Very few of my pups are sold locally and the closest dog shows are held in Castlegar or Vernon, so usually some traveling is involved in my dog career. Whether to dog shows or new homes, many people are curious about how my puppies and dogs travel, whether they need special shots or have to go into quarantine and how they travel on a plane.
When puppies leave to go to new homes, I usually drive with them to a more centralized location to meet with the new owners — either Kelowna or all the way to Vancouver or Calgary. If they are going farther than Alberta or B.C., I will ship by cargo on an airplane.
Before they go I make sure the pups are used to staying in a cage so that the trip is not too traumatic. If pups are flying to homes in the U.S., I usually take them to Spokane and ship from there.
My pups go into their new homes at about eight weeks. Pups can cross the U.S. border or fly into other countries without a rabies needle because the rabies needle has to be given after 12 weeks of age. A health certificate is required if the pups are going by plane but crossing into the U.S. is as simple as stating the pups are “too young for rabies” and for me as a breeder, showing a commercial manifest stating who the new owners are in the U.S.
Occasionally I am asked to sign a quarantine agreement for the new owners that states the pups will be confined to their residence until 21 days after the rabies shot is received at 12 weeks. I always thought this was just a piece of paper, but recently two pups I sent to a breeder in Texas were visited by the local sheriff to follow-up to see that the pups were being kept confined and not being exposed to dogs outside the property.
Pups can be sent to Europe between 10 and 12 weeks, but new regulations that require hiring a animal shipping broker make it so costly that it usually costs equal or even less to buy a return ticket and take the pup as excess baggage. Smaller puppies can even fly on board in an under-the-seat carrier.
I was recently quoted a rate of $2,300 to have a Finnish Spitz puppy sent to Vancouver from a breeder-friend in New Zealand; I found a round-trip ticket for $1500 with Air Canada. Adding a puppy to my ticket would cost me an extra $200. It is pretty easy to see there might be a potential benefit to a trip to New Zealand besides the cost-savings. Not only that but I am co-owning the puppy with a friend in Holland, which will require a future delivery trip, a visit with good friends and a dog show weekend in Amsterdam. How sweet it is!
People often ask me about quarantine. Flying a pup to Canada from an island country like New Zealand is easy because New Zealand is rabies-free. But sending a dog to a rabies-free country is a lot more complicated. These countries are determined to remain rabies-free, so they require rabies-titre testing and quarantine periods.
It used to be that quarantine involved a kennel stay in a government quarantine kennel for six months and in some cases even as long as nine months. Modern immunology makes it a lot less rigorous. Four months following a rabies needle, blood tests are performed and sent to a university lab to measure rabies titre or anti-body levels. If these meet the levels required by the foreign country, dogs can be sent immediately — for example to Sweden — or after a waiting period for the strictest countries like England, Australia and New Zealand.
Rather than the long quarantine that used to be required, these rabies-free countries now require that the dog is kept in Canada for six months before being sent into a short quarantine of only 10 days.
Other health testing is also required for diseases and parasites. Sending a dog or puppy of more than seven months of age to any of these countries is quite a bit more complicated than sending to most North and South American countries and over to most countries in Europe and Asia.
No matter where they fly, pups are required by the International Animal Transport Association to have a health exam by a vet which certifies they are healthy and capable of travel. Cage specifications are very strict for size — the animal must be able to stand with its head up without touching the ceiling of the kennel. The cage must have ventilation holes on all sides and must have dishes attached for food and water.
Whether I am driving or flying, if a puppy or a dog is coming into Canada to be in my ownership for the first time I am required to declare their value and pay GST.
No matter where my pups or dogs are flying in the world, I always say that the most important thing is that they are happy and contented in a cage. Feeling secure in the cage makes traveling no different whether it is a short trip to the vet clinic or a long flight overseas. When we were boarding a flight to Holland, the steward noticed we had dogs on our ticket.
“Are those your dogs we just loaded onto the plane?” he asked, “Those are the best behaved dogs we have ever had on a flight.”
We were proud of our one-year-old Duck Toller, Jack and his 10-week-old “baby brother” for being such good travelers.
