# importing from Canada



## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

If anyone has personal, current, experience importing a puppy from Canada please contact me. This would be an 8 week old puppy (or thereabouts) and want to make sure I'm navigating through any cdc confinement agreements or aphis permits correctly.

Travel would be by air with me picking up the pup.


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## Claire Poissonniez (Feb 11, 2011)

I have heard that since a recent rule change it can be hard to get a puppy in here that young. I believe the new law requires a rabies vaccine which can be given at a minimum of 12 weeks. A few people I know were able to cross the border by car with their puppy and the papers were not checked, but it would be harder by plane. Good luck!


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## Gerald Guay (Jun 15, 2010)

Speaking to Canadian GSD breeder on Sunday and she says she does not like to sell pups to USA anymore because she has to keep them another month and the now required paper work is too much of a hassle.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

The other option is flying close to the border, driving across, then back, and then flying out. As I find out stuff, I will update.


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## Gerald Guay (Jun 15, 2010)

Yes some Canadian breeders are driving their sold pups to US airports for shipping. However the ground screening is getting tighter.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

As promised, here's the update. 

So the guidelines say that to import into the U.S. the pup must be rabies vaccinated but at 8 wks old you can't do that. So you have to apply to the CDC for a rabies waiver. You still have to quarantine until the pup can be vaccinated but that's what is the wrinkle.

Now if you are bringing a pup from Europe then you don't need anything other than a health certificate if you are shipping. 

But the soul sucking blackhole that is the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is really a battle of headbanging, head scratching, WTF process. Everything is via email. You can't call anyone or speak to anyone that knows anything. Call the info number and all they can do is tell you to go to the website and read the rules or send them an email. You answer the questions but if they don't like your answers they will shoot you back the email of the questions again. They don't tell you what the problem WAS with your answers - ei not enough info, gave wrong info, missing part of the info, etc - this goes back and forth until FINALLY they like your answers and you get a ruling of they will grant or not grant. But the only way you know is,..... you guessed it,....... a NEW email. (and you get to make your travel arrangements)

The new email asks about your itinerary and the process starts again. They don't like your answers, and you get the same email again,..... and again...... and again. And it takes them always 3 days to respond back (whereas it took you only an hour or two to respond back to them). By now, I am 3 weeks into this process and I admit to getting a bit stroppy and curt with my answers. I finally ended up writing them an long email back giving them a minute by minute blowdown of my travel arrangements from when the plane landed to when it took off, estimated driving times, the exact roads I would be driving on, and such. If I could have figured out when I was going to take toilet breaks I would have put them in there too. Additionally, I went a bit into their administrative procedures and all their shortcomings but it got me a response within 6 hours and my waiver.

of course they tell you can you avoid all this by using a U.S. breeder. However, I hate to tell the CDC that (news flash ) there's a lot of folks in the U.S. that DO NOT vaccinate for rabies either.


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## Carol Hayes (Sep 19, 2011)

We just returned from picking up our puppy in Canada yesterday. We found the CDC extremely easy to work with. It only took 7 days to get our approval from when we first sent our request. 

My daughter picked up our puppy in Toronto and flew with him back to Alaska with no issues.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

Carol Hayes said:


> We just returned from picking up our puppy in Canada yesterday. We found the CDC extremely easy to work with. It only took 7 days to get our approval from when we first sent our request.
> 
> My daughter picked up our puppy in Toronto and flew with him back to Alaska with no issues.


You were very fortunate. I wish I knew how you did it. I thought it would be straight forward when I first contacted them but, literally, it took 3 days per email exchange. The breeder warned me that it could take a while. I first contacted them prior to the litter being born and they said to contact them after the birth. I contacted them back when the litter was 3 weeks old and thus began my 3 week odessey in bureaucracy. Maybe it's all in who you get. All I know as soon as I stopped with the sweet answers and laid it out pretty strong, things started to happen. You could tell I was getting angry with the BS and not afraid to say so.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

Sounds really frustrating. Hope the pup is worth the effort. Pictures required.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

leslie cassian said:


> Sounds really frustrating. Hope the pup is worth the effort. Pictures required.


Absolutely. I hope his worth it too. I don't know whether to start a new string on this guy or just tack him onto my Gus puppy thread. Will probably to the latter.

Sarah


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

If it's a different puppy he should have his own . This place is dead enough these days, changes are the new puppy will get overlooked otherwise.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

Yup, new pup, new thread. 

Have you picked him up yet? Where are the pictures? Where is the story? Why this pup, why a breeder in Canada (aside from because we breed good dogs up here)? Hopes and dreams... C'mon girl - I'm not up for a pup right now, need to live vicariously through you.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

leslie cassian said:


> Yup, new pup, new thread.
> 
> Have you picked him up yet? Where are the pictures? Where is the story? Why this pup, why a breeder in Canada (aside from because we breed good dogs up here)? Hopes and dreams... C'mon girl - I'm not up for a pup right now, need to live vicariously through you.


Based on the short study results ( aka: 2 opinions) I will do a new thread. No, I have not picked him up yet. I'm flying up next week to test for cadaver odor aversion and pick him out. 

The story is that I was getting ready to send Gus back to the breeder (Ha! A gift.... a fully trained certified dog with food allergies out the whaazoo) but after his second find ..... a walk-up, no less..... I decided to keep him. However this litter I had already put a deposit down because 1) he has a small kennel and breeds for his own use first and the market second and 2) because the breeding was very close to my senior dog. The breeder is keeping back both females from the litter and one male. I'm picking out from the remaining 3 males.

This is an AI breeding as the sire of this litter died several years back and the original kennel (Hege-Haus) was disbanded. If you flip my senior dog's maternal and paternal lines you would get this pup. I like the way Sam works, his heat tolerance, his work ethic, his versatility at a very young age, etc. 
I liked the story the breeder told how the dam, while chasing after a flying duck across a large stream, fell through the ice but kept swimming on underwater until she got to the far bank where she broke back up through the ice on the other side to keep chasing after the duck. 

I like that single minded of purpose. I like a dog with that much drive. Couple that with this sire (Lebeau vom Hege-Haus) should give me a search dog that I'm going to have to fight to keep up with. I like that in a dog. 

I also like the way this breeder was honest with the evaluation of his dogs. Or apparently honest from what I can tell. Time will tell on this score. As far as being Canadian...... That was just luck of the draw. I had contacted 2 other kennels but I was looking for a pup out of certain bitches by certain studs and none were planned at that time (I started this search last winter so it's been 8 months in the making)

Anyway, that's pretty much the back story. I wish it was more romantic and warmly gushy but I'm to pragmatic for that.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Is he hear yet? Is he hear yet? 

How about now? :grin: :wink:


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

Bob Scott said:


> Is he hear yet? Is he hear yet?
> 
> How about now? :grin: :wink:


No, not yet.....lol

I've been counting down the days to puppy breath.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

Gaaaaa... puppy breath. Swoon. And little grunty puppy noises...


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I've said it before but I'd rather work with a puppy then compete with a finished dog. 

Watching them learn is priceless!


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

leslie cassian said:


> Gaaaaa... puppy breath. Swoon. And little grunty puppy noises...


Funny, it's been so long since I had a puppy that I forgot about all that fun stuff. The Dutch arrived as a tiny version of an adult dog. Nothing about her was puppyish. 

Sarah, have you made any headway in importing your pup?


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