[nagdu] what do you do with your dog when you go away?

Ginger Kutsch gingerKutsch at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 20 01:06:56 UTC 2011


Mark,

Good question. Several things need to be considered when making a
decision about international travel with your guide dog. Even if
import regulations allow entry, there are also importation costs,
access and safety issues, the health/temperament  of the dog and
planned activities  on the trip to think about.

For instance, when traveling to Germany, an international health
certificate is required. The certificate must be acquired within
a certain time frame and includes a trip to your vet to have your
dog examined and the certificate filled out. This can cost up to
as high as $200 depending on what your vet charges. The
certificate must then be signed by your state's USDA Vet. There
is a fee for this plus mailing costs - generally overnight costs
to the USDA office and back home to you. The health certificate
must be translated into German so there may be an extra fee for
that as well - not sure on how that works. Some countries are
more expensive than others. One of our grads who traveled to
Australia reported the cost for the dog to be about $1,000 after
all procedures were met.
 
There are also access laws to consider. Here in the US, we often
take our access rights for granted. Many  countries do not
provide all the protections we have and some countries have no
access laws at all. It is especially important to think about
potential access problems when traveling for business. 

Safety issues may include potential disease, water problems, and
even other dogs. When my husband and I traveled to Nassau, we had
to keep to the more heavily populated areas because of the number
of aggressive dog packs on the island.

Anyway, all that aside, many guide dog teams successfully travel
all over the world with no problems. There are very few places
where a guide dog from the US or Canada cannot go. Since I first
started working with The Seeing Eye in 2003, one of the biggest
changes I've noticed is the increase in international travel
including cruises. Last year we developed an international travel
mentor program where grads who have traveled to various countries
share their experiences, upon request,  with those grads planning
to make trips to the same location.  

HTH,

Ginger 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Mark J. Cadigan
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 2:24 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog
Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] what do you do with your dog when you go
away?

If you get the proper paperwork, why would you not be able to
take your dog on these trips?

----- Original Message -----
From: "GARY STEEVES" <rainshadowmusic at shaw.ca>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog
Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 2:19 PM
Subject: [nagdu] what do you do with your dog when you go away?


> Hello Everyone:
>
> As many of you may recall, I'm a fairly new dog guide handler.
Over the 
> next several months I must go away almost once a month. Bonn
germany for 5 
> days in February, Turkey in end of march for 8 or 9 days,
Montreal at the 
> end of april for 4 days and then a holiday to hawaii in May for
10 days.
>
> I'm curious what others do with their dogs when they can't take
them with 
> them?
>
> I have several options for many of these trips. The first one
is that 
> bogart stays at home and will just have to be at home alone
while Susan, 
> my girlfriend is at work. Her thought is that although he will
be stressed 
> with me gone and being at home alone for 8.5 hours, it will be
in his 
> familiar surroundings with his toys, our guinea pigs and my
smells (and 
> Susan of course0).
>
> Second option is my supervisor at work has offered to take him
for any/all 
> of these trips. She has two dogs at home and her husband stays
home all 
> day. He takes them out for a couple of walks a day and they
have a back 
> yard. Bogart really likes her which could be both good or bad.
>
>
> We have another friend who also have two dogs, a whipet and an
older lab, 
> with a back yard and  robert works from home most days.
>
> The last option which I am looking into now is if the local
guide dog 
> school, who my dog is not from, would offer any kenneling
services (for a 
> fee of course) or access to any of their puppy raisers who
would be 
> intersted in looking after bogart for some of these trips for a
fee as 
> well. My thought is this option, if possible, would best keep
bogart's 
> training at a reasonable  level. :)
>
> Do any of you have thoughts on what you think would be best.
I've left a 
> message for my trainers at my school as well to bounce these
options off 
> her too but the more thoughts I have I think the more I can
look at pros 
> and cons.
>
> Thanks
> Gary
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