Getting a dog to England for Crufts

Shortly after winning Best of Breed at the FCRSA national specialty, we learned that our “loaner” dog, Robin (CH Steelriver Could It Be Magic JH) was qualified for Crufts, along with the specialty BOS and JAMs.  Since we were planning a trip to Crufts anyway, we decided to enter Robin and make it a trip of a lifetime.

 The first thing that had to be done was to get the blue Crufts qualifying card.  These cards are only available for winning at select shows, and we contacted FCRSA Membership Secretary, Joan Dever to get our card.  This was sent to Robin’s owner, Richard van der Horst so he could complete the Crufts entry.  Since Robin was bred and born in Scotland, he did not require The Kennel Club’s Authority To Compete (ATC) number, but any dog bred outside of the UK does require this. 

Once that step was finished, we began researching the requirements for getting into England.  The PETS travel scheme is quite extensive, and was certainly confusing, but avoiding quarantine was our first objective.  The DEFRA  website in England was useful, although large and not particularly intuitive in layout until it had been visited several times, and the logic of it's layout was discovered.  Finding information was laborious, but we finally learned that we needed to fly a specific route, on a  specific airline, into a specific airport.  In our case, we had to use Continental airlines , and our flight had to depart Newark and land at London’s Gatwick airport.  Since the dog must be shipped as cargo (not excess baggage), the next step was to get a price quote on the shipping charges.  We almost fainted when we were quoted $1539.00!!!  And this was just for one way travel!  Fortunately, Robin’s handler, Kellie Kanipe was going to be able to bring Robin back to the USA (from Holland) as excess baggage on Delta ($110.00 USD), so at least it wasn’t going to cost upwards of $3,000.00 to get the dog there and back!

We decided to travel on the same flights as Robin, so we bought tickets on the corresponding Continental flights.  In order to insure enough time to change planes, we allowed 4 hours between our arrival in Newark and our departure to England.  In contrast to Robin's fare, our tickets cost about $350.00 each for the round trip.

 The next step was to pull blood for a rabies titre.  The titre must be sent to one specified laboratory (Kansas State University), and the PETS scheme valid dates start from the date of the blood draw, not the date of the titre result.  This is an important point, and one that was confusing to our vet and also to the USDA official who ultimately stamped our papers!  Be sure that your rabies vaccine is current (by at least 30 days), and allow enough time to re-vaccinate and let 30 days pass if the original titre is too low!  Our vet charged $90.00 for the blood draw and submitting the paperwork to KSU.  Oh, you will also want to be sure that your vet is federally accredited to do this work for you!  You can ask the vet, or call the USDA to confirm.  If your vet is not accredited, then you have to start over with an accredited one.

 Once a proper rabies titre result is given, it is time to secure the required paperwork.  I spent 6 months alone, just trying to get the correct papers from USDA .  Your vet must call the regional office and request the PETS travel scheme paperwork.  It cannot be picked up by hand, nor can you call and request it.  I personally called the local USDA office on at least 6 occasions (my vet's staff called at least 4 more times), and received several different answers on acquiring the paperwork....often from the same USDA employee!  As our trip neared (one month out), and we didn't have the papers in hand, I repeatedly called the office in an attempt to get the papers.  The week before we left, my vet's technician called the office, again requesting the paperwork, and the same employee who had spoken to me at least 4 different times, wondered aloud why my vet's name seemed so familiar!!!  Don't underestimate the bureaucracy of the USDA!

After securing the paperwork and recording an acceptable rabies titre, you can relax for a little while.  Things won’t get crazy until just before you leave on your overseas trip!  Sometime before you leave, you will want to arrange for customs assistance through Ladyhaye Kennels in London.  For a fee, ($150.00) they will walk your dog through customs in London and expedite the paperwork.  We sent them all the pertinent information over the Internet, including payment for the service.  Continental requires that you use Ladyhaye Kennels for this, so you can either contact them ahead of time, or pay for the service when you pay the shipping fee.  Within 7 days of your flight, you must call Continental and "officially" reserve space in cargo for your dog.

