Dogs Health Planning for your dog friendly road trip from Ireland to Europe

We had spent much of the year preparing for this road trip, having never done anything like this before. We had a long tick list and as it happened, planning was everything, particularly with dogs!

Your dog will need to be microchipped, vaccinated against rabies along with regular annual vaccinations and hold an EU pet passport. Check Government websites for travel with your pet and latest requirements for vaccinations. In Ireland https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/21d40-pet-travel/# gives information and links to other EU countries. Also http://www.pettravel.gov.ie/ .

Under EU regulations an EU pet passport is needed, this makes things quite easy as these are issued by your local vet. You should plan the detail with your vet, as timing is important from when your pet has been vaccinated for rabies in particular, to the travel date of your road trip.

Don’t forget there are also health checks to do on the return to Ireland from your dog-friendly road trip. Most likely you need a visit to the vet in your country of departure for a tapeworm treatment. We found any vet we contacted in France or Spain knew exactly what we needed. Plan this carefully as you need to have this completed within 1 to 5 days of arrival back to Ireland. This is a challenge, if like us you then find the Ferry is delayed due to bad weather!

All dogs must be microchipped, and these are checked at the ferry ports. You also need a muzzle for the ferry and some countries insist these are used when walking your dog. At the ferry port you are given a scanner to hold over your dog to reveal the microchip number which matches the details in the passport. We added photos of the dogs, so it made it easy for the port officials to send us through promptly! Not everyone does this and it got us a cheery smile every time.

Check your countries of destination in case of specific requirements and indeed if you plan to permanently live there. In Spain for example new legislation came into play on 29 September 2023 which is wide ranging and includes a requirement of dog owners to hold civil liability insurance for damages to third parties.