The Wandering FamiLee

From pet passport requirements to how to handle stray dogs in Morocco, here’s all you need to know about travelling with dogs.

We have three lively springer spaniels who come everywhere with us. They are experienced travellers but we do come across hurdles from time to time.

Taking dogs into any country these days is a bit of a challenge, Especially now the Brexit Animal Health Certificate (AHC) process is in full swing (if you are a UK resident). Luckily, we have European pet passports for our dogs and their rabies vaccinations are kept up to date and consequently, their rabies TITRE test results are logged in the centre pages of their passports.

The paperwork

You can travel with a pet passport or an Animal Health Certificate (AHC).

Pet passports are the option we went for as we spend a lot of time in Europe. We have a fantastic vet in France that has helped us along the way. They’re hard to come by now unless you are applying for a long stay visa or come across a very helpful European vet.

The other option is an Animal Health Certificate which is completed by a UK vet but limits the amount of time you can travel before renewing the AHC in the UK. We’ll save the details of this for another blog.

For now, there are two routes:

Travelling with a European Pet Passport

So, your pet is microchipped, you have your pet passport and your rabies vaccinations are up-to-date. Thirty days after the rabies vaccination, a vet must undergo a TITRE test. Results will be logged in the pet passport. The next step is to get an Animal Health check, which you can get at any vet in mainland Europe i.e. Portugal or Spain for example. This is to state that your dogs has not had any contagious diseases in the last 6 weeks. You want to leave this until you’re close to crossing to Morocco as this is required within three days of travel. .

It’s worth noting that the TITRE test will be valid for the life of your dog as long as their rabies vaccinations are kept up to date.

Travelling with a UK Animal Health Certificate (AHC)

Here, you are given a AHC from a vet in the UK. It costs around £200 (depending on the vet) and allows you up to four months travel. Along with this you need to carry a separate copy of your rabies vaccination certificate and a separate copy of your rabies TITRE test results. Then follow the same process as above i.e get an Animal Health check, which you can get at any vet in mainland Europe, which states that your dog has not had any contagious diseases in the last 6 weeks. Again, leave this until you’re close to crossing to Morocco as it’s required within three days of travel.

Having said all this, and we did follow the regulations, checks can be sporadic and subject to change. This might depend on port of entry, how busy the port is on the day, the staff on duty and many other contributing factors.

Either way, we were greeted in both directions really warmly by border control, who loved to see the dogs, as well as the children.

A note from our crossing experience, the only border control interested in our pet documents were the Spanish customs officers who were keen to check the TITRE results.

When you get there

Whoop! You made it across, you stood in line for the never ending passport immigration queue on the ferry, and now you’re here! First stop, will probably be a loo break for your four legged friend and then to find somewhere to bed down for the night. Check out Park for Night for your first nights camping location.

Stray dogs and cats

Warning! Be prepared to fall in love. Gosh, there were so many dogs and puppies we fell in love with when in Morocco. From puppies to oldies, there are just so many beautiful dogs living their lives on the streets. We’re pleased to say that the overall condition and wellbeing of the strays is much better since we first started visiting Morocco 15 years ago. However, there are so many you would like to take home.

We were expecting some hassle. Having three dogs to manage is a lot anyway, let alone with gangs of strays all around. In general in the UK, most dogs can’s handle the energy of a springer spaniel, in Morocco they just think they are absolutely nuts. In reality, in the most part, strays are unassuming and if they want anything from you, in priority order is 1. affection 2. water 3. food. We’ll be honest, we often gave them all three. Whether that is the right or wrong thing to do can be saved for an in-person conversation.

The key things to remember about handling strays: If a dog is hassling you or your dog, you need only make a deep strong vocal noise to scare them away. At worst you only need pick up a stone. We often joke that Seb turns into The Hulk when a dog hassles any of ours – he literally grows tall and wide and makes a grrrrrr sound. That’s enough to frighten them away.

There are some towns and cities in Morocco where you will not see a single stray dog but you will always see plenty of stray cats. Cats are everywhere! They are generally hassle-free, doing their cat thing – hanging around in the sun. They can be very unpredictable and you do not want your dog to be scratched by one so keep dogs away from cats in Morocco. That’s a must.

Pesky Parasites

Mange, rabies, flee’s and an abundance of ticks very much exist in stray dogs so its worth considering how close you allow your dogs to get to them. Our dogs use Bravecto which is very effective. We generally pull out ticks with our fingers or tweezers and then apply some Lavender Oil to limit infection. You can get tick removers which are handy little items to have in your kit.

If you need to see a vet

There is a large network of vets in and around Morocco and most speak very good English. All services are available including your basic flea and tick treatment. They can carry out emergency treatment and you can see a vet fairly quickly when needed. Depending on where in Morocco you are, it might be worth a little Google search to check the reviews before booking in. We have only had experience with a vet in Essaouira, which was fantastic. Their name is Cabinet Veterinaire La Lagune. They were easily accessible with room to park your motorhome outside. Doctor Adnan was fantastic and speaks perfect English.

Just a couple of thoughts to share. Rubbish is a real issue in Morocco and waste and old food, bones and caucuses can easily be sniffed out by your dog. There are some towns where dogs are simply not allowed – dogs that are found roaming will be ‘dealt with’ so it’s a good idea to know where your dog is at all times.

The trouble with the heat

You can of course visit Morocco any time of the year but obviously it does get hotter in the summer months. We find visiting between mid-November to Mid-March the ideal time and temperatures for dogs. It does start to heat up a little in central Morocco, the cities and Eastern deserts towards the end of March. We found hugging the beautiful coast was ideal at this time to benefit from the cooler sea breeze. Your dog will probably love dipping in the sea to cool off like ours do!

There are campsites that have some shade, so look out for them if you’re planning on spending some time at campsites. Reviewers on the Park for Night App are also great at detailing spots where you can find shade.

Tarmac and sand can get super hot, so make a call on when the right time is for walkies.

We take a set of clippers with us so we can give our dogs a haircut when needed. They always feel better for it when it’s done.

Remember to take

This is by no means a definitive list but here are the things we try to remember to take with us for our dogs when travelling to North Africa:

A good brush to take out the never ending burrs | clippers | flea, tick & worm treatment | tweezers or tick remover | small bottle of hibiscrub to clean and dress any wounds (boiled salt water is also effective) | dressings – the human ones from a first aid kit | small kids socks for paw sores | calendula cream – we use this for everything | lavender oil which is also great for everything | you could take a cool mat if your dog is elderly | enough of your dogs usual dog food to mix with whatever dog food you can find in Morocco – large super markets like Carrefour, Marjane and Aswak Assalam stock a pretty good variety of big brands | Lenny would like to add balls, balls and more balls!