DON'T travel with your dog before watching THIS!

Hey guys, here's the second of the talks that I did at the NEC show, pre-recorded while I was practicing it, but obviously I can't release it until after the show for obvious reasons. But I hope you find it useful, if you have got any questions by all means drop them in the comments below and I'll do my very best to answer it. Right, pretend you are in the inspiration theatre of the NEC and let's get started. On stage, Cat Bird, she of Wandering Bird. Hello, welcome. As John was so kindly said, my name is Cat, I run the motorhome travel website Wandering Bird, but we're not here to talk about me for once, we are here to talk about him. This is Mac, he is a four-year-old, a Cocker Spaniel, a Welsh Cocker Spaniel apparently, although I really want to do one of those doggy DNA tests on him because I'm not entirely convinced he's as purebred as the Kennel Club breeder that we got him from says he is. But anyway, he is, like I say, four years old and we picked him up when we were actually in the motorhome. We picked him up on the way back from Norway, if you've seen my other talk at the NEC, my Norway talk, you'll know that it curtailed our trips quite significantly, but he was magic. We picked him up when he was about nine weeks old and we picked him up when he was in the van and as you can see here, he was perfectly at home from the very beginning, just hanging out and chilling out in the van. But what I want to share with you today are some tips and tricks for touring in Europe and also around the UK with your dog, because it does change the way that you travel. So if you want to get a summary of everything that I'm sharing with you today, you can head to wandering-bird.com forward slash NEC and there you'll find a link to our dog touring checklist and you'll also find lots of other tips and posts which will help you with all your motorhoming and campervanning. So let's get started with the important bit, which is taking your dog out of Britain and I'm very specifically using the term Britain, not the UK, because actually a lot of this stuff applies if you're going to Northern Ireland as well as just anywhere else in Europe or the EU. So the important things that you need to know when you are taking your dog out of Britain is that obviously they have to have their initial puppy jabs, all dogs have to have those, but in addition to those you have to have a microchip fitted. Top tips for that, make sure that the microchip is obviously kept up to date with your phone number and also your home address, but also if you co-own the dog with your spouse or anybody else, make sure that both of your names are on the microchip. We ran into a situation where my husband was in the motorhome with the dog and I'd actually booked onto the ferry in a car, but because my name was on the microchip they were really upset about the fact that the dog wasn't with the owner and it could be quite an issue, so make sure that you've got both of you actually on the microchip. Now the next thing, the important thing and possibly the only good change that's come from Brexit are the rabies vaccinations jabs. So you still have to have a rabies vaccination and you still have to have at least three weeks, so 21 clear days before you want to travel out of Britain, but they used to have a rabies test so you'd have to have the rabies vaccination and go back a few weeks later to make sure there were enough antibodies or whatever the term is in their system. That's gone, which is good because poor Mac, when he was obviously a puppy, we had him done at the youngest you can possibly get it done and then he was growing, he was growing so quickly, so when he came back for his test to make sure it all was enough in the system, there wasn't enough in the system because he was growing so fast still, so we had to have it, I think you had to have it three times in the end. So you don't have to do that now, it's just one rabies vaccination administered by a vet, make sure that they have given you the appropriate paperwork and they've stamped it with the correct date and all of that stuff, and then that's him done. They are, him or her, they are vaccinated against rabies, that's absolutely fine, as long as you wait three full weeks before you want to travel out, not a problem at all. You can of course get it done months and months, even years before you travel, just make sure you get any boosters or top-ups required done in the appropriate time. So once you've got the microchip and you've got the rabies vaccination, the only thing you now need to do once you've booked your holiday, is book to get an animal health certificate done, assuming you do not have a EU pet passport, and we'll talk about that shortly. But all you need to do is go to an approved vet, now not every vet can administer an animal health certificate, only certain ones are, either can or are choosing to, but you go to the vet, you make sure that you have got your vaccination for your rabies with you, and obviously your microchip details, they'll scan the back of the neck and make sure that all the details are correct, and then they will issue you with a four page document, that is your animal health certificate. They will sign it and stamp it, make sure that the date's correct, and that has to be administered up to 10 days before you travel, so my recommendation is as soon as you have booked the tunnel or the ferry, however you're going to be leaving Britain, make sure that you then book in the vet appointment, so that that all goes to hand. That will take you about 10 to 15 minutes in the appointment, and it will cost you the lovely sum of around £100, £110 per dog, it's wonderful this system. That animal health certificate is now valid for four months, which is hysterical because your vet can now stay in the EU longer than you can, but very important, as soon as you have crossed back into Britain, that animal health certificate is now null and void, you