Hello all,

I am moving to Zurich by 1st October and will be wanting to move my doggy out with me by Decemeber. Bascially I would like a lttle info, I already have the rabies and passport etc sorted so I just need to know:

The best way to bring him over and what the flights involve etc
If there are any dog walkers in Zurich or doggy daycare?
How much vet bills etc are in Zurich area and if there are any English speaking?

Any help will be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Claire

Hi Claire
I've just done this, having moved to Basel 5 weeks ago.
Are you on a company move and if so will they transport the animals?
After much deliberation of "how" we would move our dogs (we also had snails and snakes to move) we gave up on the idea of moving them ourselves and handed it over to the professionals.
I realise we were in the lucky position of not having to pay for this ourselves however, the service the professionals offered was absolutely second to none, including coming to the house to measure the animals and custom making the carry crates (which we got to keep), collecting the animals from the house and getting the final vet check (suitability to travel certificate needed to be signed by vet within 24 hours or so of travel), housing the animals before sending them out to us (via Zurich) and delivering them to our door here in Basel.

We used Air Supply Shipping Agents, from Staines, Middx. They only fly BA via Zurich.

We flew them, though there are companies out there that will drive your pets over We were quoted £1000 to drive all our menagerie over from the UK. Sorry I've mislaid the company name but I found them on google.

I would strongly recommend flying him/her out. It takes the stress out of it. Also, arrange for him/her to arrive a few days after you've moved in so your familiar things are in place for him.

I'm afraid I can't help you with doggy daycare, however I would suggest looking at the classified sections of your local international school website as they often seem to advertise dogsitters. Vets seem to speak English, thought their receptionists may not. Don't forget you'll need to register him with the gemeinde and pay dog tax.

Good luck with it all.

Shirley

Hi

I personally would advise driving your dog over. I did with my two cos the cost of flying them was astronomical and I wasn't sure how they'd react to being stuck in a plane's hold. Your dogs go with you free on the Channel Tunnel (though you have to pay an admin fee going back into England if taking dogs through the tunnel) and you stay in the car with them so no stress there. There's a fenced area at the terminal for your dog, and every 50km or so on the French motorways, there are rest areas/picnic areas with loads of room for dogs to run around and relieve themselves. Crossing into Switzerland, I was stopped and asked for my passport but the man didn't want to see the dogs documents.

As for vets, I use one in Baden (outside Zurich). It was the first vets I tried and 2 out the 2 vets there speak fluent English and are really friendly. I would guess that finding an English speaking vet in Zurich will be pretty easy though if you want to PM me I can give you the details of the one in Baden. Personally I have found the cost really reasonable. I seem to fork out much less than I did in England. And that includes x-rays, vaccinations, emergency treatment for blood in stools etc etc. I've never been badly shocked when given the bill.

As for dog walking, again I have a few names in and around Zurich who I've used. PM if you want details. It's not cheap though!

Good luck with the move.

I forgot to say.....
contact bvet.admin.ch for official information. They are always very fast at responding and in English. Forget Defra, they are rubbish and give conflicting information and very very slow.

Also, so far, I haven't found the vets here in Basel to be too outrageously priced (cheaper here for vaccs than in UK) and ours doesn't seem to push unnecessary treatments in order to boost their fees.

Sx

Thank you sooo much for you help on this.

Unfortunately I cannot drive him over as I am selling my car in the UK

So it is going to have to be the expensive route of a plane journey, which my company will no pay for

Will contact you soon for details of sitters and vets, when I know exactly where I am going to be living

Thanks again

Claire

Many of us fly our pets over at our own expense. Many employers will not pay for the relocation costs for a pet as they are not considered by some as a family member. If you are on the same flight as your dog, this will keep the costs down. If you are not planning on traveling with your dog, I recommend a pet shipper: Ace Pet Moving

http://www.acepetmoving.com/

Not being local, I can't help you out much with info on Zürich based dog care. But by daycare, do you mean someone to care for your dog everyday? Or just a kennel for when you are away.

Vet bills....the fee for a basic examination seems to be around 40 chf. This is without any tests, or meds. Many veterinarians will send you an invoice, but some require payment in cash if the fee is below a certain amount.
I don't think you will have a problem finding an English speaking veterinarian in Zürich. I only have information on Veterinarians in the Baden/Brugg region.

__________________

I have details of a company that will drive your dogs over here. I used him and it cost about £700 I think. PM if you want the details

If you require any information regarding transporting your pets by road, then feel free to pm me for details. I operate my own courier/removal company and am also fully licensed for animal transportation.

I'm in Basle and if i move to Zurich then these guys are brilliant for dog-sitting http://www.hundeabenteuerland.ch/english.html

We used http://nationalpetexpress.co.uk/default.aspx when we moved to Basel with our 2 largish dogs. Service was excellent, picked from our UK address and delivered to our CH address a day after we moved in. The dogs were in perfect condition and quite happy when they arrived. I would certainly recommend them, sorry but no idea how it cost as we didn't pay.

I would really recommend rather you us www.rextransport.com, they have been around for a lot longer. Ace is quite new and with what I saw, they are having court problems.

And while on the subject, we've just moved to Basel with our friendly Pointer/Shep/Staf mix and are looking for pet sitters/boarders for when we travel around Europe (mostly on weekends).

Please contact me if you or anyone you know offers services like this.

Thanks!

M

This is the guy I used. www.transpet.co.uk

He picked up both dogs from the Kennel as I had already left the UK and delivered them to us safe and sound. Mention me (Kevin) and my dogs Jippy and Jango. Never know, might get a discount or something.

I think you might find that is politics. I have experience using ACE and they are great. The company may not have been around that long but the guy running it has been and he is excellent at what he does.

But I do notice that the only two posts that you have made you have used to badmouth Marcel/ACE. If you are in anyway linked to REX then what you are doing is blatantly unethical. If you have first hand knowledge of the court case I suggest you prove what you are saying. If you are just repeating hearsay, then you are out of line.

Are you talking about what you read on the Rex website? Do you believe everything you read? If you don't have first hand knowledge of the situation, then you should say nothing. Trusting what you read on the website of the company that is in court with its former employees is just naiive.

So who is it that you know at REX now that you would trust to ship animals?

Marcel is a personal friend, as well as a colleague. He provides top service to his clients. He has helped many on the forum here, including you, as you said yourself. Is this how you show your gratitude?
Shame on you for bad mouthing him without cause. Do you even know what he is in court for?

__________________

We moved here at the end of april, with rex, owever all our relocation costs were covered by my husbands company. On my own back i dont know if i would ever use rex again, they were disorganised and quite rude as he was supposed to come on the thursday, we were leaving on the sunday. Something happened and we got told oops he cant go on thursday( they new from the start we were leaving a few days after him) he will have to go on the monday. We then had to put him into kennels from the thursday to the saturday at our own expence as we had given our house up on the thursday(all our furniture was being moved out to be shipped here) and staying at mum mums however she doesnt like dogs. But anyway back on subject then we got told on the thursday oops you will have to take him back to the vet again for his pre flight check as the one he has expires on the monday. Then we had to take him to dunfermline to the shippers vets for boarding till the monday which is an hour and a half each way. After all that only got a "sorry" talk about proffesionalism i think not. even tho the company were paying the relocation costs because of rex we still had to fork over 200 between kennels,vets and petrol all because the screwed up.