Moving Internationally With Your Dog
What does it take to get there?
Cat Ballou and Betty at El Miro, an abandoned mountain mansion.
When she relocated from Tucson to Costa Rica with her dog Betty, Cat Ballou was already familiar with coexistence with snakes, spiders and poisonous frogs. But there was something that living in the Sonoran Desert hadn’t prepared her for — two-foot long Iguanas sunning themselves in her front yard most afternoons. The issue wasn’t with her, it was with Betty.
Although Iguanas live in trees, they really like hanging out in the drainage pipes near Ballou’s condo during the warmth of the day, and Betty has been endlessly interested in them from day one.
“Graciously, they’re usually very docile,” Ballou commented, “but they can attack if they feel threatened. They can bite.” The concern isn’t so much the bite itself, since Iguanas are herbivores, but they do frequently carry Salmonella which can cause nasty infections, usually around the mouth and eyes. Ballou keeps a close eye on Betty, and there haven’t been any incidents.
All in all, since they arrived in Jaco several months ago things have been going quite well. Ballou is loving it, and Betty also thinks the move was a fine idea, because there’s so much to sniff and do.
It was the preparation ahead of time and the travel itself that were grueling.
“The biggest challenge was getting her in the carrier and her being okay with it. The better your dog is in a carrier, the easier it’s going to be,” advises Ballou. Five year-old Betty was not at all prepared for this. She wasn’t crate trained when Ballou rescued her at two years old, and Cat never had a reason to use one with her. So, “carrier boot camp” it was.
Ballou approached the challenge from several directions, and she started planning early. The process began with CBD, which would be the only medication used since Betty reacts badly to Trazadone (the standard medication for dogs traveling on an airplane). Experimenting to find the right dosage took about a week.
Next was finding the best carrier, and it had to be light enough to meet the airline requirement, which was 20 lbs. maximum, carrier and dog combined. She got the most comfortable one she could find with mesh sides and ends, and it was expandable in all four directions. It weighed 3.6 lbs.
Betty was going to have to lose three pounds. That was okay with Ballou, who says she was overweight and it wasn’t going to hurt her. Betty went on special food.
Crate training consisted of waiting for Betty to relax inside the carrier, then Ballou would try and simulate travel conditions. She’d move it around and push in on the sides. When not in use, it was always left it out where Betty could see it so it would seem familiar.
When the day came for them to fly, Balou held her breath as Betty weighed in like a jockey before the Kentucky Derby. They’d done it, with two tenths of a pound to spare! The total weight of carrier and dog was 19.8 lbs.
Next to getting Betty crate trained, Ballou says securing health certifications for the dog were the trickiest part of pre-travel preparations. Timelines for shots and checkups were specific and didn’t allow much leeway before the flight. Costa Rica doesn’t have any quarantine requirements, but they are strict about rabies certifications since they don’t have that disease in the country.
Ballou spent around $400 on vaccinations and exams, and $300 for Simperico, a required secondary heart worm medication. Betty’s flight cost $150 on American Airlines.
The flight was pretty hard on Betty, and therefore on her mom. By the second leg of the journey, Betty was highly anxious and there wasn’t much Ballou could do about it. When they finally arrived in San Jose, going through customs seemed to take forever and Betty was still in the carrier. At last, they made their way to a taxi only to find out that it’s Costa Rica law that dogs must be in carriers on public transportation. Fortunately, the kind-hearted driver took pity on the frantic little dog after twenty minutes and said it would be okay to let her out. Betty calmed right down as soon as she was in her moms lap. Ballou took that as a pretty good welcome to a new country.
A co-worker of Ballou’s also moved to Jaco around the same time, but her experience was dramatically different. Jenny’s dog is a 50 lb. Shepherd/Husky mix, and the rigors they went through make Ballou and Betty’s trip seem almost easygoing by comparison.
Since “Jessie had to fly in the belly of the plane”, as Ballou put it, that meant Jenny and her dog couldn’t even fly on the same plane together. Jenny hired a service called Pet Lounge based in San Jose, CA, that met the dog when she got to Miami, and boarded her overnight at their pet hotel. Jenny arrived in Miami hours later and even though both she and her dog flew out of Miami on the same flight the next morning, Jenny still wasn’t able to check in on Jessie in person.
The price for her 50 lb. dog to fly was $500, plus $2000 for the Pet Lounge service. Cat Ballou had nothing but rave reviews for it, though, and was glad to be able to hang out in their “impressively beautiful” lounge at the airport during their four-hour wait for Jenny’s dog to get through customs.
Happily, life has gotten a lot more relaxed for everyone now that they’re living La Pura Vida. Ballou is convinced that Betty and a friendly monkey recently had a meaningful conversation in the forest, and reports that Betty has made some friends among the beach dogs who are, for the most part, a friendly lot. “Mostly unneutered,” she says. “You see a lot of dog balls.”
Ballou’s only complaint after making her way to a new country? People leaving too many chicken bones on the beach. Really, that’s it.
Betty’s big complaint?
“Every time I’m about to slay a dragon in the yard, my mom comes out and drags me away! She is obviously in their service. One day though … “
An Iguana blinks back at her, unconcerned.
https://www.travelnuity.com/pet-passport/
Thank you for the information. I am so close to moving from this country but have animals to worry about.