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

Thu Jan 20 13:43:34 UTC 2011

Interesting, I never realized how complicated it would be. Could you put 
something like that on an expense account or otherwise charge your employer 
as a travel expense? I thought it would be easier to travel to Canada and 
Hawaii. I am just interested as an academic exercise I respect the decision 
to leave the guide dog at home.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] what do you do with your dog when you go away?

> 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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