Be sure you have the correct sized crate for shipping and that it is approved for international travel (there must be ventilation on all 4 sides).  Three days before we left on our trip, we were finally told by Continental’s Pet Desk that we needed a crate one size larger than usual to ship overseas!  Robin would ordinarily travel in a  500 vari-kennel, so we had to rush out to buy a 700 (Great Dane size…$190.00) crate 2 days before we left. 

Within 24 – 48 hours of travel, you must also schedule an appointment with both your vet and your regional USDA office.  The vet will verify the microchip, apply tick treatment (Frontline) and give a dose of tapeworm treatment (Droncit).  The papers are then finalized by the vet, and you must go to the USDA office to have the papers officially stamped ($76.00).  After waiting 30 minutes, and paying the fee, I discovered that the USDA vet had changed the valid dates on our paperwork!!!  Because of the confusion over the draw date for the rabies titre, (blood drawn in August, allowing travel after that date in February), our vet had noted that travel was valid from March 1, 2004 (we were landing in London on March 3).  The USDA vet had crossed out March 1 and written in March 4……one day AFTER we were arriving in England, and requiring that the dog go into quarantine!!!  After several frantic phone calls (it was 4 pm, and the USDA office closed at 4:30), we were assured that our vet could cross out the dates again, insert the correct dates, and fax the paperwork back to USDA.  Of course, this lackadaisical attitude on the part of the USDA was worrisome….if they were incorrect, it was going to be a huge problem for us.

There was not much we could do about it…..we were leaving very early the following morning for the UK.  We had to trust that this would work out OK. 

We had been informed by Continental that they needed the dog at the cargo terminal 3-4 hours before travel.  With the 4 hour layover in Newark, this meant that Robin was going to be crated for upwards of 18 hours.  We were not allowed to walk him at the Newark airport…only Continental employees could handle him once he was turned in to the cargo office.  We were offered the option of hiring the airport kennel to walk him while in Newark.  We quickly agreed, and paid the fee ($95.00) without a second thought. 

We arrived at the Continental cargo office at 8:30 am, for a 12:15 flight.  After paying his shipping fee, he was ready to go, and so were we.  We had printed a label for his crate, with his name and our phone number on it, and instructions for handling him.  This was placed in a prominent place on his crate.  We had already made photocopies of all of his paperwork, so we headed to the passenger terminal to await our flight.

We were able to see Robin being loaded at both Atlanta and Newark airports, and we made sure to tell the flight crew that he was on board.  We also called the airport kennel to talk with them about walking Robin, and made sure he had gotten the attention we had paid for.

We arrived in London on time, and without incident.  We were met, as promised, by Michelle from Ladyhaye Kennels.  She gave us directions to the cargo area where we could pick up Robin, and had us sign the customs documents.  We explained about the screw-up on his papers, and she said we would get a call if there was a problem.  It was about 90 minutes before we got the call that Robin was ready to go, but the paperwork had not caused any problems.  After picking up our rental car, we headed over to collect Robin and get on our way to Birmingham and the Crufts show!  He was none the worse for wear after his overseas flight, but he was certainly glad to be out of that crate!

When calculating costs for this trip, we did count car rental as an expense for getting the dog there – without the dog, we could have taken a train to Birmingham and back for much less than the $600.00 + we shelled out for 3 days of car rental!

After all was said and done, taking a dog to Crufts was an exciting, stressful, expensive experience.  While we are glad we did it this year, we won't ever do it again!

Our expenses:

 $1539.00 + $110.00 (shipping and return flight)

 $90.00 (titre)

$150.00 (customs assistance)

$95.00 (dog walker in Newark)

$110.00 (tick & tapeworm treatment)

$76.00 (USDA stamp fee)

$630.00 (rental car)

$45.00 (parking rental car in Birmingham for 3 days)

$2845.00 - GRAND TOTAL