our dog was treated well by everyone who dealt with her, it was just hard knowing the was stuck down in the hold all by herself. This whole process ended up costing us approximately $1800 by the time we were done. It's a lot of hoops to jump through, but it can be done. Good Luck to you!

HartleyHare

Do you have an EU Pet Passport and will your dog's UK administered rabies vaccination expire after you arrive in the UK?

If the answer is yes, then it is very straightforward to organise shipping your dog yourself. See the instructions below from APHIS:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet...cus-treatments

We returned to the UK last year after spending 2 years in the US. We had a current EU Pet Passport and our dog's rabies vaccination had a 3 year expiry so was still current.

We were able to reuse the original crate that we shipped her over in and she flew as cargo on Virgin airlines (who had originally flown her to the US). We accompanied her on the same flight.

Virgin supplied us with all the paperwork to complete. All our vet had to do was complete a "fit to fly" certificate and administer the tapeworm treatment (done in one visit). Fortunately our local vet was a USDA certified vet too.

We flew into Heathrow and Virgin arranged to transport her to the Animal Reception Centre where we collected her around 3 hours later.

HTH

Cinque21

Thank you very much for all your replies, very helpful. We are now considering not using a company and arranging his transport ourselves based on the last two posters' responses, especially as we answered yes to all the questions re rabies expiration, passport and crate.