Taking your Staff in and out of the UK

Hey guys, looking for a little advice.

I have been offered work in Italy, initially on a short term basis, and fully intend to take the little guy with me.

I am planning on driving over down through France and into Italy which doesn't seem like a problem. However, should I have to come home again, is there any chance of me having trouble getting him back in?

Someone told me once that if there is any suspicion regarding his breed then he could be seized at the border. Giving the hype and paranoia around supposed dangerous breeds of dog just now I don't want to take any risks.

Has anybody ever travelled with their staff and was it trouble free?

Cheers.

I know its certainly possible as there have been other posts on the topic but it's not something I have done. I think you need to check for any breed specific legislation/restrictions in any country you plan to travel though. I'm sure someone will be able to help more

Would you need to obtain a pet passport ?

Maybe speak to your vet about this, they may know what to do.

The link below may be helpful:

https://www.gov.uk/take-pet-abroad

Hey thanks for the replies guys.

Yeah I'll have to arrange a pet passport which I had already factored in and I've checked for any potential breed issues in France and Italy and he seems to be fine in that respect.

My main concern is if in a few months or whenever I have to bring him back into Britain is that there might be trouble then.

If your dog is a pure breed Staffordshire bull terrier with pedigree papers then you should have no problem in the event of getting stopped… But if your dog is a cross breed & looks remotely like a Pitbull then you could be in trouble if you got stopped ( do more homework if you have a cross bred)

I don't have papers for him.

I'll get in touch with his former owner and ask her.

do you have real KC papers for your dog if not your dog may be took off you when you get to France

from your avatar your dog looks and 'TYPE'

Hi. There is a link about driving to France https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t31243-we-are-moving-back-home?highlight=moving+to+poland
We did it twice. On the way out they didn't check anything, just on the way back in they checked if Debo has all his jab etc, your vet will tell you about it. Maybe we were just lucky, so don't want to say for sure. And Debo doesn't have papers.
And this is what I found about Italy
http://bsl.bsl-sbt.com/breeds/italyreplacesbreedbanwithownerresponsibility.php

Thanks Steve and Jola.

I don't have any papers for him at all.

I contacted the Italian and French consulates and everything seems fine in that respect. I think the ban in Italy spoken about in the link above has now been lifted. They told me that as long as he has his passport, vaccinations etc then it is fine.

The French consulate sent me a link to this site http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/ which says that Staffordshire Bull Terriers are not a banned breed in France. I don't know how anxious the French are about supposed 'dangerous dogs' right enough.

To be fair, I have driven to Italy before as my sister is over there and we had her dogs in the car and the border officials never even batted an eyelid. I'm more nervous this time though and I'm not entirely sure whether I should risk it.

I'll talk to the vet and see what they say.

As said before Staffordshire bull terriers are not banned in France but cross dogs which look like the type are. I know how you feel . I was nervous as hell but they didn't even look in side the car. I'm just saying from my experience that we didn't have any problems. Good luck.

Yeah, same with us Jola. To be honest with you, if I remember rightly, I don't even think the French border official even looked at the pet passports despite being offered them.

Also, I'm not as concerned about going out as I am about coming back in.

I'll give it some thought and, like I said, see what the vet says.

Thanks again.

The coming back is fine, they checking the dog on the way back, his passport etc. Your vet would tell you.\