Hi all

I am investigating the possibility of bringing an adult dog into the UK and would be really interested in people's experiences of the Pet Passport scheme and/or quarantine. If anyone has done both I'd be really interested to hear which you preferred. I have all the official information about both but am really more concerned here with the pros and cons of each. The options I would consider are:
1. Pet Passport - drive down to collect and bring her back through Eurotunnel.
2. Quarantine - either driving her in or (more likely) flying her and quarantining her in local (ish) kennels.
On the quarantine front I would ideally be wanting to quarantine her in the nearest kennels so I could visit regularly. This is Ingfield Pet Hotel in Stocksmoor Huddersfield. Does anyone know this kennel or have any experience of using it?

Any thoughts welcome. I'd particularly be interested in people's experience of quarantine for older dogs - how well they cope and what the critical factors are. This is all at the enquiry stage at the moment but if we decide to do it we may need to move quickly!
Thanks
Janet

Janet,

When I moved to the UK I put my very pampered Yorkie (about 7 years old at the time) in quarrantine. She had no adjustment problems to quarantine whatsoever and no adjustment problem returning to life as a house dog afterwards. Although she eventually figured out that her change in living circumstances was the fault of my husband-to-be (the reason for my move from the US to the UK), I have no idea how she knew, but she started to fake being afraid of him when he came to visit with me. He eventually became her best friend, of course. And for the first few weeks at home, she refused to do a rollover for food - a trick she would knew well and would do in quarrantine. So apart from expressing her opinion a bit, there were no problems.

I know several people who have brought puppies into quarantine (between 6-12 mos) and they also did not seem to have any negative effects from quarantine.

However ..when the quarrantine period was nearly over for my dog a husky was placed in the quarantine kennel next to my dog. Every time I visited he spent the entire time crying. I do not think every dog adjusts easily.

I do not know your breed, but remember that quarantine kennels are not allowed to exercise the dog. The only time my dog was allowed outside her quarantine run was for bathing and grooming - and that was a 2 minute walk to the grooming room. If you have a large breed that needs a lot of exercise I would not quarantine. If you intend to show her you may need several months after quarantine to build up her muscle tone again.

Stacey

Hi Janet

I have bought 3 adult dogs in from Greece (rescue dogs using the pets passport scheme) although for the 1st 2 dogs I did fly them in 4 weeks early and used Q for that four weeks here in the UK. This did seem to work well - and was no too stressful for the dogs. They received many visitors and handled the 4 weeks well. Something like this might be an option for you. There were other dogs in the QK who only received visits at the weekends - these dogs were like yo'os up and down at their kennel doors poor things. They have NO contact with anyone other then the kennel assistant and the people who visit them. Something to also remember is that visiting time is strict and often very limited in some QK only a few hours in the afternoons, so you have to work out if you can make that visiting time.

As a small rescue I could not afford to Q the dogs for the full six months - also I am not over keen on dogs being isolated for that period of time, and I have heard more bad then good about Q.

The pros and the cons with the pets passport for me were

1 You really are in the hands of the people who are looking after your dog - and you have to trust that they will do ALL of the procedure for the PPS correctly. If these people are friends of yours then not so bad. I found I had to keep checking to make sure things were moving along. Also many Countries overseas tend to view tomorrow as 'another day'. So it can become terribly frustrating and 6 months in all cases for the dogs I brought in turned into much longer.

2 It is far less expensive to do it this way compared to Q. Depending on how much you offer to support the dog for six months (the flights and all the micro chipping blood tests and flights etc should roughly not cost you more then £400 give or take a bit either way. Of course if you have you drive your dog in or use the ferry then even less. Q kenneling is going to be well over £2000 I would have though (regional variations taken into account)

3 To me the bonus of using the PPS was less stress on the dogs, and all 3 did adjust very well. They were all big dogs and although in rescue kennels used to lazing their days about in the sun, to lock them up for 6 months would have probably sent them loopy.

4 I did find that the 3rd dog I bought in was more stressful then the previous 2 simply because the person (who was English) did not have a clue what she was doing. This believe me is a nightmare. Trying to sort out what someone in Greece should be doing from here in the UK is not easy. As I said this person was English so language was not a problem. But if you are dealing with people who speak NO English and you cannot speak their language then problems will arise. In the end Ladyhaye stepped in and sorted the Greek side out - so be warned you will need some help if doing it this way.

It did in the end in all 3 cases come together.

Also if you bring your dog in to kennel over winter then you will need heating in the QK - this will cost you extra. I have heard many a disaster story of dogs coming in from hot climates and not fairing well throught the winter months. Heating will not be provided unless you stipulate that you require it - which is an added extra cost.

Hope this helps.

Coleen

Thanks for your replies - very helpful. It is a large breed - so the issue of exercise in quarantine would be problematic. I was talking to friends last night and they suggested a third option - find someone on the continent to keep her. This may be feasible since I can think of a number of people I could approach to do this - it would also be easier to visit if she was in Northern Europe!

Thanks again.
Janet

When myself and friends imported our Spanish a no. of years ago, only the 6 month old had problems coping when he came outside. Dilita, who luckily own was kennelled any way in her first 12 months so I suppose it didn't bother her another 6 months, but there again my mum and dad took her to their static caravan the week after quarantine and she was popping in and out to do her business on the second day and they didn't have any worried at all. Then she came to live with us full time and yet again you wd. think that she'd been there all her life.

Most dogs will adjust to quarantine. There were 3 of us living not too far from the kennels so we took it in turns during the week to go down and visit our dogs so that certainly helped.

Good luck in your new venture.