Don't forget the dog!

It's much easier these days to take your pet to Spain with you.

If you have any questions about it or any useful advice to offer then please post it here or start a new thread.

We tried to organise something for this November but the ship we wanted to use (with kennels) was doing its last trip at the end of Oct. This meant the dog would have to stay in the car, although we could take her out onto the car deck in order for her to perform her toiletries! As we have a very timid dog, this was not going to work so we opted for the long way round - the tunnel.

Would be interested to know how the kennel situation works re access, exercising etc. Also is it only available at certain times of the year? Would appreciate any help & advice.

Hi Alecmichael.We have 2 small dogs &have booked an appt at Valle del Este Jan7--March7 hoping we can complete on Los Olivos [ hope not wishful thinking ]

After many enquiries & horror stories about the conditions ,usually in the Bay of Biscay in winter,we decided,for our pets sake,to drive.

We will drive from Cheshire via the Tunnel to Paris ,where there is car transporter train with sleeping compartments to the south of France near the Spanish border.In winter it operates on Mondays & Fridays 10 p.m. arriving following morning at 6 a.m..

Because of the dogs ,regarded as persons ,we had to book a 4 berth sleeping compartment.We hope this will leave fresher to continue our journey by car.

The cost is a bit expensive ,but after taking into account petrol, tolls, night in a motel,wear and tear on the car ,pets, & ourselves considered it worth it.

As a matter of interest ,this service operates from Calais in Summer.

Just another viewpoint.Have a safe journey & an enjoyable future

Regards----Haydn &Judy      

Hi taffyboyo & allthepall &others.Sorry tried to connect you direct & on new topic board ,probably my ignorance for failure.Hope you read this way.

Car /sleeper train winter-Paris to Narbonne  -summer from Calais.

Runs mondays & fridays. New prices in November.

For us 4 x107£ (2 persons + 2 dogs ) plus 120£ for car  ---4 berth compt.,sleeping.

Departs from Paris ( Austerlitz-S.E.Paris) 21.56 arrives Narbonne 06.16

Rail Europe---08702-415415

Hope this is o.k. Good luck---Haydn & Judy

Hi everyone,

glad this discussion was opened up.  We have a 6 year old golden labrador who is such a part of our family, she thinks she is human!  We have purchased in Duquesa, costa del sol and it should be ready late next year.  We would be travelling from Ireland so don't know what the options are.  We would love to bring her down if we were staying for more than 3 weeks.  We have never used kennels here at home, and have been lucky that friends mind her while we are away.  But now we will want to spend more time in Spain and can't keep putting on people.  Is it possible to travel from south Ireland to Spain -seems impossible to me, but my husband loves driving abroad and said he would drive her over??  Any help would be much appreciated.

regards,

Fionnuala

Hi womble

We were in the same boat, but with our cat. we decided to look into the costs and possibilities, and have now got her with us in Spain. She will be going back with us to the uk when we go.

I do not know about the regulations from southern Ireland but Your local vet should be able to put you in the picture as to injections and passport. Watch the six month rule if you are only travelling away for a few weeks. The government web site is DEFRA.gov.uk.

You can drive the dog down through Plymouth to Santander on the ferry as our friends did, or through Dover and drive down through France, as we did. It would possibly be better for you on the Plymouth Ferry as you are in Southern Spain.

Best of luck      Steve

Hi

Thanks for the info re transporting dogs, so thats now sorted

Anyone transported or know how to transport a horse to Southern Spain?

Thanks

Marky

We have just booked our ferry trip from Plymouth the Santander, in May (one way ). We were looking to take a hire car to Plymouth, sail across and pick a Spanish hire car up at Santander but Brittany Ferries only permit you to drive your dogs on to the ferry to Santander, you are not allowed to walk them on. Total cost for a wednesday ferry 2 adults in an outside cabin, 2 small dogs, and car £342.00. They have kennels and an exercise area and we will have access to our pups.

I will let you know how we get on.

I will be following your trip with interest Jacqui.

Once our house is sold, we will be using the Santander route for driving our dogs down to their new home too.

Did you have to book the ferry a long time in advance? Once the house sells, I expect we will be having a bit of a panic trying to sort things out as we can't do anything until we have something definite to work to.

