Confused about what paperwork you do or don’t’ need to travel with your dog this summer and beyond? Whether it’s to Ireland or over the water, our latest blog explains what the travel requirements are for your pooch and when the rules come into play
Brexit changes for our dogs’ travelling plans
I had too much to do, and fitting in a two hour round trip to the bird food shop was not going to be possible. Himself generously offered to go and buy the food I needed, bless him. Mind you, he often accepts with alacrity any task that gives him the opportunity to drive his little two seater open-top car.
It’s frustrating. For many years I had my bird food delivered from a firm in England but Brexit put a stop to that. Us sort-of-leaving the EU has caused quite a few problems. Yesterday I smiled ruefully at the announcement that there is an agreement on chilled meat products, meaningless for me as I only ever buy local sausages anyway.
Far more important, to me and many other people, is the issue of being able to travel freely with our dogs back and forth to the rest of the UK.
What do you need to travel with your dog?
EU laws have always meant dogs have to have a pet passport to travel down south. Since 2014, you’ve needed a pet passport, a microchip and a valid rabies vaccination. This also now allows you to travel to GB.
So they only change for us means making sure your pet passport is an EU one, not a GB one.
But crucially there are problems travelling into NI from the rest of the UK as the UK is no longer part of the EU Pet Travel Scheme. Which means problems if you travel to GB then want to bring your dog back with you, or if family want to visit with their pets.
The new requirements are:
- a microchip
- a valid rabies vaccination
- tapeworm treatment, administered and recorded by a vet
- and either an EU issued passport or a single use EU animal health certificate (AHR) – current UK pet passports are no longer valid, so people from GB need a new AHR for every trip
The good news is that apparently these will not be enforced coming into NI from GB until 1st October.
Does this mean more checks when we cross into Ireland?
The bad news is that there may be increased checks when travelling down south from now.
It’s a mess.
The really daft thing is that rabies is not found in Ireland or the UK which means that dogs are being treated unnecessarily. Which is wrong in my humble and correct view.
All we can do for now is to keep lobbying our political leaders to try and sort out this mess.
I think this is more important that whether we can buy GB sausages. And I’m still annoyed that I can’t get bird food deliveries.
Keep training and stay safe,
Carol
