Moving dog overseas- need pet transport recc’s!

[Anonymous]

We are heading overseas with our 2 shih tzu’s. Unfortunately they are too big to travel under the seat.

Has anyone used a pet transit service they can recommend?

There are a lot of paperwork requirements (rabies testing/ chipping etc) I am hoping a service would help understand. They will also need to quarantine for 10 days on arrival.

[Anonymous]

Have you considered rehoming them here or leaving them with family/relatives rather than putting them through the stress of flying in uncertain conditions in cages in unseated/uncooled cargo holds, the noise, fear with different handlers and strange situation, then being in quarantine somewhere strange? Are risks with this sort of travel.

[Anonymous]

No- they are part of our family and we won’t go without them. I have heard pet transport companies handle this better so that is why we are looking for one versus shipping them as luggage.

Shih tzu’s have short noses, so they need more care. These dogs are 2 and in excellent health and we are moving for 4+ years. We have previously moved pets with no issues, but they fit under our seats.

[Anonymous]

https://worldwidepettransport.com/

[Anonymous]

Dogs go overseas all the time. It will be fine.

[Anonymous]

It will be country dependent. I would go find a similar forum for expats or one of the many Facebook pages for expats in whatever country it is and ask. There are many very reputable services. There are similarly many very, very disreputable services.

[Anonymous]

PP. If possible, use KLM that goes through Amsterdam. KLM removes pets from the cargo and have a full pet recreation facility at Schipol.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone! I am now trying. To join country- specific expat sites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you considered rehoming them here or leaving them with family/relatives rather than putting them through the stress of flying in uncertain conditions in cages in unseated/uncooled cargo holds, the noise, fear with different handlers and strange situation, then being in quarantine somewhere strange? Are risks with this sort of travel.

This list makes me laugh! Just a few topics down someone posted about not being able to take his/her dog overseas with them and this list let her/him have it!!!! Terrible pet owner, terrible pet owner, never adopt a pet again, etc. now this person asks how to make it work (albeit with much smaller dogs) and you say it will hard on the dogs and just rehome them? You can always count on DCUM for a good old fashioned HS judge fest.

[Anonymous]

Ask your breed club or on the breed group on FB.
It is not that difficult to figure out, and better to have full
control of the situation yourself.

[Anonymous]

If you are affiliated with DOS, make sure to check out Trailing Houses on FB. Wealth of pet transport info.

[Anonymous]

Second joining local area FB groups for the area you are going. We have moved several times internationally with our cat, but luckily he is small enough to fit in the airplane cabin under the seat. Friends with dogs have had a really difficult time lately because of Covid restrictions.

Currently several airlines are refusing to permit dogs and cats anywhere but in the cabin so you’re smart to work with an independent shipping company that can work through the process since it’s changing a lot right now. Once an airline is identified, depending on locations, there are carrier rules about the time of year pets can go as cargo: essentially, it cannot go over or under a certain average daily temperature in the arrival and departure countries, both regarding heat and cold, which shortens the window animals can fly as cargo. Snubnosed breeds have an even smaller restriction window to boot. Friends recently used Skyfast and Pet Travel EU to get dogs from the US to Germany and Belgium. I’m sure you already know this from your research, but be prepared that the cost of shipping a pet, depending on distance, carrier, and whether you have somebody doing a door-to-door delivery on the other end, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3,000 to $9,000 per pet.

Here’s what to prep for:
1. The dogs will need a physical health assessment completed by a USDA certified veterinarian stateside before you leave the country. This needs to happen within 10 days of the flight. The costs are about $100 per pet. Research a vet in your area who has the certification since not all due and you may need to travel to have your dogs seen.

2. Check the regulations of the country you are moving to regarding rabies vaccinations. Some require that vaccinations must not expire for three or six months after the pet arrives, others require a vaccination must be given within one year of travel but no less than 30 days before travel. Some countries have weird rules: our cat had a year left on his 3-year rabies vaccine when we were moving from Italy to France over the summer and he had to get another 1-year rabies vaccine anyway because that’s what the EU-EU movement required for some reason.

