Sammy T

I know this will have talked about before so I apologise for those of you who I bore to death.
Anyway, have any of you taken your pet to NZ? We are considering taking our beloved Cocker Spaniel, or rather I am, OH would be glad to see the back of her at the moment as she is very naughty.
Have looked at stuff re bringing in pets and seems like she would not have to go into quarantine (strange, when OZ requires 30 days) but you have to give address where dod will live for at least a month after arrival. Just a bit worried how to arrange this as we will probably not know where we are going to live until we get there and suss outs ome properties. Also what is the attitude to dogs, are they allowed in natioanl parks or beaches, someone told me NZers love cats but not dogs, is this true?
Oh boy something else to worry about at night
Sammy

Am Loolah

We definately noticed fewer dogs in NZ than the UK, but they seem to walk them ridiculously early before work I guess, so we were just up too late to see many! There's no quarantine that's true. We're using Airpets for our 2 and they are very well organised and make it seem very easy! We filled in the forms and just put TBC on the address bit. Now we have paid our deposit on our rental I can go back to them and confirm the address. But they will want a contact number either way for somebody in NZ as the airline apparently phone ahead to confirm that someone is expecting them and will be there if for any reason you're not. This can be tricky if you have no-one over there?

Depending on the area you're heading you should be able to find out where you can take them from the local City website. The dog also has to be reigstered with the local council and there are again all kinds of rules. If you search this forum for threads on "Dogs" you should get all the info you need.

Maz

Can you arrange with a kennels to take your dog for a week or two? That way, you don't have to be there to get her off the plane, and you have a contact who will care nicely for her when she arrives.

p.s. Cats rule!

pixi-dust

Sammy, if you speak nicely to someone on the forum that lives near where you plan to be you could ask them to be your contact address!!!
We've actually been the contact address for a few people and all it means is you may get a phone call saying the dog is arriving and is there someone to pick them up.

We are at the top of the north island and were used as an address for someone in CHch! and nobody batted an eye - so don't worry too much about that - failing finding anyone nearby - you can use us if you want.

I think there are fewer places to walk your dog - like in scotland we just went anywhere - here I always think " are we allowed here"

But once you get to where you're going ask other dog owners where their secret spots are! Up here there are loads of beaches we can go. Some have rules - like what times of year and day you can go and some are all year.

BEVS

We've also acted as the contacting address for a few animals. All that happens is that MAF phone the contact details to confirm.

We knew absolutely no-one when we arrived June 2004. We were advised by MAF to select a suitable cattery and nominate them, which we did. Husband was there to pick them up from the airport and they had to go into the cattery until he had sorted out a rental.

P18PPS

We had a similar dilema 2 years ago - our mut "Buffy the Boxer" ended up retiring to my Mum's residence in Birmingham. The cost was around £4000 to get the dog over - more that twice the amount it cost to get the whole family over.

Be warned that if you do bring a doggy that there are restrictions on dogs on beaches, off leads in parks (many of the auckland city parks for instance also have livestock in them), camping sites, etc etc . You will also find it more difficult to find a rental that accepts dogs. On another separate issue if you are wanting your time in NZ to be an opportunity to explore everywhere you'll be restricted on where and what you can do with a dog in tow.

Then there's 1080....... !!!

I bet you couldn't tell but on reflection we are SO glad that we left our ugly pooch back in UK.

Sammy T

Phipps family - ta for your thoughts, what is 1080?? Sounds sinister

Pixie - Dust, thanks for offer, very kind, hopefully if we really want to take her, we'll get it all sorted.

OH would happily leave her behind if we can find her a good home here, he thinks that we will not be able to get out and about so much, which is true.
However, it will break my daughter's heart to leave dog behind, so will have to think about it some more and decide when things are more definite.

Sammy

P18PPS

1080 - I made a comment in jest really as the debate is huge - I'm sure you'll get hundreds of replies on both sides of the camp...

Basically its a poison that the DOC (dept of conservation) drop by air onto large areas of bush in order to control numbers of possums, deer and I think wild pigs - the areas that have it dropped are usually clearly marked and you make sure you don't let your dog off a lead in these areas, this said there have been instances of family pets being poisoned - just take care with dog when out and about in the bush.

Sammy T

Sammy

dlmckay

I've been a contact address for someone's dogs and cats too - and drove them to Napier as there wasn't any local air cargo space for months!

And should you wish to travel with your pet - you need to get this book "The Complete Pet Travel Guide" http://www.pettravel.netaccess.co.nz/ Invaluable!

anarkissed bathmat

We took our dog over as well. Couldn't have left the mutt. Best factor it in to your costings.
She lives the life of riley now.