have to get a whole new one once you want to leave Britain again. So even if you want to go back and forth from Britain to Europe or Northern Ireland, over and over again in the four month period, you have to get a new one every single time, and yes, that will cost you £100 every single time. It's crackers, but unfortunately those are the rules as they stand. Also if you are going straight out of Britain to either Ireland or Northern Ireland, you need to have a tapeworm treatment administered by an appropriate vet one to five days before you travel, before you cross the border. So a lot of vets will let you do that at the same time as administering the animal health certificate, but obviously if you need that, you need to let them know at the time of booking that you need an animal health certificate and you need a tapeworm treatment doing because you're going to Ireland. You also need it if you're going to Norway or Finland or Malta, but I fail to see how you're going to get there directly from Britain in your motorhome or your campervan. Of course if you're flying with your pet, that's a whole other system, but obviously we're talking about travelling and campervanning and all the rest of the things. So yeah, I don't think that's going to apply to you, but Ireland and Northern Ireland most definitely will, so bear that in mind. Right, a couple of ways that you can actually get out of Britain into either Ireland or the rest of the EU. You can either take a tunnel or you can take a ferry and there are pros and cons to both. If we are going anywhere other than sort of the south, southwest of France or Spain, we would take the tunnel because it is so quick and it's so convenient for having a dog or a pet with you because you don't really leave them. You're in the vehicle with them all the time, so they are not stressed, it's perfectly calm and it's just so quick. The whole underground bit certainly doesn't save my dog at all. So all you do then is you rock up at the pet reception, you have all your paperwork, you hand it all over, they scan the microchip, check that it's the right dog and on you go. It's really, really simple and I think it costs about £20 per dog each way. It's not that much more extra to take them with you on the tunnel. Of course if you live in Cornwall or Wales and you are going to the west coast of France or Brittany or anywhere like that, it's a heck of a long drive to go via the tunnel, so you might choose to take the ferry. And of course if you're going to Ireland, it's in totally the wrong direction anyway, you don't really have that option. So ferries are a little bit more complicated once you are taking a dog with you. Same process of checking in, you'll go to the reception, some of them even do it at the actual check-in desk. You just have to have the little microchip, hold a thing, read over it and that's it. But once they are on board or getting on board, there are a couple of options that you might want to look into. Our preferred option is getting a pet-friendly cabin, so I know from Portsmouth to Caen, that route, one of the ships has pet-friendly cabins on there. So if we're going to France, we often choose to do that on the overnight crossing and he can actually come into the cabin with us. Now he does have to wear a muzzle to get from the car or the motorhome into the cabin, which as you can see he hates, he's already tried to scratch it off, that strap's supposed to be in the middle of his head and it's most definitely not. But it then means that he can have his late night wee before we actually get on the ferry and he doesn't need another one then until we get off the ferry. It will mean you having to stop just off the ferry, or probably within half an hour or so, because most dogs will need some sort of toilet stop at that point. But actually being on the ferry, he doesn't need to leave the cabin. I know some dogs need to go potty in the middle of the night and there is a place on the ferry for them to do that if you have got a pet friendly cabin. If you can't get a route or pet friendly cabin, or the route that you're on doesn't have one, they will have to stay in the vehicle. Now a few times that we've done this with Mac, he's been absolutely fine in the motorhome because it's big enough for him to walk around, to laze out, he's got plenty of places that he can go to sleep and actually every time we've done it, he's been curled up in the driver's seat just waiting for us to come back. And he's been fired a couple of times, we've scared the heck out of him because he's been that fast asleep that he didn't even hear us come back and we're peering through the window with him, it's quite funny. In the car it makes me a little bit more anxious. Every time I've done it, I've put the back seats down, I've left him some water, I've not left him any food and he's been again okay. I personally makes me more anxious doing that with him because I don't feel there's enough space for him to move around. He's been fine and plenty of people do it with your dog, so you need to do what's right for you and you don't always get a chance. The few times I've travelled back and I've had a car and not motorhome, we've normally had to come back for some sort of an emergency or we've normally had to go to Europe for some sort of an emergency and I've just had to go and he's just had to put up with whatever we do. But my preferred option is either getting a pet cabin or obviously leaving him in the motorhome because he's got lots more space. But those are the options that you've got to take your pet out. A question I get asked all the time, so let me address this while I can, is if you're taking food with you, can you take dog food from Britain into the rest of Europe? Now the rules as quoted by the government is that any meat products or any meat derivatives of food are no longer allowed. So if you feed your dog raw, no absolutely not, not gonna happen. If you feed your dog wet dog food, if you really