Moving your dog to another country

There is no way we are going to leave our fur-babies behind just because we need to move to another place in the world - at least that is the way that I feel. They are our family, and we will do anything it takes to keep them with us.

of course you are coming with me schmoopie pie!

I have experience with moving two sets of dogs under very different situations, one was a real pain, the other was easy peasy.

The first one was the pain and it has a lot to do with the fact that he was an enormous 60kg Rhodesian Ridgeback named "Zion" who could annihilate the largest rawhide treat at the pet store in 3 minutes. These animals were originally bred to hunt lions and they are muscular and can be terrifying although ours was a complete baby. To the point where his nickname was "big baby." The 6kg Shih-Tzu was the boss of the duo.

The main problem about moving this fella wasn't so much that he was big, but the fact that we were moving him to the U.K., which has some of the strictest animal import restrictions in the world. In the end we finally flew him to Amsterdam and transported him by road because the certifications were rejected despite the fact that they were all done correctly.

The biggest problem in this situation was the "rabies titer test," which is a test that can only be administered by approved labs. I have no idea what qualifies a lab to be "approved," but i think one of the requirements is that they charge an absurd price for it. I can understand why they would not just let any ol' lab produce this paperwork because it would be very easy to simply pay for a forged document in Thailand for example, but charging $1000 for the test and then having it take a month to get the results is a bit absurd.

I'm not going to get into why it is that the U.K. still rejected his import because it would take too long, however, we did get him into the Netherlands at great cost. In order for a human to fly coach from Bangkok to Amsterdam one must be expected to shell out something along the lines of 20,000 That Baht, for a 60kg Rhodesian Ridgeback to ride in the cargo hold in a crate, it costs 80,000 Thai Baht. I have no idea why this is but maybe they get much better food down there. The other requirements for moving your dog are pretty universal, and i will explain in story number 2.

The second dog I moved was a 6kg Shih-Tzu. She is being moved to Vietnam and the requirements are much easier to adhere to because they don't require a rabies titer test although they do require the following.

• rabies vaccination up to date within 12 months of travel date
• vaccination for Distemper, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, Parvovirus and Para influenza. I don't actually know what any of these things are because I am not a vet.
• dog must be microchipped
• a letter of verification from a registered veterinarian (some countries require these vets to be USDA certified, whatever that means, but Vietnam is not one of them)

That's it. If you are a super-responsible pet-owner, you probably have all of these things already, but it is important to note the individual requirements of countries about the timeline (Vietnam requires they be administered a maximum of 12 months prior to travel.)

Also, most countries have restrictions as to WHERE the pet can enter the country. For Vietnam, the only ports of entry were the countries two largest airports in Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. I know a guy who simply drove his pets into Mexico and nobody asked to see any papers at all. I have heard stories of people who got a mountain of paperwork ready for the customs officials in Vietnam only to have no one ever ask to see them. I say better safe than sorry - so i am bringing the mountain of paperwork which is actually only 5 or 6 pieces of paper.

The best news is that my little fluffer gets to travel on the plane with me. It remains to be seen if I have to purchase another seat (which will be required if the flight gets close to sold out,) but in the meantime it appears as though we only need 1! Don't worry if you end up sitting next to me, she is super well-behaved and awfully cute.