Will my plan work? - pet passport/rabies booster question

[TonyEmm]

My dog was originally from Romania and has a Romanian (EU) passport.

We have had her 3 years & the rabies vaccination has therefore lapsed.

My plan is as follows:

Get rabies here at local vets & then Animal health certificate, 21 days before travel.

Travel to France on AHC, taking, but not showing, pet passport.

Then in France or Belgium (will either be OK, not decided on destination yet? ) get a rabies booster & get that entered in the passport (it will only be a few weeks after the first, so booster not due, but read they used to give booster after 21 days to be safe on the rabies antibody test, so should be safe).

As it will be the first one in the passport for a while, it will look like a 'first vaccine ' and she in theory wouldn't be able to travel back to UK for 21 days...

However, she will actually have had one 3 weeks earlier (in UK) , and we'll have the animal health certificate to show that, so we just don't show the pet passport at all this trip.

3 weeks later however, the passport will be valid (and for a year after the vaccine), so the following year we can travel using the passport & look to get a booster added - which ideally will be a 3 year booster, meaning we have 3 years before we'd HAVE to go back.

The only issue I see, is if the EU passport is already invalid due to not keeping up the rabies boosters (which appears to be the case with uk issued EU passports), but hopefully that isn't the case... if it is, it will mean paying out for a new eu passport.

Our dog is also Romanian with a Romanian passport, he’s 4, we’ve had him since about 4 months old.
Unfortunately, no British vet we found would enter vaccines in his passport, saying it was invalid since “B”.
He’s had all his vacs and boosters but on a new U.K. passport/document.

We’ve not had the opportunity since Covid to take him abroad but I know my brother takes his to Spain for 3 months every year…. Somehow, he got a Spanish passport for his!

 

[Jo001]

Somehow, he got a Spanish passport for his!

I have a Spanish passport for mine.

As said, it's only a record of rabies vaccination, nothing to do with nationality.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Just going through the process of getting our 2nd AHC for our trip in June/July. Cost £180 last year, but this time will 'only' be £140 as Sully doesn't need the rabies vaccination (valid for 3 yrs). Just searching for Vet surgeries in Germany or Netherlands for our return to UK.
Last year we took our own vet issued worming tab to France, prefer to keep with what she's used to rather than giving her something different. Easy to find an English speaking French Vet who was fine about that and ensured she took it in the his presence, not easy when the dog doesn't want it, but we got there!
I'm sure things could be so much easier!

Rather than putting Sully in a kennel on the Harwich to Hook ferry we booked a dog friendly cabin for our overnight crossing, she's not permitted to stay in the moho. She stayed in the van last year on the Dover/Calais ferry.

 

[Canalsman]

Just going through the process of getting our 2nd AHC for our trip in June/July. Cost £180 last year, but this time will 'only' be £140 as Sully doesn't need the rabies vaccination (valid for 3 yrs). Just searching for Vet surgeries in Germany or Netherlands for our return to UK.
Last year we took our own vet issued worming tab to France, prefer to keep with what she's used to rather than giving her something different. Easy to find an English speaking French Vet who was fine about that and ensured she took it in the his presence, not easy when the dog doesn't want it, but we got there!
I'm sure things could be so much easier!

Rather than putting Sully in a kennel on the Harwich to Hook ferry we booked a dog friendly cabin for our overnight crossing, she's not permitted to stay in the moho. She stayed in the van last year on the Dover/Calais ferry.

If you're going anywhere near Bruges consider getting Sully an EU pet passport.

More info here:

EU pet passports

I have just picked up on a thread on another forum on this topic. There is apparently no restriction thus far on Belgian vets issuing pet passports to non-residents. One especially helpful vet has been used by a number of Brits and she is based in Bruges: https://www.dierenartsderycke.be/...

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