dog on board

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TamT

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Leaving Scotland late April early May, heading South. Northern France, North Spain, Algarve for the winter then....who knows. Will have to travel back once or twice for unavoidable stuff.

Dog is just a pup. Anyone any experiance of dogs on board for extended periods?

Anyone know anything about dogs travelling by aeroplane?

All advice and personal experience welcome.

Thanks

Colin
 
Our dog is fine onboard. She was onboard from a puppy and loves it. She can go about eight hours without needing to pee. As yet we haven't tried her any longer than that. If she gets cold she asks to go down below and goes to her bed. Her bed is tucked down in the forepeak with sides to brace against. She seems very comfortable down there even if it's quite rough. Equally, if it gets hot she goes down below to keep cool. When she's in the cockpit with us we have her on a long lead, just in case, but she makes no attempt to get off the boat. She has an orange 'lifejacket' which isn't really a lifejacket but has a handhold on top which is handy for lifting her off the boat and would be useful to hook her back on, should she ever go overboard. We only cruise around the UK so I cannot help you with anything else. Good luck with your dog and your trip.
 
TamT said:
Leaving Scotland late April early May, heading South. Northern France, North Spain, Algarve for the winter then....who knows. Will have to travel back once or twice for unavoidable stuff.

Dog is just a pup. Anyone any experiance of dogs on board for extended periods?

Anyone know anything about dogs travelling by aeroplane?

All advice and personal experience welcome.

Thanks

Colin
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Dogs on board no problems at all. If you want to do extended cruising then please, please don't keep taking the dog ashore. Start as you mean to go on:) Provide an area which the dog can use as a 'toilet'. We use a plastic 'grass' doormat which is easy to clean off. Pee, well a couple of buckets of sea water does the trick.

The traveling part is more complex. Presumably you will have the passport sorted. If the dog has to travel by plane then you will definitely need a good suitable sized traveling kennel. A Vari Kennel is one of the better ones. Don't go for a cheapy from a pet shop as the airline may well turn you away! Make sure it's going to be big enough for the dog when fully grown! It must be able to stand up fully and turn around comfortably. You will need to check the DEFRA site for the approved airlines flying from wherever you are. In France BA is the only approved airline. They will not accept snub nosed breeds! The dog will have to travel as cargo so the cost will be considerable. Don't forget that the dog must be treated for tick & tapeworm not less than 24hrs or more than 48hrs prior to embarkation.

If you are only going back for a short period of time then I would suggest that you find a kindly person to look after pooch whilst you are away. Failing that a kennel that you will obviously check out thoroughly first and get some recommendations.

If you need any further info please PM me. Good luck!
 
As an addition. Flights are really very limited for the carriage of dogs back to UK. Spain is limited to: Alicante/Almeria/Barcelona/Jerez de la Frontera/Madrid(forget!)/Malaga/Murcia/Palma (Majorca): (a) The furthest ' north' you will get would be Manchester but not from all these airports. In addition to that a lot of the 'traffic' would only be in the summer:(
France: Bordeaux/Lyon/Marseilles/Nice/Paris/Toulouse. Same comments as (a) above.
Portugal: Faro or Lisbon. Faro destinations are: Doncaster with Thomson Airways; Gatwick with Thomson Airways, Monarch, BA world Cargo or Thomas Cook Airlines.
Lisbon destinations are Gatwick with Monarch. Heathrow with KLM via Amsterdam (NO WAY!) or BA World Cargo.

This is really not good news, I'm sorry :(
 
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You can move pets between Eire and the UK without these restrictions. Coming back from the Med with our cat we called into Arklow and then went up to the Clyde. When we sailed from the Clyde to the Med. no-one was interested.
The problem comes when you want to fly home for a visit when all of the above restrictions apply.
Its a complete nonsense and a money making business for the agents. Not far removed from a post on this page about avaricious custome officials in Turkey.
 
We did much the same last year and are now based in the Algarve.

First make sure you get your pet passport sorted out in good time, although it is rarely checked it does have to be all in order. Were checked once in France in Port Medoc and once in Portugal in Nazare.

Our dog has taken to the boat fine though is still very reluctant to pee on board, so we were limited to 24 hour passages, which worked out OK in the end. We had no problems with the dog in any marinas but watch out for dogs being allowed to roam in French marinas

We have not tried to bring the dog back yet and will be doing it by road and ferry. There are excellent kennels in the Algarve well used to dealing with dogs which speak English, and the owner of one is a yachtie whose boat is on the next potoon to ours. We came back for 10 days at the start of December which got extended due to a heart attack but the kennnels were able to cope with this OK.

There are good vets in the Algarve so there is no problem with keeping vacinations etc up to date, and prices are no worse than the UK. Ther is an additional problem with heart worm so get meds for dealing with that before you set off, you can top up OK when you get to Portugal. Also if you stop for any length of time in Portugal it is worth both getting the chip registered with their national system and registering the dog with the local council which only costs a few euros and takes a few hours, but then the dog is pretty bombproof against complaints.
 
