I will be bringing a Rhodesian Ridgeback pup in from Finland at some point soon after mid June (when he'll be allowed to travel via his Pet Passport) and I'm undecided as to the best method of bringing him here. I've tried to contact the two airlines listed on the DEFRA site (Finnair and KLM) re flying him from Helsinki as cargo but haven't had any joy as yet.

As far as I can see, my options are:

Driving to Finland to collect him - advantages, probably least stressful for Hadi, disadvantages, can't say I fancy that enormous drive on my own and it will take a while and it's still term time (I work PT as a teacher)!
Flying him cargo - advantages, easy for me, disadvantages, probably tough on Hadi but at least it's not so long as driving (??) and pricey
Using a company to do it - advantages, simple for me, disadvantages, tough on Hadi and expense? And who to use?

Any suggestions and comments gratefully received :)

Hi,

I can't help re: flights but Marianne (Goldmali) drove to the World show last year which was in Sweden so she may be of use on asking for travelling by road and people in my breed took their bitch out last year on her PP to get mated to a Swedish dog and drove too, so I could ask them too, if you wanted?

Yes, please, Christine, that would be really helpful. If necessary, my pup's breeder would take Hadi over to Sweden to make the journey a bit easier for me. I was hoping that the timing could coincide with a show there :)

I am hoping to bring a dog in from Finland this year and am very fortunate as his breeder is bringing him over for me with another friend, if that wasn't an option I'd fly over myself to collect him flying back a couple of days later as its the same sort of price for your and him as unaccompanied.

I also think these days you have to use an agent as few are wanting to deal direct with the public.

Have they got space for a Ridgie, Schip :) He's only a puppy :) :)

is there a companion you could take with you? have a road trip of sorts? would make the journey quicker!

could you not fly out and then hire a car to drive back?

Think you want your's earlier as ours is only 12wks at the min might be a longer wait I'm afraid. 

Re taking a companion - my partner needs to stay here to take care of the dogs and other animals (we run a farm) and most of my friends have too many other commitments (children or dogs or work, teaching too) so not really feasible.

Hadn't thought about hiring a car out there and driving it back - might look into that.

Can anyone recommend a company that arranges transporting dogs so I can look into that possibility?

That's a shame, Schip - it could have helped us both out :)

We were looking to import a Dane from Denmark, and we cant get her over until atleast 10months on PP, how old is your RR??

He's 8 months now, he can't come over til he's nearly 11 months.

When we went to the World Show we decided to drive as it didn't work out any cheaper to fly -the costs were similar but then my dog is a large one. The drive to Sweden took 3 days (would have been 2 days had we only needed to go to southern Sweden, but from south Sweden up to Stockholm took 8 hours alone) so it's quite a long journey -and apart from petrol you have to account for costs for toll bridges and ferries etc.

Thanks, Marianne. Could you give me a rough guide as to the cost of tolls and bridges, please. I'll google for the mileage (my car's not exactly economical :( ) and the ferry/tunnel and then I can make a more informed decision.

I still haven't heard from KLM and can't figure out how to contact Finnair (too mean to use their premium rate telephone number in Finland!).

At least one good thing has just happened - I've just got off the phone after talking to a friend who has offered to come with me if I drive :)

hasn't your breeder sorted this out for you?

If I'm sending an animal overseas I sort it out this end as usually tis cheaper to sort it out in country of departure rather than the other way round.  There are several companies you can use depending on where you are in the country.  I've used Ryslip for an export to New Zealand as that was a very complicated list of tests, treatments and doc's over a 30 day period too much of a minefield for the uninitiated believe me, the buyer paid for their services etc.

I have also contacted heathrow animal centre and received information from them re agents available/suitable for you.

Hi Schip

To be fair - I haven't asked her to. Initially I was just planning to drive over - but as it's got closer, I had gone off the idea til my friend offered to come with me. I know she would investigate if I asked her - she has been super but she hasn't exported to the UK before. She's very picky :)

If you have any recommendations re agents, I'd be grateful if you could let me know, pm if you prefer.
Many thanks
Carina

Could you give me a rough guide as to the cost of tolls and bridges, please. I'll google for the mileage (my car's not exactly economical :-( ) and the ferry/tunnel and then I can make a more informed decision.