really really don't want to have to buy dog food over in Europe, you could try taking a couple of tins and if they get confiscated they get confiscated. I certainly wouldn't travel with two weeks worth of wet dog food. Luckily we have convinced Mac that kibble is the best thing in the world and we actually have a kibble that has little bits of chicken or whatever it is just made in their little pellets and we've traveled back and forth with that. Because it's dry food nobody has battered an eyelid, nobody has cared, even when they have checked. And they don't check all the time but of course they might. So that's our experience. There are plenty of places in Europe that will sell dog food. Now I have found in France they don't seem to have big pet stores like Pets at Home or Jolly's, many others are available, that we have in the UK. But what they do have is you can go to the big supermarkets, say Carrefour, Intermarché in France, but also go to like the Bricomarché, so like the B&Q places and often you'll find they have a pet section in there where they have quite a nice variety of pet food. So you can get plenty of places that will sell you pet food. If you have to have a very specific brand for your pet's dietary requirements, the can actually issue a letter saying that the pet has to be on this particular brand of food and you can take the appropriate amount for your journey for your dog. We've obviously never had to do that so I don't know how it works but apparently that's what you can do if you have to have it for dietary reasons. Securing them whilst you are traveling. Now aww doesn't he look cute? He's not like cute anymore. When he was very very young we had him in this tiny little crate and he was nestled between our seats and he was quite happy in there because he could see us and we could see him and he generally spent most of the trip fast asleep like this. I'll be honest that sleeping position hasn't changed very much. This was him quite recently. Now we're not actually moving at the time because normally when we're moving my daughter moves over a seat and he moves back where she's sitting now, but you can see we've got him in a harness. I always recommend a harness not attached to the collar and then we have two ways of securing him depending on what seat he's in. He's either got a little seat belt attachment, so he plugs into the seat belt right in the far corner there, which means that he can get up, he can sit up, he can look out the window, he can turn around, but he can't actually move or jump off the seat or do anything and if we needed to brake suddenly he's actually quite well secured. If he is in the front passenger seat with me and I'm driving the motorhome, what I tend to do is have a one that goes around the headrest and that's quite good again because he can move around. It gives him a bit of flexibility but he can't jump off the seat so he stays where he is, but he can sit up and look out the window which he quite likes to do. So for him that works really well. We did have him in a metal crate for a long time, that was we transitioned from a fabric crate to a metal crate. The problem with that is it took up so much space in the van and then it rattled when we were driving and it was just a bit of a pain in the backside frankly. So we have trained him to not need a crate because we haven't got small children and he doesn't need his own space, he basically sleeps wherever the heck he likes. You might need to do something different for your dog and of course work out whatever works for you. Another way that some people secure their dogs, if they've got bigger dogs than ours, is they put the hook and eyes in the floor and again that stops them moving too far but it means they can go and get their water or whatever they need to do whilst you are traveling. A couple of quick tips just working through things that we have discovered after many years of touring with a dog. Even if you are not going on a ferry, make sure that you have packed a muzzle for them and make sure that if you are going to go on public transport anywhere in Europe, they generally need to wear a muzzle. So make sure that you get one of those cage ones, not one of the ones that wraps around the snout because it's easy for them to breathe and drink and pant and all the rest of the things that they do. Take a spare lead, I cannot tell you how many times we thought we lost his lead or it has got absolutely filthy and mucky or wet or whatever and then you have to walk around with this horrible disgusting lead. So make sure you have a spare lead. Again we have a harness for him if your dog travels in a crate make sure we've got a harness for when you're out and about in walks. And also make sure they've got a proper dog tag. So as well as the microchip make sure they have a proper tag that has got your surname on it and also it's got your UK phone number. So make sure you've got a plus 44 on there because that way if you are say in France and the dog gets lost they know that it's a UK number they're ringing so that they can get hold of you and say your dog is here come and find him. Carry his pet paperwork with you and treat it like his passport. I always keep his paperwork with our passport and it goes everywhere with us because I dread to think what would happen if we lost that. How we'd get him back into the UK or back into Britain without that would be difficult. Quick word on UK pet passports there is all sorts of things going around saying you can get a UK pet passport if you go to Europe and find a friendly vet. In our experience unless you have got an address over there that you can actually say is your house or second home or whatever it's really really hard to do now. There was a period where it was a lot easier but I believe they've clamped down on that. Also don't forget that if you do that your pet then becomes registered in that country so you will then have a French pet if you like which could have some implications