HI Quinn My family and I are also very keen to move to southern Spain, but it probably wont be for a few years yet. How do the dogs cope with the heat? Do you mind me asking what you fed your dogs on while you were there? Are UK products available there, is there a good range of foods? Did your dogs travel in the plane with you or in the hold, and did they travel/arrive ok? Hope you dont mind all these questions, we are so keen to live in the sunshine instead of getting wet all the time- I would much rather spend the money on air conditioning in the summer than heating in the winter!! Any info on keeping/showing dogs in Spain would be much appreciated.

WL, I didn't actually own a dog whilst living there, but worked at a rescue kennel on the base my husband was posted at and often did short term fostering for some of the dogs. The heat didn't seem to bother them too much. They just got out of the sun and lay on the marble/tile floors in the heat of the day. :) All the major brands were sold in better pet supply stores and veterinarian surgerys ie Iams, Science Diet, Whiskas etc... I'm sure you could special order things now with the new EU policies in place.

We imported our first cat with us from Heathrow to Sevilla (or Jerez?)in April 91. We had no problems at all and she seemed quite happy with her journey in the hold. The hotel we initially stayed at allowed us to keep her in our room! Leaving Spain, my cats were kept in the hold again. We flew back to England Jan. 31,1996 so overheating wasn't a concern for us. We just made sure they had a thick blanket in their carrier. If I recall, certain times of the year you aren't able to transport your pets due to extreme heat or cold in certain parts of the world. Of course, I may very well be wrong as it's been a few years since I've had to enquire about exporting pets.

None of the houses we lived in had air conditioning (you opened and closed windows and blinds at certain times of the day), and heating was provided by "butano" heaters on wheels! At first it felt a bit like living in a cave not having central heating or any sort of thermostat in the house. But we could literally cross the street and have our feet in the sand and had view of the entire Bay of Cadiz from our roof top terrace. One of the last parties we threw was for my then three year old daughters birthday. It was held the first week in December and we were outside the entire time without even a sweater. :) I know it sounds lovely, and it was.....just that after 5 years we longed for a bit more greenery, four real season changes and to not have to work so hard at communicating with the boiler repairman who kept promising "manana".

Hi Westie Lover, Boring Friday nite, so hope you don't mind my butting in on your posts. I am assuming you have Westies - Yes? In response to your post to Quinn, you may want to check out website
http://www.alborada-terriers.com They are in Barcelona and are probably the most well-known in Spain, (well-known by us in the States). :)

Thanks for the info Quinn. I can always dream, but we hope eventually to give Spain a try.
Bee: I have posted a message for you in Idle Chat.