Hi All,

This might be something you have experienced so I'm hoping for some advice. I'm in Republic of Ireland and looking to buy a pup, however the majority of breeders seem to be in Northern Ireland. I believe the rules would be that the pup has to be 12 weeks, and have their passports done, before they can cross the borders, is that right?

As breeders, what are your thoughts on holding pups to 12 weeks? It makes sense to me when the dog is travelling to another country, but seems a bit drastic when literally only crossing the road (in a physical sense). I feel like 12 weeks is a long time for a breeder to hold a pup for me? Any advice or experience welcome.

Thank you!
Shoobi

We didn't normally let our puppies go until they were 10 weeks, unless we knew the new owners well and they were experienced in which case they'd go once over 8 weeks.    It wouldn't worry me to hang onto a puppy for longer, if necessary - I did with one who a friend was having.   I kept him with his sister until he was 6 months!

That's great @mamabas thank you :)

Actually breeders would have to hold pups to 15 weeks+ as they can't travel until 21 days after the Rabies vaccination.

Some breeders might find it difficultbto keep a pup that long, especially if keeping one of the litter for themselves, as 2 pups together may interfere/delay individual training and upbringing of their pup.

Most would expect to.be reimbursed for the extra added expense.

> Most would expect to.be reimbursed for the extra added expense.

Yep   I charged my friend, a minimal charge, for the extra months we had him.   I hated seeing him go after that!!   And actually fate decided he came back to us when he was older.   We always (suitability allowing) kept back 2 from our litters and had no training problems.   Maybe that wasn't quite so relevant with my particular breed however.

Hi Shoobi ---

As Brainless says, the pup would need to stay with the breeder until 15wks - because it would be 21 days after the rabies jab that they could travel and the earliest the rabies jab could be done, would be 12wks.

That is the official line.

Frankly, I think it is completely bonkers and I've no idea how they can enforce it. I guess it's the same with land borders in Europe, where you're not supposed to take pups between till after they are Pet Passported. I am sure they will negotiate something to resolve all this, because there are similar issues for people who live in the UK and want to travel to Ireland to show in terms of the tapeworm treatment. It's just that it's all very new at the moment and everyone is obsessed with coronavirus and not with sorting this out because not much travel is possible anyway. 

By the way, I once looked at importing a pup from France and I found this amazing woman online. She was British but she lived in France and was a trainer and she basically raised people's puppies from 8wks to 15wks when they could travel. She did socialisation and basic training. So the breeder didn't need to keep the pup until then, and the buyer knew their pup was getting first rate attention and training whilst waiting to come to them and didn't need to risk the breeder rejecting them because they didn't want to keep the pup on. She was charging a good few thousand for it and she was always full. I recently tried to find her website but it's come down.

However I think there is a HUGE need for services like this. It doesn't occur to us, wherever we are, that it is something people might want - because people in our own location obviously don't want this from us - it's people abroad who want it. So we need to find a way to market it to people abroad. As a trainer, it's a service I'm really thinking about offering though. Combine it with Puppy Culture, too.

Anyway, that likely doesn't help you unless you find someone in the north able to offer this amazing service, ha ha.

because there are similar issues for people who live in the UK and want to travel to Ireland to show in terms of the tapeworm treatment.

Has there been a change in the Pet Travel scheme since BREXIT regarding treatment for Echinococcus multilocularis tapeworm? As this is not found in UK or Ireland/Northern Ireland. You would think DEFRA would have updated their site to reflect this change wouldn't you.

  "You do not need to treat your dog for tapeworm if you’re coming directly to Great Britain from Finland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malta or Norway."

Well it's a bit worse than just the tapeworm treatment, the whole process has changed:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/16/brexit-pets-will-need-certificate-for-travel-to-eu-and-northern-ireland

I know about the health certificate, but as the newspaper article directs you to the DEFRA website & on the website it still says no tapeworm treatment, it would appear that this hasn't changed.

Also previously the age rules and Rabies vaccination between the Republuc and N.Ireland/UK still applied, but with an EU Pet passport, but niw an expensive Health certificate.