with insurance and everything else. So do think very carefully and do your research into that before you go ahead with it. Question I always get asked as well is how often do I leave Mac in the vehicle? In an ideal world we would never ever ever ever ever leave him in a vehicle but I'm going to be honest with you of course we do especially when I'm traveling on my own it's just me and him in the van. Now if it is warm we tend to avoid like the south of Spain or Italy in the middle of summer. It's too warm for me let alone for him but if you know we were in Germany the other month and it was really really baking hot we would not leave him in that. We will not leave him in that. That was quite good actually because we were touring at the time with our daughter so she was quite happy to stay it was too hot for her so she actually stayed a lot with the dog and we went off on the bikes but he also comes on the motorbike with us he has a little doggy backpack and it's all quite good fun. When I'm touring with him on my own of course I have to leave him when I go to pay for fuel and of course I have to leave him sort of half an hour 45 minutes when I go and do the shopping. What I don't tend to do when I'm on my own so much are visiting museums or castles although when I went to Scotland last month I was going to go around Balmoral Castle but it was about 15 16 degrees and I had heating and he was quite happy. If it had been 30 degrees it wouldn't have even been an option I just would not have been able to go around it. When there were two of you so we went to the Minton Lemon Festival down in the south of France if you haven't been yet that's epic they build these incredible sculptures and statues out of lemons and citrus fruit it's great good fun but of course dogs aren't allowed in because I'm sure they pee all over the citrus fruit so dogs aren't allowed into that full stop so what we actually did is my husband waited outside with him and I went in took some photos and then we swapped and that's something that you'll have to do if you travel with a dog it does affect the way that you travel and it will affect the freedom that you've got to go into various places together but that's definitely going to be based on the weather same applies well if you're going anywhere as cold if you're taking them skiing or whatever if it's really cold I'd be anxious leaving him for too so that's definitely definitely something to consider when you do take a dog traveling with you one thing that we have addressed recently is Matt got really really anxious after lockdown because of course we didn't travel for so long and then suddenly went back in the motorhome and I'm guessing but you know he's only four years old so he hadn't had that long traveling beforehand he kind of forgot and then he got used to his space and then suddenly we were out and moving again so a couple of things if you have got a dog who is anxious or isn't used to motorhome travel do lots of short trips um I would say an hour hour and a half absolute max and then stop somewhere fun so a country park or a walk or woods or somewhere where they can do what they love to do so Matt loves chasing a ball so we would always find woods or somewhere where he can go and he can run and he's finally got around to head especially after the month I've just spent in Scotland he was like there's beaches and there's woods and there's walks everywhere and he's come back from that like the motorhome is the best thing in the world but I did lots of shorter journeys and broke it up with really really good stops for him and I made that a priority because he was really anxious and nervous to start off with and now when I get in the van he's already in the passenger seat like right come on where are we going what good fun are we going so that's really helped the other thing I got that really helped was a calming collar and this was something that was recommended to me and I didn't want to give him like the calming spot on but I certainly don't want to give him any tablets or anything like that but the collar is literally just a collar that goes around you can cut it to size and it smells like lavender it smells amazing it was chilling me out it was just magic and it's got valerian valerian some form of smell thing and it doesn't work instantly you don't take it out and it's like oh they're chilled but it took about an hour and a half the first time and then suddenly he was sort of fast out on the seat I was like this is great the van shaking so it's really windy um and then the next time a little bit quicker and now I think the smell he's just like okay that's working quite well so I've just I literally just put it on him about 10-15 minutes before we're driving I take it off when we've stopped so he knows that we've stopped and I think he's associating that with okay driving time okay now I can chill now and I can play and I can do whatever so that's really helped so those are some tips for you dead quick one if you've got pet insurance and you are going to Europe of course if you're going for the first time check that it covers your pet in Europe it's amazing how many policies don't and if you've not traveled to Europe before you probably haven't even thought to check so make sure you do check that going back quickly to the subject of heat and if you're traveling anywhere hot or indeed traveling anywhere cold a couple of things that we found that really really help the best thing by miles are these cooling jackets so you you dampen them down just with cool water I put it in a little baggie put it in the fridge and it stays soft and wet and that way when he's been running around like a crazy dog because he's a spaniel and that's what he does you can then after you've washed him off or whatever put that on him and it just as you can see from the picture he just chills totally chilled it cools him right down that one's actually dried out but he was fast asleep so I'm sure as heck not gonna wake