Moving to Germany with a large dog.

Léan

Hello. I'm relocating to Berlin this August with my large German Shepherd X.

I had planned to get the Cork - Roscoff ferry as a foot passenger, (i booked a pet friendly cabin) and then some trains onwards to Berlin, with an over night staying with some friends along the way.

However Britney ferries just rang me and informed me they do not allow dogs on board as foot passengers and only via vehicles, and under no circumstances was i allow board the ferry on foot with my dog .

I don't drive so boarding by foot was the only option for me.

I really wanted to avoid flying as firstly i'l have to go through Dublin (i'm based in Cork) and secondly the idea of loading my dog on as cargo completely freaks me out. He also is not crate trained and not used to being in a crate.

I did use the search function, this thread in particular was quite helpful, but it's a little old at this stage.

I'm wondering as anyone travelled this route or similar with their pet recently and how did they get on?

Any advice appreciated.

volchitsa

Léan wrote: »

Hello. I'm relocating to Berlin this August with my large German Shepherd X.

I had planned to get the Cork - Roscoff ferry as a foot passenger, (i booked a pet friendly cabin) and then some trains onwards to Berlin, with an over night staying with some friends along the way.

However Britney ferries just rang me and informed me they do not allow dogs on board as foot passengers and only via vehicles, and under no circumstances was i allow board the ferry on foot with my dog .

I don't drive so boarding by foot was the only option for me.

I really wanted to avoid flying as firstly i'l have to go through Dublin (i'm based in Cork) and secondly the idea of loading my dog on as cargo completely freaks me out. He also is not crate trained and not used to being in a crate.

I did use the search function, this thread in particular was quite helpful, but it's a little old at this stage.

I'm wondering as anyone travelled this route or similar with their pet recently and how did they get on?

Any advice appreciated.

I'm not sure how practical this is, but one possibility might be to try to find a car-driver who could allow you (or even just the dog but the logistics of that might be complicated) to actually board the ferry in their car.

Bit dodgy just turning up and asking of course, but I've done it with "unaccompanied" children on Ryanair - a kid who was with his elder sister but had no over 18 with him - the parents saw me at the check-in with my children and asked if I would be the accompanying adult, but that the sister was perfectly able to do any actual looking after, and they were being picked up by family at the other end.

I've also done the same at the swimming pool, where they require an adult per under 12 or whatever it is, but you know the children can swim and don't need much supervision.

Sorry not sure this is much use if you can't find anyone though!

wexie

....Did they tell you why you can't board as a foot passenger with a dog?

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever, it's not like you'd be able to keep the dog away from other passengers if you board by car?

Léan

wexie wrote: »

....Did they tell you why you can't board as a foot passenger with a dog?

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever, it's not like you'd be able to keep the dog away from other passengers if you board by car?

They basically said that dogs aren't allowed in public areas and the gangway for foot passengers is a public area.

Dogs are only allowed enter in a car on the vehicle gangway, where you will be appointed a special space that leads to a pet area, and that this entryway isn't suitable to walk on foot.

They then told me to either cancel the dog coming with me or get a car.

... It makes no sense to me either, especially when they advertise 'pet friendly cabins'. They really wouldn't budge with me at all.

wexie

Just had a look, seems you can't actually book a pet on the website if you select the foot passenger option? Or is that a recent change?
Did you book it online with them?

Irish Ferries seem to allow foot passengers to bring animals on board however they have to be in a suitable carrier which you can carry yourself which is hardly going to be an option with a GSD

I don't know I'm afraid....would you be able to ask someone to come with you with a car? I know it's a big ask of course but perhaps you're in a situation to pay a bit of their ticket and they'd get a nice booze cruise out of it?

wexie

Stena seem to allow foot passengers to bring pets but you'd have to travel from Rosslare

Foot passengers may only travel with their pet(s) if they have pre-booked a kennel(s) in advance of sailing. Pets are prohibited from travelling with foot passengers where kennels are not pre-booked. Kennels are allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

fergie bxl

Did you manage to take your dog to Roscoff on the Connemara?

I too am trying to find out how challenging accessing the cabin deck is as it's via a stairs that is exposed. Our dog is 10 years old and would be fine going up but coming down could be a problem depending on how steep / exposed the stairs are. She's just a bit too heavy to carry. I've asked BF if they have a photo of the stairs but they are reluctant to give me any information so it's impossible to make an informed decision. TIA

CarolineBee

wexie wrote: »

Stena seem to allow foot passengers to bring pets but you'd have to travel from Rosslare

Stena only allow dogs that can be carried in a carry case in public areas, dog must remain crated throughout.
Large dogs must be kept in car or onboard kennels on car deck (these aren’t great for any dog large than beagle or staffy sized).

I regularly travel with Stena on the Holyhead/Dublin route. I’m not sure if they have different rules on longer routes.

Is it worth looking at driver/van hire for the journey? May work out cheaper if you find someone doing a run from Europe to Ireland and potentially heading back empty??
Good luck

volchitsa

I'd disagree with the above, having taken Stena Lines Rosslare to Le Havre and back, we found the kennel size was fine for our 25kg Labrador or GSD-sized bitch, albeit she's on the smallish end of GSDs. But the kennel size was fine.

It was a somewhat scary experience for her, the kennels are cold, bare metal, and second time round I took care to bring her cushion, for the comfort as well as for the reassurance.

The real questions for you, I think are, first, if you're a foot passenger, how you can get her on board - we were traveling by car so I don't know how it works for foot passengers. Is there any way of getting in contact with car passengers to see if someone could take her on for you? I think you have to pay for a ticket (but I could be misremembering as we looked at several companies before booking) but in any case it's not expensive.

The other important question is whether you can get her a place in the crates that are on the level of the passenger deck, and not have to take her to the ones that are down a very steep set of stairs. As you can imagine the former fill up very quickly so if you have a dog with mobility issues it could really be difficult. The dog owners are all around though, so if that happened to me, personally I'd just bagseye a downstairs place and then beg someone with an upstairs place to swap with me.

We actually preferred the downstairs place in some ways because it's much calmer - far less barking, which our dog finds stressful. In fact it was almost empty on one of the legs. But she's young so the stairs weren't an issue.

Hope this helps a bit. Good luck.

mel.b

CarolineBee wrote: »

Stena only allow dogs that can be carried in a carry case in public areas, dog must remain crated throughout.
Large dogs must be kept in car or onboard kennels on car deck (these aren’t great for any dog large than beagle or staffy sized).

I regularly travel with Stena on the Holyhead/Dublin route. I’m not sure if they have different rules on longer routes.

Is it worth looking at driver/van hire for the journey? May work out cheaper if you find someone doing a run from Europe to Ireland and potentially heading back empty??
Good luck

I contacted stena directly and asked ‘when travelling as a foot passenger with your dog and booking one of the cages for the dog to stay in for the duration of the crossing, can the dog be walked onto the ferry or does it need to be in a crate? I have a big dog so wouldn’t be able to carry a crate with him in it’ and was told
‘No, you don’t have to carry your dog onto the vessel in a cage, you are certainly able to walk him to the kennel area’

This was in Nov 2018. So it would be worth double checking with Stena what their policy is.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Have you considered having the dog board as a human?

With the right clothes and training a German shepard can easily pass as a person.