Traveling

Traveling with the dog

It does not matter if it’s a short distance, or long international flights. Whether it’s a 4-month-old puppy or an adult dog, there comes a time that your AmStaff will make a trip. There are different rules for each country, both for puppies as for older dogs.

Because we are always on the road with our dogs, national as well as international, we will give you some practical advice which might be helpful for you in the future.

First of all, we think it’s really important to give your dog a structured and good bench training. You and your dog will benefit from this a lot in the future. To begin with, there are two important points that you should take in mind:

First, association with the bench must always be positive (so never punish the dog while it is in its bench, or put your dog in the bench as a punishment).
Secondly, you must be patience and take it all step by step.

As soon as the dog is bench trained, it will experience significantly less stress during the trips. Initially, our experience was to use only a bench of the brand Varikennel, which may be more expensive than a lot of it´s cheap Chinese copies, but their quality is unmatched. Meanwhile, there are now “impact proof crates” on the market, and we consider them as the Rolls Royce under the benches.

If you are planning to go abroad with your AmStaff, please advise yourself before traveling what the legislation is in the country of destination. Because we have a breed that is seen as a “dangerous” breed in many countries, these countries may have additional requirements and rules regarding travel or transit.

Because we travel a lot to and from Spain with our dogs, we know as a fact that for example here you will need an insurance obligation for our type of dog, as well as the dog must be muzzled, a leash no longer than 1 meter and a number of other obligations which you have to keep in mind if you don’t want to be in trouble with the law.

It goes without saying that you should always be “up to date” with your veterinarian visit, which means, that the dogs must have had the required vaccinations. Also ensure that these vaccinations have not expired. Check this on time in your dog’s passport, you will not be the first one that will be refused to check in the dog at the airport.

Also keep in mind that certain vaccinations have an incubation period. Which means, getting a vaccination 1 day before traveling can often be too late. Whether it’s a long or a short trip, we always make sure that we take the dogs international animal passport.

Practical tips

• Whether it’s a car ride of 2 hours or a 5-hour flight, never give the dog a meal just before traveling.
• Let the dog do its needs before putting him in the bench for a long time.
• Make sure you always have poo bags with you, this to remove your dog’s stool from the bench or anywhere else.
• We always put a blanket in the bench that has the smell of the dog or kennel on it, so the dog will feel more comfortable when it’s on a longer journey.
• Perhaps most important of all, in pretty “normal” conditions our AmStaff can survive 3 weeks without eating, 3 days without drinking any water, but 3 minutes without oxygen will be fatal to them!
  Just ensure that there is sufficient ventilation for dogs at all times and do not leave them in a car on hot days!

If there are any specific questions, you can always contact us.