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Dogs and related costs - Who can help


KalahariHarry

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Hi All,

Contemplating bringing the dogs along, two boxers.

Besides the obvious costs of having to rent a pet friendly house with a garden, and the costs of bringing the dogs over, what other costs are there.

For example, my dogs are healthy and they only currently cost me about R700 per month in dog food, now and then a vet bill but not too expensive.

Can someone shed light on dog costs??

Trev

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Hi Trev...Im still waiting for Lucy to arrive so I don't know about costs...seems like dogfood that you buy at the vets and petshops are relatively same costs as in SA

What I can tell you is that I saw an advert last night on TV where Woolworths advertises a pet policy for something like 50c per day, for vets costs etc. Due to vets being so hellishly expensive, I think I might go for such a policy

good luck, I wish I was in your shoes. Now that the quarantine rules have changed, the costs are considerably lower!

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Thx Toitjie

Yes if we take them we will also look at pet plans.

Not completely decided yet, its still very expensive for the two :-(

T

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You will also require a dog licence. For our town it costs $15 a year. Yes Vets are pricey but if you get a pet health insurance plan, then I think it costs the same to feed them as RSA.

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Depending where you are you must be prepared to do regular applications of tick and flea medication which is expensive, more expensive than South Africa... like the snakes and spiders and crocodiles etc even the ticks are deadly here! Paralysis ticks will kill a dog in no time!

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Hi Trev,

We have two large breed dogs, Golden Retrievers. They both have medical insurance for the unforeseen, ballpark it works out to under $300 per month total which includes food, lic and medical ins. Will be less for one dog and to add we do get the quality biscuits.

Hope that helps.

Werner

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We are renting in a complex and as part of the complex rules, we need to have third party insurance for if our dog bites someone (not if he is injured or sick etc).

We have just started a policy that provides such insurance, as well as accident cover and some vet bills (with many exclusions as this is not a health plan for dogs) and that costs us approx $40 per month.

Spayed (known as de-sexed) dogs pay less on the council fees as someone has mentioned but un-spayed (or "whole") dogs are more!! (I still cannot get over the terminology used here!!)

I have to admit that I have no objection to paying council fees for our dog. The dog parks (where they dont need leads on) are awesome and a fantastic facility for our pets. They even have water bowls, poop packets, training section and is a great socialiser!!

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We could not bring our dog and now that we have our house, we have been looking for a small to medium sized dog. Either as a puppy or even adopt from a shelter. Buying a puppy (and they are scarce - nothing near us) is very expensive - $1000+ and most of the shelter dogs are to big. Our dogs are inside dogs so we dont want a big dog. Not bigger than a beagle. I cant seem to find one anywhere :(

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if it will cost 40K to take dogs id rather take my dogs than spend another $1000 on a dog there anyway, its only R30 000 more to keep my lovely doggies i guess.

Now the next question, how hard is it to get a pet friendly rental?? We are heading for Canberra.

trev

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Hi Trevor, I don't want to sound negative, but if you intend renting, you will find that less than 5% of rentals available will allow pets. In some instances you can negotiate, but then they'd require a bond up to three times what is normally paid. When you move out, invariably the agents state that the garden/house requires repairs due to the "damage" done by the dogs and you lose your bond and may even be asked to pay more. I'd be very wary about bringing pets over as they can pose a great hindrance in getting a rental, which in most cases is stressful enough. I hope it helps. Cheers!

$1000.00 for a puppy? We have bought three dogs over the years and never paid more than $300.00. All of them were thoroughbreds, the last was bought two years ago. I think if you look around, you can find a thoroughbred for way less than $1000.00, unless you are looking for a dog which you intend to show/breed with. Even if your dog is a South African champion, the Aussie Dog Clubs are pedantic and want to keep their breeding lines "pure" with Australian blood lines. In 1997 we brought over a Champion Pug, which we imported from the USA, from a very distinguished blood line. They registered the dog here, but nobody would touch him for stud services, regardless of his good breeding. He remained our darling pet until his death in 2003. It's hard, but I'd hate to see you go through considerable expense and end up spending R40,000.00, unless money is not an object, of course! Good luck in your decision.

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Thx Harry, you confirmed what I thought, but it is soooo hard man, my boxers are like my children, I love them so much, but realise that it will make things harder when we arrive.

If I factor the cost of:;

taking them over

renting a bigger place to accomodate them

looking for a place to accomodate them

Maintenance costs of them

And all this while we are trying to settle with a 6 month old baby, it is very hard.