him up take it off him and we generally in really hot weather have two going so as he's wearing one one's already chilling in the fridge for the next time that he needs it they are really really good we do have a cool mat something about it he doesn't like I don't know whether it's the texture I've tried it with the towel over it he doesn't like it invariably I end up sitting it on it to encourage him to sit on it but he ends up sitting on my lap so I get a lovely cold bottom doesn't really work very effectively and if you are traveling anywhere really cold make sure that you've got a coat or a jumper or something for them because obviously that will help them when it is a bit chilly does anybody have a dog who does this anyone like anyone's dog likes water or sand or rolling in things that they really really shouldn't and you're looking at them with your head in your hands or swimming in beautiful places this is lake bled in Slovenia yeah very famous or just mud how do you deal with this when you live in a very very small van how do you deal with keeping yourself clean and dry when you live in a very very small van it's not easy I'm not gonna lie to you it is not easy but there are a couple of things that I found that really help the first one is getting a really good dog towel so we've got a massive one that wraps around him you can also get the ones with the zip up that's basically like a bag and it puts it all in him and they're brilliant they've got one of them and he's now got used to after walk we sit on the steps and we dry and he watches that and that's just part of the routine after he's had a little shower talking of which showers are essential if you have an outdoor shower on your van you lucky lucky person I am so jealous I don't never have none of our motorhomes have had an outdoor shower we used to have a jerry can that had a little shower attachment and that was fine but a that was our drinking water that we were then using but also it was always cold so this year I have discovered a mud daddy I'm sure there are many many other brands as well and that's a little container with a shower attachment it's also got a little foot bit so you can clean off their paws but you can put warm not boiling but warm water into it proper shaking you can put warm water into it which in turn makes it a lot nicer for them when you're washing off like if my dog goes in the sea all the time I want to get all that salt water off him so that really helps having a shower it's also brilliant for muddy boots so that for yourself really helps get a decent hoover either the 12 volt one the one that can pick up dog hair or my hair can also pick up sand and dirt and stones and all the rest of the stuff that dogs bring into the vehicle really useful and the other thing I highly highly recommend you do is getting a cover for your bed if your bed is up frequently if you don't get a cover for your bed this is going to happen and you're going to end up with a soggy pillow and a dog who refuses to move because he's made a nice little wet patch on his pillow and he's quite happy so yeah that's a good top tip there get another bed sheet or something that you can spread over to stop it being dirty I have not yet found any solution to the zoomies if anybody has has a solution to the zoomies in a motorhome or a camper van by all means please share them with me because all I can do is laugh and then film it so he ends up on instagram quite a lot with that just to bring this full circle once you have been to Europe and you want to come back to Great Britain remember that you do need a tapeworm treatment so that has to be administered by a vet in Europe one to five days before you're getting to the border now it's not as terrifying as it sounds it is as simple as finding a vet so you can use google finding a vet and then I tend to well you can phone up in advance if your French or whatever language you are in is good enough to try it um my French probably is now any other language I wouldn't have a cat in hell chance so I tend to go in with a dog in one hand and his paperwork in the other hand and sort of sheepishly pass them over and go England and they look at me a bit weird and I try to remember what England is in the language I'm in google that first and then they will get it they know exactly what to do you will not be the first person to come into that that vet and ask for the tapeworm treatment if you are going anywhere near the French border so up in the north of France near the ferry or the tunnel all of those vets know exactly what they're doing they are slick as heck and they can fit you in in five minutes between appointments sometimes they can't fit you in for a few hours or they've got an emergency until they'll ask you to come back that's fine just get a note of the time ask them to write it and then you'll know exactly when you are due back but it's not it's not as scary as it sounds I promise if you are coming directly from Ireland or Northern Ireland you do not need a tapeworm because obviously you've already had one to go out there also applies if you're coming back directly from Malta Finland or Norway but again I fail to see how you're going to do that with your motorhome but those are the rules to get back in so I know I have just thrown a ridiculous amount of information at you if you want to get your dog touring checklist you can grab that at wandering-bird.com forward slash NEC and if you want to follow me and let's face it want to follow Mac on Instagram on Facebook we've also got the Wandering Bird Facebook group which you are very very welcome to join and you can also join our newsletter and you will find the sign up link for that at wandering-bird.com I hope you found that useful if you did a thumbs up is always very much appreciated and if you'd like more videos about motorhoming or campfanning with a dog or just in general then by all means hit subscribe thank you for your time and I'll see you on the next video bye