Moving with pets at the same time or having them shipped later

As I compile all the great information I'm learning on here as well as what I'm finding elsewhere online and by speaking with companies, I'm trying to put together our game plan for moving over there with our dogs.

I've contacted several pet moving companies to bring our 2 Australian Shepard/Border Collies over (SEA to London):

• Starwood Animal Transport - $5,595
  
  Dog Gone Taxi - $4561
  
  Pet Express Animal Transport - $5725.00

I like that Starwood will come to the house and pick them up and will driving them from the airport in London to where ever we are living.

My concerns involve temporary housing when we first get to England until we can find somewhere to rent long term. My worry is flying the dogs to England and then having to crate them day after day while we go out house hunting.

My thought is we will get their rabies shot taken care of but leave them in Seattle for a bit while we go over there and find long term housing.

Once we get housing taken care of, we'll contact Starwood and schedule them to pick up the dogs from our friends house. Starwood also takes care of all the USDA paperwork and they have a vet that takes care of the tapeworm shot thats only good for 5 days. I think that will be less stressful on the dogs because once they fly in, get driven to our house, we are all settled into our new rental.

As I compile all the great information I'm learning on here as well as what I'm finding elsewhere online and by speaking with companies, I'm trying to put together our game plan for moving over there with our dogs.

I've contacted several pet moving companies to bring our 2 Australian Shepard/Border Collies over (SEA to London):

• Starwood Animal Transport - $5,595
  
  Dog Gone Taxi - $4561
  
  Pet Express Animal Transport - $5725.00

I like that Starwood will come to the house and pick them up and will driving them from the airport in London to where ever we are living.

My concerns involve temporary housing when we first get to England until we can find somewhere to rent long term. My worry is flying the dogs to England and then having to crate them day after day while we go out house hunting.

My thought is we will get their rabies shot taken care of but leave them in Seattle for a bit while we go over there and find long term housing.

Once we get housing taken care of, we'll contact Starwood and schedule them to pick up the dogs from our friends house. Starwood also takes care of all the USDA paperwork and they have a vet that takes care of the tapeworm shot thats only good for 5 days. I think that will be less stressful on the dogs because once they fly in, get driven to our house, we are all settled into our new rental.

That's what I did.  I was in corporate housing which wouldn't allow pets.  So I found my permanent housing first and then my cats followed.

I used Air Animal and would highly recommend them. 

I'll look into AirAnimal as well. Thanks!

I figured I'd make that post because if others are like me, I scour all the old posts to see what people have done and recommended in the past to try and see what will work for me so I thought maybe if I could share some of the updated info I've found, maybe it'll help someone 6 months from now.

I think I'm going to start a personal blog just to record my daily thoughts/things I've found out/etc. I've read other peoples blogs from years ago who did that and I thought it was really interesting to read their journey from the start of their planning, all the way through to when they get to England and how they are settling in, etc. It really helped me feel like I was taking that journey with them and gave me some things to think about for my own journey.

One thing I read in someones post that I found VERY helpful was to plan to have the pet moved overnight since they are used to sleeping through the night and not having to go outside to relieve themselves or eat. I thought that was a great idea.

 

Thanks for the idea of moving the pets overnight. I’m also in the Seattle area and will be moving before the end of 2018. I like the idea of a blog to share experiences.

Yeah I find it hard to make a blog right now about it because things are kind of sporadic but I'm compiling everything I learn so once I'm actually close to the move, then I'll have everything I need. I've already learned that its great to start this year (a couple years out) because you'll never find all the information at one time. I find a little bit about pet movers one day, then a week later I'll find something about house rentals, then a couple days later something about taxes, then a couple weeks go by and I'll read something I didnt know about insuring a car (or advice about which companies to contact for insurance).

I use Microsoft OneNote and I've created separate pages for each topic and I've been cutting and pasting the info (and links back to where I found it) so I can have a diary of all this info. And who knows, when the times actual comes, I may end up going different directions but at least this has helped me start to filter a lot of the info. And once we are over there, my goal is to create a "Here is everything I learned, companies I used, what my experience was, etc" because I think thats so helpful to people just in the starting phase of planning a move. We are wanting to absorb as much info as possible from people who have already done it.

Yay another Seattlite! Nice to meet you. I love it here. I've been here since 2000 (moved here from Florida) and I love it. But I'm ready for a change. And I think coming from Seattle, we have a little bit of an advantage because the weather is so similar to England. Also, not sure if you are going to be using a moving company, but Rainier Overseas Moving is right here in town.   http://www.rainieros.com/moving-guide/    I contacted them for a quote and may end up going with them. $6600 for a 20' container, they come and pack all your boxes, load the truck, handle the manifest, everything on the tail end, drive it to your new home and unload the container in your new home (you unpack the boxes). It's definitely a "splurge" because I know you can move cheaper but... I'm already budgeting for it and want to make the move as stress free as possible.  haha