Guest Post – 7 Things You Need to Know When Travelling Abroad with Your Dog

If you’ve never travelled abroad with your dog, there are a couple of things that you should know. It is a well-researched fact that 67% of United States households have a pet. The number of dogs owned in the USA is in the millions unit and over the past 32 years, there has been a great increase in the number of dogs owned.

With this large number of pets in homes across the country, it’s expected that people should carry a considerable number of pet animals on international trips every year. Across the globe, there are about 4 million animals boarded on international flights annually.

Compared to travel restrictions against pets in previous years, it isn’t as difficult to travel abroad with your pet today. Certain reformations and adjustments have been made to accommodate the need for moving pets across international borders.

In this post, we will provide you with 7 things you should know when traveling abroad with your dog:

1. Get a Microchip Implant for the Dog

One of the basic things that you’ll need to do before you can successfully travel abroad with your dog is to get a microchip implant for the dog.

This is a requirement in most countries across the globe. After doing that, some states would require you to vaccinate the dog within a timeframe of one month before arriving in the country.

Regardless of whether or not your dog has been vaccinated before the chip implant, it would still need to repeat the vaccination once the micro-chipping is done.

2. Apply for a Veterinary Health Certificate or Pet Passport

Next step is to request for and fill a veterinary health certificate. This is to be done before taking off for the destination country.

Just in case you need more information about the certificates required, you can always ask for assistance from the embassy – they’ll provide you with the needed certificate.

Pet passports are another alternative to health certificates. However, these pet passports are unique to European residents. This is a detailed passport that makes international pet travel easy.

3. Check if Your Dog is a Banned Breed

Another important thing that you should know is the tolerance of certain dog breeds in different countries. There are certain nations of the world that don’t tolerate some dog breeds on international trips.

Before a banned breed can be allowed into the country, it must have satisfied all the previously mentioned requirements in this article – including the mandatory quarantine period.

Some of the breeds that are commonly banned include Japanese Tosa Inus, Rottweiler, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Pit Bulls, Dogo Argentinos, Fila Brasileros, and Neapolitan Mastiffs. If you own any of these dog breeds, make sure you know if they’ll be allowed into the destination country.

4. Research if the Country You Will Visit Requires Your Dog to Go Through Quarantine

One of the protocols that you might face with your pet dog, during an international trip, is quarantine.

However, not all countries would mandate your pet dog to be subjected to this quarantine protocol. Some countries would give you undisturbed passage if the previously stated requirements are satisfied.

On the other hand, some nations of the world have mandatory quarantine periods for pets on international travel. This period could range from a week to a couple of months.

5. Crate Train Your Pooch

When you board a flight, your pet is not allowed to seat with you in the passenger cabin. They are kept in undercarriage crates for safety reasons. Besides, not every other passenger would be able to tolerate dogs – some might even have allergies.

You should know that these crates aren’t a harsh confinement for the dogs. They are usually large enough to provide your dog with breathable space.

However, things would be much better for a dog that’s already used to undercarriage crate confinement. This is why you should crate train your dog if it has never been on a flight before.

6. Notify the Airline in Advance

With all that has been said so far, you’ll still need to notify your airline that you’ll be bringing your dog on the flight.

This is an important thing to do; it prevents you from running into difficulty at the airport.

If your dog is within a certain size, you are able to bring it onboard the plane with you. Make sure to keep your pooch safety confined within an airline approved pet carrier.

7. Book a Hotel That Doesn’t Charge Extra Fees for Pets

Lastly, you’ll need to consider additional fees that may be charged by the hotel when you bring your dog with you.However, not all hotels charge an extra fee for pets. It would be good if you could find one of these hotels at the destination country.

Bio

Pete Decker is the lead editor at TheGoodyPet.com. For the past 20 years, Pete has been working professionally with dogs, and he has spent time volunteering in animal shelters across USA and around the world. Now, Pete dedicates his time towards TheGoodyPet, a pet educational website made by pet lovers for pet lovers.

You can find more from Pete on his website or by following TheGoodyPet on Twitter or Facebook.]