3. Unsure if you are going to the EU, but since I can talk to that I’ll mention it in case you are: most EU countries require you to register your pets in a national registry when you arrive. You’ll also need the pet to have an EU specific chip; they are different, longer than US chips. You can handle both once you arrive in your new country. If you plan on, eventually at least, doing any travel or when you need to prepare to move again, your pets will need a passport. Any local vet once you arrive can provide one (they just do a quick health assessment, check all the vaccinations and stamp up a little booklet. The cost is low, about €20).

4. Back to the actual transportation, your dogs will have to be in hard sided kennels. The carrier will dictate the size but essentially it has to have enough room for the animal to stand up, turn around, and lay down comfortably. There are specific measurements with regards to, for example, how many inches of space there must be between the top of your dogs head when standing in the roof of the kennel. You will need to make sure the kennel has food and water dishes zip tied to the kennel and provide Ziploc bags of food that will be attached by the airline to the top of the kennel for use during transit. Then kennels also must have the original screws they came with for securing the kennels during the flight (you can buy replacements at pet stores or online). Airlines will have different rules, but you can typically have puppy pads for accidents and a comfort items like a blanket in the crate with the animals. Lastly, if you are using a pet shipping company you won’t have to do all of this legwork yourself, but in case you manage to get ticketed with your pet on the same flight, I would suggest physically bringing your pet in the carrier to the airport a few weeks before the flight and having the airline check the kennel size and all your materials to make sure everything is as it should be. I know a few families who have had really disruptive travel plans arriving an airport and having the kennel be the wrong size or missing the zip ties for the food dishes and having to scramble while trying to make a flight.

5. If you have a pet shipper meeting the flight with the dogs, that’s definitely the easiest way to get them processed into the country. Pets in cargo are either met in a special area within the airport or transported directly to the health assessment office, usually in a different portion of the airport. The assessor will review all the paperwork, check the vaccination records, and do a quick assessment of the pets for their health. You will pay a fee, varies by country, but around $50-$200 per pet and then are free to leave. One note is that the assessment facilities are not 24 hours a day so if you have a flight getting in very late at night or early in the morning, the airlines will typically transport the pets to a holding facility, charging you of course, and you’ll have to wait until business hours to collect your pet to have a health assessment done.

6. Lastly, If you can find a shipping company that does door-to-door delivery, depending on where you are going, this could be hugely helpful. For example, I have a neighbor who just arrived here in France and their dog is flying into Amsterdam using a pet shipping company. There were no flights coming from the US to our region of France which permitted pets to fly as cargo and so flying into another country was the only option for her dog to get here. Since France and the Netherlands are both currently red countries we are not supposed to transit between the two, and retrieving a pet is not in the column for necessary essential travel. She luckily found somebody who i’ll meet the pet and Amsterdam, and bring him to her in France. He’s permitted to do the travel as a business requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Second joining local area FB groups for the area you are going. We have moved several times internationally with our cat, but luckily he is small enough to fit in the airplane cabin under the seat. Friends with dogs have had a really difficult time lately because of Covid restrictions.

Currently several airlines are refusing to permit dogs and cats anywhere but in the cabin so you’re smart to work with an independent shipping company that can work through the process since it’s changing a lot right now. Once an airline is identified, depending on locations, there are carrier rules about the time of year pets can go as cargo: essentially, it cannot go over or under a certain average daily temperature in the arrival and departure countries, both regarding heat and cold, which shortens the window animals can fly as cargo. Snubnosed breeds have an even smaller restriction window to boot. Friends recently used Skyfast and Pet Travel EU to get dogs from the US to Germany and Belgium. I’m sure you already know this from your research, but be prepared that the cost of shipping a pet, depending on distance, carrier, and whether you have somebody doing a door-to-door delivery on the other end, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3,000 to $9,000 per pet.

Here’s what to prep for:
1. The dogs will need a physical health assessment completed by a USDA certified veterinarian stateside before you leave the country. This needs to happen within 10 days of the flight. The costs are about $100 per pet. Research a vet in your area who has the certification since not all due and you may need to travel to have your dogs seen.

