Dogs & Other Pets

Pets: Pets, including dogs, are welcome provided they are house trained and do not chew furniture and furnishings. We took our chocolate Labrador and she had a great time swimming in the sea and playing in the national park. The Spanish are friendly towards pet dogs, although less tolerant towards strays. There appears to be no problem taking them to restaurants provided you eat in the outside area - which is probably where you want to be anyway. There is a vets locally and it is advisable to get a "tick" collar to protect against sand ticks. If staying for more than 2 months an injection may be a cheaper option.
The collar sold to us was Scalibor brand - more info at www.sin-mosquitos.com they say (roughly translated):
"Scalibor ® Collar protects your dog against flebotomos, ticks over 6 months. The flebotomo is a mosquito that transmits a parasite called leishmania
The leishmania cause a disease called leishmaniasis in dogs. It is a disease with no cure and the best solution is prevention with Scalibor necklace"

Pet Passport - taking & bringing back your pet:Full information is provided by DEFRA (http://www.defra.gov.uk)

THE INFO BELOW IS A GUIDE ONLY PLEASE CHECK WITH DEFRA OR YOUR VET

A useful document is eufactsheet3_050907 (http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/factsheet/eufactsheet3_050907.pdf)

Your local vet will provide a passport for your pet (dog in our case) but you need to start the process 6 months before going.

This involves:
Getting the dog micro-chipped
Vaccinated against Rabies
Get a blood test completed
You will not be able to bring your pet back into the UK under the Scheme until 6 calendar months have passed from the date that the blood sample was taken that gave a satisfactory result.
Get the passport filled in correctly - check the microchip number is written down correctly (check the 0's); ensure any alterations are signed (and preferably stamped according to an insider at port customs). If your Vet gets this wrong you may have to leave your dog in quarantine.

If your dog has normal flea and worming medication it might be helpful to take a record with you but it is not needed on the passport and not a substitute for procedure below.

IMPORTANT even if recently 'ticked and wormed' before leaving UK or while abroad it MUST be 'ticked and wormed' again by a vet between 24 & 48 hours before leaving the foreign port when returning to England. The vet will need to complete:
Section VI - Tick Treatment (we took FRONTLINE and the vet administered it)
Section VII - Echinococcus Treatment Tape Worm (French Vet administered their own brand but I think DRONTAL is approved if you want to take your own)
NOTE only a few of these treatments are approved by DEFRA please check with your vet for current information

Vets Abroad
You will need to find a vet to treat your dog between 24 & 48 hours before returning across the channel.

Vets In France is part of a list I found last year (but cannot now find the original web site). We used Bernay as our stopping point and split the final leg of our return to Calais into 2 half days to accommodate the Vets visit

Info on other Vets in Europe snapshot of posting on the www.britishexpats.com forum

Dangerous Animals (including Dogs) New legislation in Spain identifies the following as dangerous:

Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Rottweiler, Argentine Dogo, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu and Akita Inu) and Adalucia has added the Doberman.
Click the link above for the full article

SORRY: WE WILL NOT PERMIT DANGEROUS DOGS AS SPECIFIED HERE OR UNDER UK LEGISLATION TO USE THE APARTMENT