How difficult will it be to bring my Newfie to Swizerland?

RangeR · 06-12-2005 3:28pm #1

Hi all,

I recently got an offer to work in Switzerland. It's a great oppertunity but I will not be going unless I can bring my Newfoundland with me. I do not want to have it locked up for 6 months in a vet somewhere. I won't be flying it either.

Myself and my partner will bring our belongings over to Switzerland, then fly back and drive the Newfie over. We are really looking forward to it but will only go if the dog can come with us without ANY hassles.

I'm pretty sure that we don't have to lock her up for 6 months. I've done a little research and I know I have to do a few things. Get her a passport, make sure she has been properly vacinated, get blood test months in advance [this might cancel the trip] and a few other things. But I can only find information on bringing her back to Ireland from Switzerland. Not the other way around.

I'd be interested if anyone else had similar experiences or can point to clear, concise information relating to this.

Cheers

Alun · 06-12-2005 3:56pm

I've done this in reverse, bringing a cat from the Netherlands to Ireland, via the UK. The rules for going the other direction are a little more relaxed as I understand it, particularly the 6 month wait after vaccination which is reduced to 21 days for some countries, and the relaxation of the requirement for tick and tapeworm treatment between 12 and 24 hours of travel which was a real PITA.

There is some information on the Dept of Agriculture website at http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/index.jsp?file=pets/index.xml, and some rather more comprehensive information on the UK's DEFRA website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/index.htm. Since there is free movement of pets between the UK and ROI, it's effectively the UK you're exporting the dog from, so the DEFRA information might be more relevant.

The whole legislation is a bit of a minefield, and many vets here still aren't up to date with all of it, so study it very carefully. There are some checklists on the DEFRA website to print out which I found very helpful. You'll probably end up knowing more about the subject than your vet ... I did

Good luck!

RangeR · 06-12-2005 4:22pm

Alun wrote:

particularly the 6 month wait after vaccination which is reduced to 21 days for some countries.

Not an option. I won't leave her alone for more than 1 or 2 days. Newfies are very attached to their owners and our one in particular starts crying when we leave the house

Alun wrote:

There is some information on the Dept of Agriculture website at http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/index.jsp?file=pets/index.xml, and some rather more comprehensive information on the UK's DEFRA website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/index.htm. Since there is free movement of pets between the UK and ROI, it's effectively the UK you're exporting the dog from, so the DEFRA information might be more relevant.

Sweet. I'l go through that very carefully. I do not want to get over to Switzerland to be told that I cannot bring her the rest of the way with me.

Cheers for your help. If anyone has any other advice, I'm all ears.

Alun · 06-12-2005 4:45pm

Unfortunately, as far as I know, some kind of wait after the rabies vaccination isn't an option either. They have to do a blood test to see if the vaccination has "taken", i.e. if a sufficient number of antibodies have been created. For a start you have to wait a while after the vaccination, 2 weeks I think, before they take a blood sample and send it off to a lab, probably in the UK. If the results come back +ve, then the wait, whatever it is, starts from the date the blood sample was taken. If they come back -ve, then she will have to be re-vaccinated and the whole thing starts all over again. At least this was what we had to do in our case, and as I said, going the other way may be different. You'll have to keep up the rabies vaccinations in Switzerland with boosters if you want to avoid problems when / if you come back too.

You don't have to leave the dog alone in the intervening period though. Just get the whole vaccination / blood test / microchipping thing started now, or as soon as possible, and she can wait on the results with you

We did something similar in as much as my wife moved over here first, and I stayed in the Netherlands for a further 2 months while we waited for our 6 month waiting period to expire.

RangeR · 06-12-2005 5:04pm

Alun wrote:

You don't have to leave the dog alone in the intervening period though. Just get the whole vaccination / blood test / microchipping thing started now, or as soon as possible, and she can wait on the results with you We did something similar in as much as my wife moved over here first, and I stayed in the Netherlands for a further 2 months while we waited for our 6 month waiting period to expire.

Yeah, I don't mind waiting if she can wait with us

But I'm not shipping her off to the vets or kennels or whatever. We already got her chipped months ago. I'll bring her down to the vet next week to organise the rest, after I know what they need to know

michaelanthony · 06-12-2005 5:17pm

When I flew from Moscow to Zurich, some guy bought a ticket at the last moment and got on with his dog without any problems. The dog was in a carrier box underneath his seat. Not sure sure about what happened when he got off.

RangeR · 06-12-2005 5:23pm

michaelanthony wrote:

When I flew from Moscow to Zurich, some guy bought a ticket at the last moment and got on with his dog without any problems. The dog was in a carrier box underneath his seat. Not sure sure about what happened when he got off.

Chuckle, I'm not sure if you are familiar with Newfoundlands but my one is fully grown. She'd need an plane all to herself

She's the size of a grizzly bear [and looks like one too]

Besides, I wouldn't take that risk at all. We'd all be heatbroken if we did that and she was taken off us over there.

How difficult will it be to bring my Newfie to Swizerland?

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