The other option I have is to have them come over in 6 months, once we are settled. But this is what i'm trying to figure out


ok so waiting on a quote from globalpaws, maybe that will help

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Trev, I don't want to sound pessimistic, I am an animal lover too, but IMHO finding a rental in the ACT with two medium sized dogs is not going to be an easy feat. I would research rentals before committing to bringing your dogs over. If you plan to buy your own place soon after landing, then definitely bring them, or perhaps you know someone in Canberra with a large enough property who is willing to care for them for you. Or another option would be to rent acreage across the border in NSW.

Some people are lucky and have understanding landlords, we managed in our first six months of renting to get our landlord to amend our lease and allow us two cats, I guess if you are really keen to bring them, you could put them in boarding kennels. All depends on how much you are willing to spend.

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Thx Lyn,

Pockets are a little thin right now...

Trev :-(


Has anyone confirmed any costs since Quarrentine was cancelled. I just contacted globalpaws her story was as follows:

vet checks, innocs etc before dogs leave approx R5000 per dog x 2 = R10 000 This i pay myself for the duration of pre flight 6 month period

Flights and final checks incl boxes etc to sydney approx R30 000 for the two dogs (boxers)

Agents fees and quarrentine that side appox $2500/R25000

I am waiting on a quote from globalpaws, but this still seems very expensive

65k ?/?

any help?

trev

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  • 2 weeks later...

How's that work? maybe I wasn't understanding but I was thinking that the cost would be greatly reduced.I emailed Bibi at globalpaws because she seems to have forgotten she owes me a quote based on the changes unless I wait until next year. Trevor, I am a dog lover of note having had over a dozen rhodesian ridgebacks myself plus other species. I have to agree its going to be hard to secure premises big enough which means you need to walk them daily and vet bills expensive and pet bond in homes about $260 so you just need to know what you letting yourself into. I would still do it anyway, working on bringing my 3 across otherwise will place them with friends or rhodesian ridgeback association may find a home.

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Finding a pet friendly rental can be tricky but not impossible. As you have a specific breed of dog may be worth while contacting a breed club and seeing if they know of areas that are suitable for dogs i.e. have big enough stands. In areas where there are already a lot of dogs it will be harder for the landlord or agent to justify not allowing dogs. Then put together an application pack for you and your pets for applying for rentals - including references, pictures, proof that they are not dangerous to humans or property and you would have a better chance. Pet shops here have loyalty cards so when you buy a certain number of bags or food or food to a certain amount you get a discount on your next purchase. Each chain is constanly having specials so with a bit of strategy you could get the best deal each week.

@followmylead - you could always put an advertisement on gumtree that you are looking for a free/cheap young dog or puppy - specify an area. That would help to reduce the dodgy characters selling you a non-existent pedigree. Had a friend who did that and was inundated with calls.

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well Global Paws quoted me R55k today for 3 medium sized dogs with a note that its up to Sydney Airport...not sure what happens from there to Perth

and Shame why must the animals do another 6 hours flight plus plus especially with heat and handling

Edited by May
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Have they not closed the Perth quarantine facility, or something like that and that is the reason why they go to Sydney now ?

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Thanks May, I'm waiting on quotes now from Keringa and global

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  • 3 months later...

Just thought I would put some updated info here.....

We have two yorkies going and we got a quote from PE (as they will visit my parents over there first, to give us a head start) to Sydney. The quote included all needed plus the crates they will travel in from Petport.

R12360 (for both) - we were quoted R15960 by Animal travel services (excluding the crates)

extra's

R4900 import permit

R7200 Quarantine fees

R1100 Quarantine docs

R1600 Aus vet checks

R3500 RSA vet fees...we are only up to the blood that has been drawn for the rabies tests. I guess the rabies lab tests should be expensive (still to come), but after that it is mostly vet check ups, so a couple of 100 every time, but hopefully nothing huge.

total so far R30660 for two small dogs

ok, my dogs know I am talking about them as they have now started singing under my feet...it's time for doggy dinner !

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Hi there

I just brought our two yorkies over with Global Paws, and you can't go wrong with them! Speak to Yvette, she is amazing.

We paid Global Paws about R20 000, which was for the paperwork and for the children's flights. For the six months before we left, we had to pay for the vets costs ourselves, all in all, it probably added up to about R8 000.

Import Permits cost another R4 000, and the Quarantine in Australia cost about R10 000.

I suppose it is a decision you have to make, but I believe that everything always finds a way of working out, so if you can bring them, I would do that. They are your children after all!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.


Perth Quarantine isn't open any more, have to go to Sydney and from there to Perth. We booked directly with Qantas Freight, which is cheaper than using an animal transport company.

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