It depends a bit on the route taken. For instance you can take the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam or from Harwich to Hook of Holland (we did Harwich as it was cheaper but more importantly quicker as the dog had to stay in the car -the "kennels" onboard were despicable tiny cages), and you can take a ferry in Germany to Denmark (Puttgarden to Rodby) cutting some time off but costing a bit more instead, so we avoided that as my dad contacted the ferry company and they said you had to book in advance -with the ferries running every half an hour there it was impossible we felt to decide exactly when we would get there, so we opted for this route:
Harwich to Hook of Holland, ferry with Stena Line. Did it overnight which bumps up the cost as you need to pay for a cabin then, but the big advantage is you sleep during basically the entire journey and arrive first thing in the morning, ready to drive on. The ferry for a car, two people and a dog cost around £250. We then drove through Holland, Germany and Denmark, there was one long bridge in Denmark and then a further one as long from Denmark into Sweden -it cost us roughly £30 on tolls each way. We also checked petrol prices online and found certain countries were best avoided to fill up in as they were so expensive -honestly cannot remember now which was the best country but all in all, in total, we paid around £600 in petrol.

H

Have you tried Animal Couiers on 01483200123 we used  them to bring our Catalan Sheepdog from Spain and Julia is Brilliant with the dogs and you can contact them any time during the journey.http://www.animalcouriers.com/

I know of someone who flies a light aircraft and is willing to deliver and collect dogs. pm me if you wish further info..

Thank you very much to all who have responded both on here and by pm :)


More responses gratefully received. The more information the better and then I can make the most informed decision.

I got my Leo girl from Finland last september :) So if you want more info I'm more than happy to help (I'm finnish as well so know the finnish ways :) )
Flying would have been very expensive because of her weight and I didn't really want to put her through the stresses of flying either much preferred to get her myself.

We drove there:Took a ferry to Holland approx 7 hours drive to port in Germany and took a ferry over from Germany to Finland(27hours).
If you are going via Sweden you might need a another bloodtest as the entry rules to Sweden are different to UK passport entry rules(at least they used to be). We had a dog from UK coming with us so we went via Germany both ways but you could always go via Sweden and come back via Germany if you don't want to do extra bloodtests. We didn't find the Sweden route much cheaper than the Germany route and it involves much more driving...and staying in hotel overnight etc...tolls...

Ferries are much cheaper if you book well in advance.
Going back we took her to vets in Finland few hours before the ferry went and got the tick and worming done there.
We were fine to enter UK with that treatment as it fell under the hours by when you need to enter the transport to UK.

I found the whole trip pretty easy to do and would quite happily do it again.

Thank you for this, Noora. I hadn't thought about that route. Did you use the 27 hour ferry crossing with your bitch? How did she cope with it? I must admit, the thought of less driving is appealing.

Sorry I was not very clear on the route we took:

Ferry Harwich to Hook of Holland - Our ferry had a huge dog cage on the car deck (could have fitted 3-4 Leos in quite comfortably). The curly we travelled with was used to kennels so he was fine. I did worry little with my girl as she had never been kenneled or even in a crated but we were allowed to go and see how she was as often as we wanted. Luckily she slept through and I only checked from distance and saw her sleeping away!
We took the night ferry over to Holland and the day ferry back to UK.
Little tip if you are a tesco shopper: Stena line takes Tesco vouchers...
We used Tesco clubcard points for the ferry so it ended up costing us £60 of real money, £140 total but covered £80 with £20 worth of Tesco vouchers :)

Driving to Rostock- The roads are in very good condition and it feels like one long road!
Basically we were in Holland in the morning and drove to catch a ferry from rostock the same night, gave us plenty of time to get there.
It was about 6 hours drive but we went to have breakfast at Amsterdam canals so took a little detour :).
We also had quite a few breaks as we had plenty of time to get to Rostock...

Ferry from Rostock to Helsinki- 27hours.
There are two companies doing the Finland-Germany route. We opted for the cheaper one :)
On our way we had a dog with loads of travelling experience with us and no problems.
Dogs can stay in the cabin or in quite spacious cages on a special deck on the top of the ferry.
We opted for a cabin with both dogs but we used the cages for when we went to have a meal.
On our way back we didn't use the cages but took turns (my girl has never been kenneled) as didn't want to upset her by leaving her in a kennel on her own.
Dogs need to wear muzzles on public places (like on the way to the dog deck but even my girl who had a a days practice was fine in wearing hers for the short walk to the deck. So if you opt for this route, do get your puppys breeder to get him/her used to wearing a muzzle.

