Your pet may be an important member of your family and you may wish to take your pet with you when you travel. If you intend to travel to a foreign country, you must take steps to know about various requirements of the destination country for travelers traveling with their pets. You won't be allowed to travel with your pet, if you don't adhere to the provided guidelines. Dog health certificate from a licensed veterinarian is a mandatory requirement to take your pet with you when you travel in a train or flight and cross country borders. This certificate will ensure that your dog does not have any infectious disease and that it can handle traveling stress.
You should approach your vet to get a certificate for your dog ensuring that your pet does not suffer from any serious illness. For interstate and international trips, make sure that your vet gives you an appropriate certificate. Different states and different countries have different pet health certificate requirements and you should be aware of the local laws. Otherwise, your pet will be isolated from you for complete inspection or quarantine.
Cat Dog Pet
Normally, dogs must get health certificate at least 10 days prior to traveling. Older health certificates will not be valid even though different states have different requirements. The health certificate will contain information about vaccination shots given for the dog along with the health conditions of the dog. However, health certificate will not ensure that your pet has good general health. Most of the states in the United States require dogs to be given rabies vaccination shot 30 days prior to travel. This does not apply for puppies less than 6 months old since they don't have rabies threat according to US public health service.
Some airlines don't allow your dog to be shipped as baggage, however, you can have the dog shipped as cargo. Along with the certificate, name and address of the shipper must be mentioned. Age and pregnancy status of the pet should also be specified in the health certificate. The pet owner must also state that the pet is acclimated to lower temperatures not lower than 20 degree F if the pet is carried in winter. To ensure that your pet doesn't suffer during traveling, call the destination embassy well ahead of travel to know the current laws about dog health certificate requirements.
Dog Health Certificate to Travel With Your Pet