Importing dogs.. HELP!

[newpuppymum]

Hi there!
My partner is from Scotland, and his sister has a lovely Bavarian Mountain Hound. She recently bred it, and we have decided to import a puppy. The puppies are due in just under two weeks, and we would look at importing the puppy at 10-11 weeks, which would be sometime after December 14.

Obviously, flying a puppy at this age is not ideal... but he is desperate for this breed.

We have done a lot of research regarding what needs to be done with paperwork/vet/etc in order to bring the puppy into Canada. We are, however, having trouble with organizing the transportation!

I would LOVE some help from anyone who has maybe imported/exported a dog or animal before. The puppy will be in Edinburgh, but the breeders have said that they can get it to Heathrow airport if necessary.

After researching airlines, we decided that British Airways looks like the best option as they have a designated pet area at the airport, and staff who are trained specifically to deal with the animals. We want this to be as easy for the puppy as possible (I know.. it's still going to be traumatizing ). I had started looking into IAG Cargo, who work with British Airways, and it is proving to be very difficult! We first tried calling British Airways, who told us we had to call IAG directly. So we called the IAG Vancouver branch, and they told us they had no idea, that we had to call the UK branches, but NO, they did not have a number to help us.

So we've looked into it more and it doesn't appear that IAG has a branch at Edinburgh... so I'm not even sure if we can get puppy from Edinburgh to Heathrow... unless we have the breeder drive the puppy down, which is a hassle for them and we don't really want to ask them to do that.

I can't figure out who I need to call at IAG so I tried emailing and am waiting for a response. I also contacted 10 UK based pet transport/export companies and am waiting for information from them. They are much more expensive, but they do this for a living and are experienced... so maybe the way to go. Also, they are easier to get information from!


Please, any and all information or help you can give me would be great.