My girl coped fine except she did not want to wee!
They have a dog deck with sand pit for them to use but my girl is very funny on where she wees and refused to even enter the sandpit!
She is the same at shows where there is a dog toileting area and will stop when she realizes she is heading towards one. If she is made to go in she will keep her head up and literally tiptoe with a face of discust :).

The whole trip, from our door in UK to my parents door in Finland and back, involved about 14 hours of driving.

Thank you very much, Noora, that is really interesting. I'll get googling for ferry prices. And I've got some Tesco vouchers in my purse :) And Hadi being a male would be much more inclined to wee than your girl was :)

What about the length of the Ferry trip, where was she kept and exercised on your way home?

I have always wanted to take one of mine via the sea route to Norway, but they don't allow dogs, so obviously the German/Finnish ferry does? 

Just plotting and planning on how to get my pup to Scandinavia in a few years time, her mother flew there and back with me in 2006 for her first litter, but it was very expensive (£1200, and only a 20kg dog), the biggest cost being the cargo route home, and I didn't need an agent then just did the cargo bit myself..

We walked up and down the decks for excersise.
They have special pet cabins so you can have the dog with you in the cabin or use Kennels/cages they have on the top deck(it is just a room with 4 kennels but as it is on the top it is not noisy).
The cabins are just few steps from the dog excersise deck -that was quite small but we went on other decks too just to walk her around and try to make her pee.

The cost of our trip (petrol&ferries) was about £1200 so for you Brainless it might cost more or less the same to fly your dog as they are not that heavy.
Saying that the Germany-Finland ferry is loads cheaper in the wintertime and if you book well in advance (-25% if booked early).
My dog had some health issues so we ended up waiting and booking right before we went so the cost was higher it would have been.

I did not really look into cost of flying her over as I didn't want to stress her.
But flying  my 50kg baby over would have cost loads and I believe her weight+the weight of the crate would have taken her over the top limit they have for "pets" and I believe this is when it gets very expensive.
From talking to other people who have flown dogs over, I knew it would be more expensive to fly her so never really looked into it much.

Thanks, Brac, tried them but got a message from them saying they can't help, but they did give me a useful link.

Noora, would you mind telling me which ferrry company you used - they obviously cater well for dogs. I've just looked at one, £890 for the return trip :(

My "pup" is now over 40 kg so flying will be really pricey too :(

Hi,

We used Tallink Silja and I'm afraid for summer "car package" that price sounds about right...
Now with pound being down against Euro it will be more expensive to travel in Europe as your pound will not get much more euros!

It is cheaper on the yellow and green times so if you can travel before mid june it will be cheaper...
http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/tab1/carPackages/carPackageHelRos.htm

Thanks for that, Noora. I haven't timed this very well, euro/pound wise and travel timing wise :(

Just an update - Finnair and a cargo company have got back to me (Finnair are so helpful :) ). The fact that he's over 40 kg is a problem - he has to travel in a wooden crate with pallet fork lifting points! Now I need a quote for that too. Finnair are quoting approx 870 euros - so it's looking a bit more competitive. Decisions, decisions!

That is really good price!! a lot better than my friend got quoted for her Curly last year!
Don't forget to get the price for the wooden crate as that can be costly too...
I have read some places hire them so that might be worth a closer look... Not sure if anybody in Finland do tho.

Hi, we imported a dog from Finland in 2005, using Finnair from Helsinki to Heathrow, the cargo side at Helsinki were very helpful, however Heathrow was a different story. After arriving my wife picked me up and we drove around Heathrow from one side to the other, stood in a queue and on reaching the front of the queue was told the plane hadn't landed yet, and yes they were sur eof this, I then explained that I flew in on that flight and had gone through customs etc, after another 45 minutes they finally released her documents. The Animal Control Centre on teh othe rhand were very professional and caring.
As for advice, friends who attended Crufts (a couple of years ago) from Finland, flew the dog from Finland to Amsterdam (as the dog could go as hand luggage/excess baggage (mature male of large breed) as this was cheaper than cargo rates. They then hired a car and took the fery to the UK.
Perhaps you could drive to Schipol leave your car in the long stay car park and then fly to Finland, returning with your pup as baggage and then drive back.
As far as ferries etc go, when I am attending the Amsterdam Winner Show etc I prefer to drive South past Newcastle, Hull, Harwich etc and use the tunnel as this is less stressful to the dog and usually works out cheaper.