Moving to Chiang Mai with dogs?...

[Eddieandbrooke]

Hi guys,

Great forum here! Has answered heaps of our questions so far, my wife and I are planning the move over ASAP to Chiang mai but we are taking our 2 dogs with us, we have decided last night it's a better idea to go over first and sort our visas and place of stay then receive our dogs, has anyone brought their dogs over with them before? Also to some people including vets.. They may look like pit bulls, which are banned in Thai? Anyway we have DNA tests saying they are not and should have enough paperwork, do they try and extort money out of you bringing in dogs/ illegal looking dogs, I have heard that they have been sent back to origin or euthanased on some forums (but not sure if they had organised paperwork).

We are prettttty stressed about it all and just want to hit pads already ;)

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Hi guys,

Great forum here! Has answered heaps of our questions so far, my wife and I are planning the move over ASAP to Chiang mai but we are taking our 2 dogs with us, we have decided last night it's a better idea to go over first and sort our visas and place of stay then receive our dogs, has anyone brought their dogs over with them before? Also to some people including vets.. They may look like pit bulls, which are banned in Thai? Anyway we have DNA tests saying they are not and should have enough paperwork, do they try and extort money out of you bringing in dogs/ illegal looking dogs, I have heard that they have been sent back to origin or euthanased on some forums (but not sure if they had organised paperwork).

We are prettttty stressed about it all and just want to hit pads already ;)

 

Hi. I don't have personal, technical answers that you are looking for, but when we originally planned to come to Thailand we were thinking very seriously about bringing our Cattle Dog with us. We Googled and Googled and just never got good information about how to do it and ran into the occasional nightmare story of someone being denied at airport immigration with their dog in the crate (possibly looking for a bribe?). What we thought was best was to come first, get everything settled, and then send the dog - it was just too much to have to figure out everything with the dog there too. In the end Sylvie's parents kept our dog for us and it wasn't until we got to Pattaya that we just spontaneously adopted a soi dog we found that a dog was finally in our life - and it makes a huge difference.

I don't know about Pit Bulls being illegal in Thailand, but we've seen plenty of them. In fact we saw a gorgeous puppy being carried around just two days ago at a rest stop we were at. Down the street from our old gym in Chiang Mai there was an enormous pit called "Knock Out" who was constantly chained, and Sylvie played with a pit puppy at the gym, back in the day, that we think was named after her:

This isn't to say that it isn't illegal to bring them in the country, but one would think that paperwork would be all that is needed. Thais love paperwork. As long as there are documents then Thais (generally) feel that their decisions are backed up. There needs to be a chain of documentation.

Something to keep in mind when bringing dogs over, or trying to adopt dogs, is that can be VERY difficult to find an apartment that allows them. Dogs are seen as unclean, street animals, and fears of their barking unattended pretty much rule out the average building allowing them. Our apartment in Pattaya only takes them by a sheer coincidence of a change of management when we started bringing him home. Thais have been surprised that we found such an apartment. People do have dogs though, so situations must exist, but they are hard to find, especially if you don't speak Thai. We started with the notion of finding a small house to rent, but the thing we had in mind in Chiang Mai, despite long searches, didn't seem to exist. Perhaps you have your living conditions set up, but if you don't this could be a big problem. On the other hand, because dogs are everywhere in Thailand they can go places you wouldn't expect. We've seen people bring them to wats, inside the temple where they were giving blessings, and Jai Dee (our dog) has come to every one of Sylvie's fights.

One person to possibly check with is the owner of Baan Sakorn TDK. They have been breeding and exporting Thai Ridgebacks for years in Chiang Mai (incredibly beautiful dogs, btw), and even though that's going the other way (export), they probably know more about dealing with paperwork, government rules, Chiang Mai and dogs in a general sense, more than anyone. At the very least they may point you in the right direction to other web sources. We were seriously considering getting a TDK from them at one point, contacted them, and they were very friendly. They responded quickly to the email on the site and the owner, Jack Sterling, has a Google Plus Page.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Yeah, you're probably going to want to find a house in Chiang Mai in order to be able to have dogs. There were some really simple stand-alone houses that you can rent, usually in neighborhoods in the outerskirts of the city but not easy to find (at least anywhere near our budget). Here in Pattaya dogs do live in the connected housing that make up whole streets, but not in apartments which are much more plentiful. These row houses are like two level apartments, all attached with a front "yard" that's basically a parking spot and a gate. Because it's a house with separate entrances the pet issue seems open, from what I've seen in the row that is near our apartment building. Dogs live in those front "yards" of these houses. These kinds of row houses were much less common in Chiang Mai, by what I saw.

As far as getting them to Thailand, you'll need vaccination records. Probably once you arrive and get settled you can find a good vet clinic and work through them to get all the paperwork and documentation required to bring the dogs over.

[Eddieandbrooke]

Hi, just letting you guys know that we got our dogs here safe and sound, we are actually in the process of moving to Chiang Mai after being in Pai moving on because sadly Poppy our female dog was bitten by a snake.. and did not make it.. In a bit of a bad place at the moment but hoping the move will brighten us up. Any info on gyms with decent strength equipment and a good fighters crew, we are tossing up between San Tai and Lanna and would you know iff any dog friendly and controlled areas to socialise or do you think that may be a bad idea?

 

Sorry for all the questions

P.s got more questions.... ;)

 

Eddie and Brooke

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

 we are tossing up between San Tai and Lanna and would you know iff any dog friendly and controlled areas to socialise or do you think that may be a bad idea?

 

 

We just had our dog over at Lanna, it's very dog friendly as a place as the original owner Andy had lots of dogs, but you never know how the resident dogs will take to yours. Usually these things tend to work out, but you know your dog best. There are about 3 full grown dogs there, and a older pup, by my memory. As to socialization, we just kept ours on the leash.

It can be pretty hard to find apartments around Lanna (and in fact Chiang Mai) that allow dogs, but the hotel across the road does, but it's pricey. Don't know much about dogs and Santai.

Lanna's going through a transition phase right now too, with their head trainer heading to Scotland at the beginning of August, so its really hard to say what the state of the gym will be.

...so sad to hear about your girl. Must have been terrible.