The process is complicated with a series of injections and blood tests which all have to be in a specific order and within differing times ahead of his departure. Then there is the flight, the import permit and quarantine to be arranged.
We decided this was too much to take on along with everything else we had to think about so we chose to go through an agent.
Airpets seemed to be the biggest and I have not regretted the decision to use them. Even with their guidance, we managed to miss a blood test so Monty had to stay in Airpets kennels for two weeks after we left.
It cost £2300 at the time of writing (2014) for Airpets to arrange the flight and import licences. They gave us a list of injections and blood tests and timescales to follow but we had to organise these through our own vet which is an additional cost each time.
We also had to organise the quarantine, which is only for 10 days now and costs a further £1000. This was the trickiest part because we were in the middle of Airpets saying we can book him on X flight on X date and the quarantine centre (who take 5 days to reply to every email) saying they do not have a place on that date but have one on another....then back to Airpets who have to book him on a different flight and so it goes on! I don't know why Airpets cannot do that part, it would be much easier if they did.
In the end there was not a place in the Sydney quarantine centre because December is their busiest time and Monty had to fly to Melbourne which involved flying with Emirates via Dubai, and additional cost of £90 because the dogs are taken out of their crates and exercised during the 8 hour stop, I didn't mind this because it would have made the journey a bit less distressing for Monty.
We finally set off for Melbourne on Friday 12th December as Monty's release date was Sunday and it's a long way! Stopped in Albury for the night then pushed on down to Melbourne the next day because there is only a one hour slot to collect your dog so we wanted to be sure we knew where it was. Thank goodness we did! It was in a bit of a grotty area called Spotwood and hidden behind the science museum.
Once we had found it we camped for the night in Werribee and drove back to Spotwood in the morning. We got there ridiculously early but decided to see if they would let him out as we had a 12 hour drive ahead. The woman there was really helpful and said we could take him straight away.
Monty was very excited to see us and far less stressed than I imagined. He had been eating well, which was a bit of a surprise because he will often refuse food, and seemed none the worse for his adventure.
He has settled in well to life in the caravan and, as far as we can tell, does not appear to hold a grudge.
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