Laury

I booked the ferry last week  for May 14th, so 8 weeks? I suppose it depends what time of year you will be travelling as I think the issue would be availability of kennels more than for yourselves. Hopefully, within the house selling process you will get a feel for a reasonable date for your move a few weeks in advance, although having been in estate agency for 20 years, I know it's really difficult to be sure about anything. We're fortunate that we don't need to sell before we move although our house is on the market, a little interest but no offers. It looks likely we will be renting it out for a year and look to sell next year when hopefully the market will have recovered a little.

What you could try is going on line and going through the process of booking on line to see how close you can get availability to get an idea, we're going with Brittany ferries who have 2 ferries do this trip. One has visiting times when you can go to your pets, the other which we are using gives you access whenever by using a digicard. I preferred that option of visiting when I wanted to, I wasn't sure how restrictive the visiting times are.

I am so relieved that Brinkley's tests have come back positive as he was the pup most traumatised by the blood test.

There is a lot more info about our move on my 2 blogs - take a look if you have time. I'me just on with sorting out what we are taking and what we are dumping, and it's quite a task.

Jacqui

8 weeks doesn't sound too bad to me. I suppose we could always rent somewhere for the interim if the house sells and we can't get there.

I think in our case, it's the opposite to you. We'll sell and rent rather than leave the house empty. We're paying two mortgages at the moment and my husband has to keep working here. Once we sell and pay off the two mortgages, we will be more free to relax.

It must be so exciting for you actually getting there. It seems like an unattainable dream to us now. We spent 2 years looking for the house and have owned it for over a year. It just goes on and on.

Perhaps the market will pick up soon if the media stop printing constant doom and gloom.

Sorry your dog was unhappy about the bloods. Mine seemed oblivious to it all. Especially when given a treat afterwards.

I'll have a look at your Blog when I have more time.

Good luck and let us know how it was, ferrying and driving two dogs down.

Laury

We have had a trial run with the dogs today, to ensure they will travel in the car ok for 2 hours at a time, and they were absolute stars. We had a trip to a relative in Middlesborough to say our goodbyes, so decided we would take Brinkley & Brandy to see what difficulties, if any, we encountered. The trip was 2 hours each way so was perfect for a trial run. I have taken them out in the car in their travel crate on a daily basis since they were 6 weeks old and they travel really well, but the longest journey previously was an hour. They were no bother in the car at all today, they seemed to sleep most of the time. The only time they made a noise was when Neil & I stopped talking and they couldn't hear us, once we started talking again, they settled back down. So, we need to find a lot to talk about for 6 hours drive time - I know, we can practice our Spanish!

All we need to worry about now is that they don't get sea-sick on the ferry. We have an appointment with the vet on Tuesday for them to get the relevant paperwork to travel to Spain, Brinkley will get his full pet passport  as he passed his DEFRA blood test, Brandy had his 2nd test last night, which he took in his stride this time, so he will have to wait for his full passport but is still ok for the journey to Spain.

They can normally manage about 2 hours between peeing, and we will have 3 days doing 6 hours driving each day, so that should work out ok. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed we should have a good journey!

J&N,

Sometimes voices on the radio or a CD give them company. Are you remembering to ask your vet for vaccination against Heart Worm(Dirofilaria)? Our vet did not know about it but got it organised for us. My friend had it done when she arrived in Spain. Sadly we have only one King Charles now as the other one was too ill with heart problems. Last year travelling to Murcia they lay at my feet with the air con. wafting over them.I am sure they will travel well. Best wishes.

Unfortunately the wreck, sorry car, we are travelling in doesn't have a radio or CD player, and because we intend scrapping the car when we arrive we're not inclined to spend money on it. Fortunately, I can chatter away quite happily.

Not heard of Heartworm, so thanks for that, just Googled it and it sounds nasty, so we have an appointment with the vet on Tuesday to get their paperwork sorted (and stitches out from operations last week) so I'll ask them about it. 

Hi Jacqui, you forgot your countdown.

Not long now.

Hi More

Sorry, my brain has turned to mush today, having started off this morning researching the currency market I then spent several hours shredding, and shredding and shredding - in an effort to clear the office, a definite downside to being able to work from home, I seem to have been shredding 10 years worth of paper!

My apologies to the Brazilian rain forest.