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The rules are quite clear and do need to be followed to the letter. The alternative is 6 months quarantine at the owners expense. Probably thousands of pounds and 6 months when the pet will be shut up and inaccessible.

It is always a relief when we do get through.

As we were leaving Cherbourg last year, the pet passport people discovered that our dog's passport was out by 5 days! Our home vet had actually entered the wrong date and even though we rang our vet and let him explain his mistake to the pet passport people, they would not let us proceed (unless we would enter the dog into 6 months quaranteen on the UK side).

But the sun was shinning and we were able to get an extra week off work, the boat reagganged and booked into a nearby campsite, broke out a nice bottle of wine and stayed in France for a further 5 days. A lovely unexpected extra week of holidays, well 5 days anyway. 

I would agree that the pet's passport is even more important than your own, as the poor dog can be locked up for 6 months, just because you did not check and double check the small print!

Yup, heard it all befoe (sadly). As advised, check, check and check again! There is no room for error or compromise. If in doubt, read the DEFRA web-site carefully and then check, check and check again! Always before travelling.

Adrian

"The Pets Passport Not In Order".

Could it have been that the French Vet had not stamped the passport correctly.        

This was our first time taking our dog abroad . Spoke to a lovely English couple and asked what the procedure was. They told us to make sure that the passport is given 3 stamps otherwise we would be turned away, told to go to a vets nearby and have the dog checked again,(more expense).

Thanks to their advice the whole procedure was simple.

I don't think your experience is that common, autopipac - many people taking dogs report nothing but friendliness and professionalism from the vets they use - there are some reports of not even being charged for things which here in Britain would attract a big fee - and many people take their own treatments, which the vet is quite happy to use.

For anyone really worried by this post, who's taking a pet for the first time, the vet at Eperleques near the campsite Chateau du Gandspette comes highly recommended by many of the 'doggy' people we meet on site there, usually on our last night.   His name is Msr. Jean Paulus, and his practice is only about 500 metres from the campsite. 

We don't have a dog ourselves, any longer, but my advice to anyone who does is make absolutely sure your British documents are in order, make sure you know EXACTLY what timescales apply to what, and then use a recommended vet on the French side.

Quote: Originally posted by sja1951 on 18/7/2010

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As we were leaving Cherbourg last year, the pet passport people discovered that our dog's passport was out by 5 days! Our home vet had actually entered the wrong date and even though we rang our vet and let him explain his mistake to the pet passport people, they would not let us proceed (unless we would enter the dog into 6 months quaranteen on the UK side).

But the sun was shinning and we were able to get an extra week off work, the boat reagganged and booked into a nearby campsite, broke out a nice bottle of wine and stayed in France for a further 5 days. A lovely unexpected extra week of holidays, well 5 days anyway. 

I would agree that the pet's passport is even more important than your own, as the poor dog can be locked up for 6 months, just because you did not check and double check the small print!

 

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Sorry I just want to clarify, when you say the passport was 'out by 5 days'.

I guess you mean that you had another 5 days to go before the 6 month period was complete ?

Because if the passport ' was out ' of date, you would have to start the whole process again ! Blood test, wait 6 months etc..

We have used the Passport a few times from Spain via France to the UK & the only time we had a hiccup was when we turned up early for our ferry in Calais, we couldn't take an earlier one because we had 1/2hour to go for the 24/48 hours bit.

The time the vet put in the passport , silly, but rules is rules & we had another coffee.

Quote: Originally posted by ANN H on 19/7/2010

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"The Pets Passport Not In Order".

Could it have been that the French Vet had not stamped the passport correctly.        

This was our first time taking our dog abroad . Spoke to a lovely English couple and asked what the procedure was. They told us to make sure that the passport is given 3 stamps otherwise we would be turned away, told to go to a vets nearby and have the dog checked again,(more expense).

Thanks to their advice the whole procedure was simple.

 

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