A friend is importing a puppy from Germany soon, they phoned the governments pet travel scheme helpline and were told that the puppy could be rabies vaccinated at 12 weeks and brought in 3 weeks later. I thought the puppy had to be at least 3 calendar months old for the rabies jab but now can't find that stated online anywhere. It's quite important to get it right as 12 weeks would be August 5th and 3 calendar months August 13th. I really don't want them to make a mistake with this, can anyone clarify if the rules have changed?

I gather it depends on the manufacturer. It's three months, not 12 weeks, for Canigen and Nobivac.

Argh it's a nightmare, if the government helpline is saying 12 weeks will the passport be valid then even if the rabies jab may not be working?

I would work on three callender months to be on safe side, that said if the puppy is booked to travel more than 21 days post vaccine I can't see the admin staff at tunnel or ferry flagging up problems.

I'm sticking to 3 calendar months when bringing my pup in later this year, but these people are (naturally) desperate to get their pup and are going to go with what the helpline told them - 12 weeks. I'm just really concerned in case they have problems as I've been instrumental in them getting a silken and I want it all to go well for them. I was hoping someone could direct me to something official on the net that said 3 months. I've sent them copies of all the vaccine manufacturers recommendations.

They'll undoubtedly get in without a problem, seeing that the border control bods don't know how to check properly; as long as there's a passport for each dog and the chip matches they're satisfied - it doesn't seem to matter what it says in it.