Fly my dog over - Page 2

It's The Woofington Express. I found them via recommendation on FaceBook. They're an English speaking couple based in Murcia and transport from the UK and Ireland. I obviously haven't used their services yet but they're good at responding to emails. 

We have paid a 50% deposit to reserve the travel dates for our dog, which is refundable until (I think) a month before he travels. They also advise on the regulatory requirements, such as vaccinations etc. 

https://thewoofingtonexpress.com/ 

Have you considered driving down? If your circumstances allow, it’s a great way to come down and bring your dog with you. We drive down twice a year making the most of 90 days. Our dog now has an eu pet passport which is a fraction of the cost of getting a uk health certificate.

We use the Chunnel and book nothing before each day. Booking.com never lets us down and the journey is more of an adventure.

We are never short of excellent hotels that are pet friendly and our dog sleeps most of the drive and is I’m sure less stressed than being transported by strangers.

Our dog usually has a great time with my son while we're away, but we fancied a longer break, which was why we started looking into this.  

You make the journey sound like a great adventure and we certainly have considered it! However, on balance, there seemed to be too many factors against for this first time. 

These included that we live in the North of England which adds considerably to our travel time, that any challenging journey tends to result in a lot of - shall I say - 'friction' between us, and that we are now used to driving our left-hand drive car in Spain and I feared that bringing our UK car over would be disorientating. 

I realise these reasons are about us, but our precious pooch loves everyone and is still young and adaptable in temperament. He's used to being crated in a van with his dog walker (albeit for far less time), loves other dogs and the reviews from other dog owners are really reassuring. The pet transport companies are also familiar with the best routes and focused on delivering your pet efficiently. 

As we can cancel up to a month before travel, we can obviously keep all options under review. 

Hi Lish

Yes, we made the permanent move out here back in 2021 and after much deliberation we decided to fly our 3 dogs out. We used LadyHaye Pet Travel Services based in the UK and the service was amazing from start to end. They have consistent 5-star reviews on TrustPilot and hence why we decided to use them.

Their job is transporting pets all around the world as far as Australia and Canada etc etc. They do this day-in & day-out and therefore they know their stuff. Trust me when it came to the paperwork, they ran rings around our local vet who thought he knew best but as it transpired, had I not listened to LadyHaye, there would have been a real danger of the dogs not being accepted by customs in Spain. I had 100% confidence in them throughout.

We lived in the north of England and originally it looked as though there may be an option to fly from Manchester with TUI but this was post-covid era and TUI ultimately couldn't commit to its schedule so we ended up going British Airways from Heathrow to Malaga. LadyHaye do offer a home pick-up service but I had specified that I wanted to be on the same flight as the dogs so we all drove down to Heathrow together. 

LadyHaye had already sent me the transport crates a couple of weeks before so we were able to get the dogs used to being in them which was great. I met their rep at the Heathrow Cargo terminal and because of their diligence in doing all of the paperwork up front, the handover was straight forward (apart from the emosh bit...say no more). I then went to the main terminal and checked myself in and got on the flight whereby naturally I had a word with the cabin crew to tell them I had precious cargo on board. The message came back from the Captain that he was aware of his special guests and that he would be keeping an eye on things throughout (on BA there is a specialist hold area for animals that has CCTV). The flight was great and then at Malaga it was a quick nip around to the cargo agents (again LadyHaye had already arranged this and provided full details & instructions) who then escorted us through to Customs...and after signing what seemed like a million forms (prob about 10 realistically but when you're desperate to be reunited it seems like ages) we were taken through to a holding area where there were our 3 boys were just snoozing in their crates. But of course then that was the best reunion ever. Then a 3 hour drive then up from Malaga to Mojácar and the rest is history. They were absolutely fine and are now living their best lives out here.

I know it's a difficult decision and there will be lots of opinions etc but I can offer you our experience. A couple of years ago it was approx £1600 in total for the 3 (they're Bichons so small etc) but naturally it all depends on airline, crate size, time of year etc etc 

If flying is still an option for you then I would wholeheartedly recommend giving them a call...ask to speak to Bex....what Bex doesn't know about the whole process of animal air transport and reuniting families and giving reassurance basically is not worth knowing. You'll see her name constantly appear in the reviews.

Hope that helps

Rich

Good morning 

thank you after reading your reply re dogs . Just a few questions please if you would be so kind . we’re planing to drive with two dogs next April and go 90 day 90 day . 
After getting off shuttle how far do you travel before you stay overnight.

What area do you stay in .we were planning to have two overnight stays .

Our place is in San Juan near Águilas 

How do we get the Eu passport 

Any other tips you could give us bring our first trip across by car .

Thank you speak soon 

Chris and Jan 

i drove down from Bilboe with 3 dogs stopped twice on the way to Cuevas del Almanzora for  dog comfort breaks and an hour for myself. 9 hour journey and happy dogs. I was very tired! 

You might be able to find suggestions about the journey in previous posts on this forum. 

This should give some guidance on the paperwork for your dogs:

https://www.gov.uk/taking-your-pet-abroad/travelling-to-an-eu-country-or-northern-ireland 

Brittany ferries sail to Bilbao and it's an 8 hour drive from there and they have cabins that allow dogs

I think you ought to allow for more than 8 hours from Bilbao to San Juan de  Terreros if you want to stop every do often (coffees, food, loo stops and excercising dog).  12 hours without rushing things would be fine.  

If you have an overnight stop and you have a pets, we usually opt for an Ibis or any of the other hotels in  the Accord chain, or else the B & B hotel chain.  They all have parking too and all are dog (or cat) friendly from what I'm told.

Hi Rich

Thank you very much for this information, from the sound of your experience I will definitely look at this as an option and for a price . Hope you and your family (dogs) are having a happy life , we can't wait to get ours over .

Lish