buckers

Hi everyone

Has anyone had any experience of flying the family dog over to the US from the UK. There seems to be different advice dependant on what website you look on and i want to make sure that she has as smooth a relocation as possible - inparticular for the children as they will be desperate to make sure she is at home straight away.

She is already chipped and fully boostered etc. Some websites seem to say that as we come from a "non rabbies" country she doesnt need a rabbies jab, but others seem to say she does but arent clear on timescales etc. We only have 9 weeks left so want to make sure we do everything within the time frame. Also, did you give your dog sleeping tablets to ensure a better flight over etc?

We are speaking with the her vet etc but just wondered what others views were on this

Thanks in advance guys.

Bob

Plenty of threads already on this and also some wiki info....also got to search out state requirements because some have extra requirements.

Also some airlines won't fly into certain states during the summer because of the heat.

WARPed

I'm not sure that sleeping tablets are necessarily recommended for animals. I believe that like the effect of booze on humans at high altitudes, the effect of sleeping pills can also change (not necessarily for the best). Take professional advice on it.

Also if you have any stops involved consider that if you miss your connection or suffer a delay you will most likely not be given access to your dog. While the airports are responsible for ensuring their well being I personally would be concerned and would prefer to make a no stop hop and then drive what remaining distance would be required. This happened to my wife before we met when she was moving from SC to HI. A connection was missed in LA and she was not permitted access to the dog for many more hours than had been anticipated. It took quite sometime for it to recover from the event, especially as HI required quarantine too.

Has anyone ever considered taking the boat from UK to US when they have a pet? It seems to be a much more agreeable way to bring them over and probably allows you a much greater luggage allowance as a bonus....although surely much more expensive than a plane flight.

Bob

There have been quite a few people and it's not to expensive when you factor in how much stuff you can bring.

Jerseygirl

I'm not sure you will find a vet that will give you sleeping meds for your dogs. I got a definite no from my vet for any sort of tranquilizers for my dogs.

mayhemuk

What sort of dog? Some breeds are excluded.
Where from too?
We used Virgin SFO to LHR and back again.
Be ready for a shock when you find out the fare if it goes cargo.

No meds allowed so it's academic.
Ours is a well strung boxer but she was fine.

buckers

Hi

We are going from Manchester to Dulles. Unfortunately no direct flights so either way its a stop - either in UK or Ireland. She is a golden retriever and fairly balanced but can be spooked easily sometimes. Company paying for the fayre over so not worried about the cost, but my concern is more her travelling etc. Just want to make sure she is okay.

Thanks again though

AmerLisa

We used (5 years ago) http://www.petravelagent.com/ladyhayeindex.html

They did a good job.

jumping doris

We used the Manchester office of this company

http://www.petsonthemove.co.uk/

They went the extra mile and we were really pleased with them.
We boarded our dog and cat with them for a week while we came over and moved into our house and then the animals came over.

They arranged for them to fly from Manchester late in the day to Atlanta where they were boarded and fed/watered/cages cleaned etc. Then they flew onto Pittsburgh the following morning, very early to avoid the heat.

Gail at Pets on the Move kept in touch with us constantly throughout their journey.

However, it wasn't cheap.

Our animals could come into the US and the state we live in (PA) without a rabies shot but it had to be done within a certain time frameonce we got here.

We had everything done before we flew because we did the pet passport thing. The timing of that is the crucial thing.

It is more problamatic here because our local vets are not that familiar with the ongoing rules to keep the pet passport valid. We brought our own microchip scanner with us, for example, because we already knew that the US scanners probably wouldn't be able to read the chips.

We were right. Initially we had to watch the vert like a hawk to make sure they filled in the passport correctly each time the animals had any vaccines.

They are used to us now and actually went and bought a scanner that works.