2. Check the regulations of the country you are moving to regarding rabies vaccinations. Some require that vaccinations must not expire for three or six months after the pet arrives, others require a vaccination must be given within one year of travel but no less than 30 days before travel. Some countries have weird rules: our cat had a year left on his 3-year rabies vaccine when we were moving from Italy to France over the summer and he had to get another 1-year rabies vaccine anyway because that’s what the EU-EU movement required for some reason.

3. Unsure if you are going to the EU, but since I can talk to that I’ll mention it in case you are: most EU countries require you to register your pets in a national registry when you arrive. You’ll also need the pet to have an EU specific chip; they are different, longer than US chips. You can handle both once you arrive in your new country. If you plan on, eventually at least, doing any travel or when you need to prepare to move again, your pets will need a passport. Any local vet once you arrive can provide one (they just do a quick health assessment, check all the vaccinations and stamp up a little booklet. The cost is low, about €20).

4. Back to the actual transportation, your dogs will have to be in hard sided kennels. The carrier will dictate the size but essentially it has to have enough room for the animal to stand up, turn around, and lay down comfortably. There are specific measurements with regards to, for example, how many inches of space there must be between the top of your dogs head when standing in the roof of the kennel. You will need to make sure the kennel has food and water dishes zip tied to the kennel and provide Ziploc bags of food that will be attached by the airline to the top of the kennel for use during transit. Then kennels also must have the original screws they came with for securing the kennels during the flight (you can buy replacements at pet stores or online). Airlines will have different rules, but you can typically have puppy pads for accidents and a comfort items like a blanket in the crate with the animals. Lastly, if you are using a pet shipping company you won’t have to do all of this legwork yourself, but in case you manage to get ticketed with your pet on the same flight, I would suggest physically bringing your pet in the carrier to the airport a few weeks before the flight and having the airline check the kennel size and all your materials to make sure everything is as it should be. I know a few families who have had really disruptive travel plans arriving an airport and having the kennel be the wrong size or missing the zip ties for the food dishes and having to scramble while trying to make a flight.

5. If you have a pet shipper meeting the flight with the dogs, that’s definitely the easiest way to get them processed into the country. Pets in cargo are either met in a special area within the airport or transported directly to the health assessment office, usually in a different portion of the airport. The assessor will review all the paperwork, check the vaccination records, and do a quick assessment of the pets for their health. You will pay a fee, varies by country, but around $50-$200 per pet and then are free to leave. One note is that the assessment facilities are not 24 hours a day so if you have a flight getting in very late at night or early in the morning, the airlines will typically transport the pets to a holding facility, charging you of course, and you’ll have to wait until business hours to collect your pet to have a health assessment done.

6. Lastly, If you can find a shipping company that does door-to-door delivery, depending on where you are going, this could be hugely helpful. For example, I have a neighbor who just arrived here in France and their dog is flying into Amsterdam using a pet shipping company. There were no flights coming from the US to our region of France which permitted pets to fly as cargo and so flying into another country was the only option for her dog to get here. Since France and the Netherlands are both currently red countries we are not supposed to transit between the two, and retrieving a pet is not in the column for necessary essential travel. She luckily found somebody who i’ll meet the pet and Amsterdam, and bring him to her in France. He’s permitted to do the travel as a business requirement.

Wow- thank you for taking the time to respond in so much detail! I had been cobbling bits and pieces of this info together from different places. This is such a valuable summary of lots of issues!

We are heading to Singapore, so the temperature restrictions are going to be difficult. We don’t yet have dates because of COVID. I have an appointment with our vet, who is USDA certified next week to review the plan.

We aren’t DOS, but I am wondering if the FB Trailing Spouses group might let me in out of pity. There is so much uncertainty trying to move right now.

[Anonymous]

^ You’re welcome. Glad it was helpful. I’ve had to move so often with our pet to different countries so have a lot more info than most, haha.

I have no frame of reference for Singapore but know some Asian countries require pets receive tick and deworming treatments immediately before a flight (like 48 hours) performed by a specific vet to get verified to fly. A friend had to do this when moving to South Korea with her dog last year and I remember my vet in Italy telling me to research the requirements in France for those things before we flew out.

It sounds like you have a good vet lined up who can help you find the country specific requirements regarding that and the other immunizations and records. Safe travels!!