Boarding for pets prior to shipping?

Hi,

We're planning on shipping our chocolate lab over to Perth at some point next year. Ideally we'd like to board him with whichever pet shipping company we go with before his initial flights over to Melbourne (I think that's the only quarantine open in 2016?). The reason for this is that we know our first few weeks in Perth will be busy, staying in a short-term rental, organising a long-term rental, sorting out jobs, furniture shopping etc, so it might be better for our dog to delay joining us until we're in our long-term rental. We'd be looking for a boarding kennel/pet shipping agency who would be able to do all the last minute preparations, like pre-flight checks, worming etc.

Has anyone on here made a similar arrangement? If so, who did you go with? Did your dog have to travel far within the UK to get to the kennels? We're based in Scotland, so a drive to Heathrow would be a long trip for him!

Thanks in advance - sorting out our dog is the most stressful and emotional part of this process!

You have posts in the PetAir forum, so I won't say too much and wil leave it for Bob. But yes it is extremely common to board the pet before shipping them, we have on each of our four international moves and all of our shippers have offered that service.

Brilliant, thanks Bungo. Sorry, still getting used to the forum and where to put threads. I'm not sure how to move my thread so will need to leave it here!

Hi Chatterbox,

Many thanks for your message. We can certainly board pets for as long as needed. Because of the prep required for Aussie we've had several pets stay with us over 6 months.

Whoever you decide to use for shipping please do get in touch with an agent as soon as possible and let them know what you need - as per your message above.

Let us know if we can help!

Best,

Hi Bob,

Sorry, I've just noticed your reply - thanks very much. We've already contacted your company and the quote looks good. We can't commit to anything though until our visa is through (waiting, waiting, waiting!).

Can I ask you two other quick questions please to help us prepare?

1. If we went with PetAir, would the idea be that one of your people would pick him up from Scotland and drive him down to your headquarters? Where are you based?

2. I've heard that dogs are only fed once a day in Australian quarantine. We feed ours twice a day and are therefore thinking of gradually weaning him to once a day. Do you know whether it's a morning or evening meal? We just want to help him with the transition as much as we can (but probably seem like fussing parents!).

Thanks!

Hi

There are many options now with the quarantine moving to Melbourne, we can fly pets out of Scotland with Emirates to Melbourne or bring them down to Heathrow.

We can arrange pre flight boarding and often do, but they do have 10 days quarantine the other side so factor that in to your plans.

I was under the impression they got fed twice per day at 8 and 4pm, but if it is once then it will be in the morning. You can check on the http://www.agriculture.gov.au/cats-dogs

Thanks Bob!

I looked up the website your referred to and it is indeed once a day - I guess we should start weaning!

"

• Your animal will be fed a high quality, nutritionally balanced commercial dry food, once daily during their stay (unless veterinary advice states multiple feeds are required)."