Has anyone travelled to the EU post brexit with their dogs?

[79andnotout]

I'm trying to get my head around the paperwork. I am going to Ireland from the Manchester area to visit family, and I would've liked to take the dogs with me. I asked my vets and they said they're not doing certification as it's too complicated and it would cost a lot.

Has anyone in the NW managed to find a vets who are doing it routinely enough to bring the costs down (I was quoted about £400 per dog and I have two)? It certainly makes the kennels seem like a bargain! Especially since the permit only last for a couple of months.

I know this isn't likely to be high on the politician's agenda to sort out post-brexit but not being able to just scan their passport and go on our merry way is a right pain!

Thanks.

Watching with interest as I want to do this within year.

Brexit benefits, eh ?🤦‍♀️

If you look on you tube at BOB EARNSHAW or POSHCATS CAMPING they are both motorhomers that have taken their dogs into Europe. POSHCATS are there again but if you look on their you tube last year it will show you what they did for them etc

How are you travelling to Ireland? Vets closer to the ferry ports to various EU destinations are more ready to do the health certificates and for a lower cost than other vets. If I remember rightly up to 5 dogs can go on one certificate.

I'm driving. I didn't know you could have multiples on one cert. Thanks for the tips! I will check those out.

If you're on Facebook there's a group called Animal Health Certificate and there's probably people who can point you in the direction of vets in the NW who provide AHCs at a more reasonable price.

Vets that seem to specialise seem to be around £100 for a single dog, then 30 for additional dogs.

We paid £100 earlier this year for an AHC

Great, thank you!

I didn't even think of this 🤦‍♀️ we are getting ferry later in year from Scotland to Belfast then driving through NI to West cost Ireland. So we have to have a certificate or document for DDog? Bloody hell!

Out of interest at which point of the journey do they get checked ?!

https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/travelling-pets they are not currently doing routine checks uk to Northern ireland. I have been mutiple times since brexit and never asked for any documents. It does always make me nervous but I suppose it is risk and reward as I can't afford paying to take my dog like 3 times a year.

We travelled to France with dog after Brexit and paid £175 for the document at our local vets. We have family in Northern Ireland and go routinely never been checked but last time we drove over the border to the Republic and got our dog an Irish EU passport (no questions asked by the Irish Vet), at least it's valid for 3 years and cost 95 Euros. May be worth investigating if you go? Obviously you will have to go back to Ireland to renew your rabies vaccine when it runs out but as we go there often it's not a problem for us.

We also got our dog an EU passport when we went to France at Easter. Cost 6 Euro. (Yes, six!)

Had to shell out £100 for the AHC to get him over there, but future visits for the next few years are sorted and we'll just renew over there again when we need to.

I wondered about this, ie getting a pet passport in another EU country or in NI. Sounds like a good option to me. Do you not need a —pretend— residential address in the issuing country?

Ah cool. My dogs already have passports as they're greyhounds adopted from Ireland so that's handy. Maybe we should travel Scotland to NI then.

Sorry if I'm being thick, so to get a eu dog passport, the dog doesn't have to live in that country? So I could go to Ireland and get him a passport which will cover him for future Europe trips?

Only for as long as the rabies vaccination is in date and all future rabies vaccinations need to be done within the EU to keep the passport valid.

Thanks @tizwozliz 👍

ooh thats interesting to hear about france... did you know the french vet before? or just find them online?
our vet charges £300!
easier for us to get to france than Ireland...:) but want to go to Ireland next year

My aunt lives in France and we went to the vet she goes to, but we know lots of people that have done it so I think it's pretty easy. Our vet here was urging us to do it because of how crazy and expensive the system is now.

I'm sure vets closer to the UK border, or in big cities, would charge more. We were in a very rural part of the country, and the vet just charged us what she would charge anyone else for their passport document.

Definitely no French address needed!

@79andnotout we got an animal health certificate from our vets NW - Preston. Cost about £175. We had a holiday home in Spain so got a Spanish pet passport. So long as you get their rabies jabs in the EU and don’t let a British vet write anything down in the passport you can still use the EU pet passport. We’ve been back to Spain a few times on the Spanish pet passport and had no problems. We’re off to France/Germany in September so ddog can have his rabies shot.

Anyone travelling to Spain or some other places in southern/Eastern Europe should check the recommendations re Brucella testing afterwards or it could affect subsequent treatment.

thanks @UnnamedPoster will check that out...m

Ireland has always been a grey area anyway because it's part of our common travel area, they don't routinely check, travel via Northern Ireland to avoid the border

Can I just check - the dog needs to have a rabies shot to enter the EU but then gets a second rabies shot in the EU, probably close after the first one? Is that safe for the dog?
This is genius. Why can't everything jog along nicely like that?

Europe has recently clarified that the dog’s holder must be resident in an EU country in order to have an EU passport.

Luckily, the EU vets don’t verify this and I am happy for the purposes of my pet’s passport to have a friend as their holder.

Just another Brexit benefit!

We’ve been to France with our dog. Our vet quoted £250 to provide the AHC. We found another vet called Abbeywell Vets, in Folkestone, who will do the certificate for £99.

We travelled to Belgium last year and got a European passport there. My parents however live there and had a dog themselves registered with the vet. They did ask for a local address.

Doggy had to have another rabies shot there but it was fine, although she did have an itchy reaction which was treated with an antihistamine. We had to go back this year as the first vaccin there is only for 1 year. The one after is valid for 3 years.

The passport is valid indefinitely. Cost all together was 70 euros.

We now can travel all over without any issues. Very easy.

Do remember that dogs need to have a worm treatment 2 days at most before coming back to the UK, if out of the country for more than 5 days.