Our Portugal

Welcome to 'Our Portugal' | Bem-vindo ao 'Nosso Portugal'

This part of our website is dedicated to giving you the information that you need if you are considering moving to, or have already moved to, Portugal. We have some essential facts, hints, and tips plus a collection of personal experiences on Our Portugal Blog, where you can contribute your own stories or tips.

Bringing Your Dog or Cat to Portugal

Pet passport
Supplied for your pet and linked to a tiny microchip placed under the skin by a vet. Strictly speaking a pet passport is not required for the permanent export of a dog. It does however make taking the dog back to the UK or on holiday to other countries that much easier.

Airline pet carrier services
Airlines work with specialist companies who have the airline approved transport crates vehicles and trained staff to look after your pet in transit. They will normally collect your pet the day before and transport it to a holding centre before it is taken to the airport and put in the hold of the plane on a flight to your destination. Having lost more baggage that I care to remember I can't quite bring myself to use airline animal transport. Many people do however and are happy with the service, even horses are carried by air these days.

You will need a contact here in Portugal who will accept the cat or dog should you not arrive on time yourself. Once you arrive possibly on a different flight you go to the animal holding centre fill in a coupe of forms and take your pet to its new home in Portugal.

Bringing the pet yourself by air
This is entirely possible, you will have to arrange with the airline that you intend to travel with (Ryanair do not offer an animal transport service). Take the pet well in advance to the airlines animal holding centre. You will have to provide a correct sized (air transport approved) dog carry case, food for the journey, inoculations, full medical examination certificate and a pet passport.

You will need a contact here in Portugal who will accept the cat or dog should you not arrive on time yourself or the pet not be loaded on the plane that you are travelling on.

Overland Transport
Services are available, but you will have to provide a correct sized dog carry case, food for the journey, inoculations, full medical examination certificate and a pet passport.

If you are intending to drive over to Portugal and to save the drive time take one of the ferry services to France or Spain your pet will be put into onboard kennels and will not be allowed on the decks of the ship or to be kept in a car. All ferry websites have information regarding pet travel.

Once they are here
There are some potential problems in owning a dog in Portugal which if understood can be circumvented.

If you live in the countryside you will probably hear the local dogs talking (Barking) to each other throughout the night or loose dogs off hunting rabbits in the woods. This may cause your house dog to carry on in the same way resulting in sleepless nights for the whole family.

In some areas there is a kind of dog malaria **** which can effect imported dogs. There are remedies against this

I have met one couple who were very concerned about their pet falling down an unfenced well. I don't think that this is a real problem as most dogs are more aware of where they are putting their feet than humans. So long as the dog is not just left to roam it should come to no more harm than it would in a UK park.

Dog poisonings do happen in the countryside communities they are normally motivated by jealousy or as a kind of vendetta. Thankfully this practice tends to be only among the Portuguese villagers.

Taking Your Pet to Portugal

Find out how Graham decided to tackle the import problem, and how he got on, by visiting the post on Our Portugal Blog

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