Boo2 said:
W.o.e. not ?

Boo2
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In a statement issued by the Department of Transportation, short-faced breeds have higher mortality rates than other breeds while flying on US airlines. According to the DOT, 25 English Bulldogs, 11 Pugs, 6 French Bulldogs and 4 American Staffordshire Terriers died

You might want to check on the cost of flying a crated dog. When we took our GSD to the USA on a single it cost about 5 times as much as a return flight for a human. [ But he did get airconditioned transfers! ]
 
All above are great advice. We flew our Lab out to Sth Africa and there he boarded our yacht. He was trained from the very beginning to do his toilets at the bow then it was easy to wash of with a bucket of salt water. He was made welcome everywhere we went. A good deterrant to theives with his big deep bark to strangers. He would lick them to death. The cost of the flight was equal to a firsclass human ticket for him, not cheap.

Fair winds
 
I have wondered about pets on planes, thanks for the info. We took the decision to return Chloe to the UK when we entered the Med (from inland France) - rightly or wrongly we felt that she would miss her walks if we were cruising or moored up and we would be restricted by needing to dinghy her to shore twice a day. She's a country girl, brought up with woods and fields and grass and unhappy to 'use' hard surfaces except when fairly desperate. On the other hand, she loves the boat and was quite happy on sailing passages. In bad weather she'd curl up under the saloon table, in the boat's dead centre.
There's a bit of information about pets on board, and the PETS scheme, here.
 
Dog on a plane???

We're about to have our mutt flying, with us, from Qatar to Athens, and then Aegean to Corfu.
We've needed all sorts of paperwork to export the dog to Greece, but all handled by the Vet, cost a bit but all stamped ok etc.
She's needed all her injections upto date and a good concise history of her jabs, and a blood sample (sent to the UK) tested for a certificate that the anti-body's have reacted ok to her injections, again the Vet sorted all this out.
We had to get a huge transport cage, as she's a tall standing dog, and she had to have a certain head room when standing in the box.
We're taking her as excess luggage, as it's a lot cheaper than Cargo. It just means that we have to check to dog into the usual check in desks, here in Doha (a porter then takes her away to the cargo area, before they place her in the hold). When we get to Athens we have to go a pick her up, and re-check her into the Aegean desk, and off she goes again, with another porter.
Check with the airlines, as they will only transport certain breeds, and also, only in certain types of planes.
We have found that the Airlines are very helpfull and offer all sorts of tips and advice.
After she’s been in Greece for 6 months, we can apply for an UK Pet Passport and there won’t be any probs with taking her straight into the UK.
We’ve found the process somewhat complex but do-able, and although not cheep, it was nowhere near as expensive as having her transported as Cargo (although much easier, as you just drop her off at the Cargo terminal, and you’ll next see her, at your destination).

I know this hasn’t a lot to do with a Dog on-board, but some of you might find it useful. I’ll be able to update on her behaviour, on-board, later on!!!
 
Flying 'excess baggage' is indeed much cheaper and the price is based on the weight of the dog + crate. However dogs flying into U.K. must travel as cargo where the chargable weight is based on the size of the crate. In a very few instances in may well be actual weight but that is rare. It is always worked on the greatest 'weight'. i.e. LxWxH cms divided by 6000 willl give you volumentric weight.

It sounds awful but animals traveling by air cope very well please don't be put off by the 'cargo' part. Animals travel in a different part of the plane to the baggage. It's normally in the tail section of the hold. Please don't sedate your pet, this is dehydrating. Make sure there is a decent sized water bowl in the crate that can be filled from outside. Please get the crate well in advance, leave the door off and place the dog's bed in the box and just let them get used to it.
 
ZigmundoVanDog

Hi Mr ZigmundoVanDog, you seem very knowledgeable about dogs. (Should this be a new thread or shall I carry on, on here?) I'd like your advice about my dog's toilet needs. She's never 'been' on the boat, preferring to hang on. She doesn't like going up on deck and wants to stay in the cockpit or down below. We haven't really wanted her to go in the cockpit as this is a living area. If we try and take her on deck she gets panicky and puts the brakes on with her paws. So, we're left with shorter passages and having always to go into marinas, or pump the dinghy up. She's only 15 months, so still a young dog. Is there anything you can suggest? Many thanks.
 
Cariadco, just a quick thought and I'm sure it's sorted but....Microchip inserted before or at the time of the Rabies Vaccination. Very important otherwise you will find you'll need to go through the whole process again :(
 
All good advice.

We brought two dogs from Scotland to Greece ten years ago and they lived aboard happily for several years.

I'd just like to add that you should see a local vet in any countries that you intend to stay in for a while as there are many diseases that don't occur in the UK and you need to find out how to protect your dog.

Rabies, which is what the UK worries about, is not a problem if the dog is vaccinated but some other diseases are - heartworm and leishmania (called kalazar in Greece) for example. The extent to which they are a problem varies from country to country or even within a country so don't assume what applies in France is the same as in Greece.
 
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