Taking family pet to Oz end of April. Confused by all advice received relating to shipping.

On top of forms Import permit in place and quarantine booked.

Shipping is a problem. Qantas are strongly (very) advising using a shipping agent instead of dealing direct. Vet is saying not necessary and they are far from perfect and unecessary expense.

Small dog, Bichon Frise, similar size to poodle, has anybody experience of this and costs involved?

i found the whole thing very daunting so i used golden arrow shippers...excellent service

sorry cant help you...
good luck

Hi there
We will be shipping out our two cats, and will use an agent. Everything I've heard about people "doing it themselves" is bad - you get blocked at every turn by the carriers and it can be very stressful trying to move the container between airport/customs locations etc.

We will probably use Airpets who get good press. See www.airpets.com. There are quite a few other companies you can check out if you do a search on the forum (and you'll see some of the problems others have had trying to do it on their own).

Best of luck with the move

K_M

Your in the same position as me. I am unsure who to go for. We have 2 labradors to take so it is going to be quite expensive for us. I don't intend to go with the cheapest just because it is cheap but we don't want to pay over the odds either.

Golden Arrow and Airpet have good reputations.

What I have noticed is that if the quote is cheap then you usually have to sent off alot of the import/export papers yourselves. If you go with the two above the all you have to do is vaccinate and microchip, they do the rest.

Hi there

We are using Golden Arrow for our 2 dogs and 2 cats. The guy is really nice and helpfull.

Sharon

Small dog, Bichon Frise, similar size to poodle, has anybody experience of this and costs involved? [/QUOTE]


Hi,
Doing similar with my own Bichon Frise for summer. In Northern Ireland, where there aren't ant pet shippers, so doing it myself. Have you talked to British Airways? I've found them to be very helpful - and worked out total cost of emigration including quarantine etc to be in the region of ~ £900.
BA are an authourised carrier with Australian quarantine, and have no problem with you doing it all yourself, quotes from mainland shippers were much more expensive, and I still would have had to all the pre work anyway, just deliver the dog to them, they would do the final vet check & deliver him to the airport.
I think it's a matter of keeping on top of the paperwork, but if you're already emigrating - we know you can do that.
As I'm sure you know need microchip, import permit, vaccinations, then 4 days before emigrating a government vet does health check and completes form A. On day of shipping a government vet does check on paperwork & seals dog into box, after which it can't be released, and fills in form B.
Quarantine meet dog, and you can visit etc, and pick upi 30 days later.
We're actually going to have to get form A filled in by government vet in Northern Ireland, hire car, get ferry from Northern Ireland and drive to London, and find another government vet (they may have one at Heathrow - I think BA said they did) for form B.
As I haven't got a choice between pet shipper & doing it yourself, and haven't yet done it I can't advise - but good luck anyway.
Dawn