Trip report to Scotland with a guide dog

I recently read a post on a mailing list from Eric Caron, who explained the difficulties of traveling with a guide dog to Scotland. He wrote about the days of travel arrangements, paperwork, and expenses. I asked Eric if he would be willing to share his story with you. I have to say I had my fair share of difficulties to arrange trips with Baldwin, but nothing like Eric had to go through.

Eric lives in Brattleboro VT near Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  This is about a 2 hour drive from Boston.  He lives there with his wife Heidi, current guide dog Becky, retired guide Ryan, an African Grey Parrot and a Tuxedo cat.

His guide dogs are from GEB(Guiding Eyes for the blind.) Eric worked in education over three decades.  He started as a Rehabilitation Counselor, then became a public school counselor, and a Director of a School Counseling office in southern Vermont.

He now is  retired and enjoys an active life style and a world filled with hobbies, and wide ranging activities.

In the following he will describe his recent international travel experience from  the perspective of a person that relies on a guide dog for mobility.

I was very apprehensive about traveling with my guide dog to Scotland.  The reason had nothing to do with my dog’s skills, or the length of the flight, or even having to work around fake service dogs.  I was apprehensive because the last time I planned an international trip I did everything in my power to have everything I could possibly need paperwork wise and still I ended up stranded for two nights at the Boston airport trying to get one more document, for a one hour transfer through Iceland.  After much time and stress they looked at my rabies certificate photo and sent me the form and I was able to get on the plane.

This  time I began to plan many months in advance for a trip to Edinburgh Scotland with a plane transfer in Ireland.

I started by looking at the UK site and read everything my wife and I could find about what was needed.  I found the info a bit challenging to get through but we followed the list and seemed to have everything. Our vet was also very careful to follow the listed guidelines and she also conferred with other vets who had helped their clients travel to Scotland. 

We also went to the Aer Lingus site and read everything there.  This was pretty darn confusing.  We ended up calling a person for disability assistance.  She was unhelpful and a bit nasty.  We then wrote to the agriculture department in Ireland to be sure we didn’t need anything for our short layover.  They said no appointment with agriculture or papers needed as we were only transiting and not going through customs.

We were supposed to complete forms and submit them on line but just as with Delta airlines we could not find a way to submit.  So, we printed out all the forms and had them ready to show them.  This included a declaration that my dog would not relieve itself on the plane.

There was also something about my dog needing to be from a school that was endorsed by the ADI, Assistance Dogs International. I remembered this endorsement from my time on the grad Council so didn’t think much about it.

So, at this stage I was feeling very stressed.  I had a bad feeling that the information provided was unclear and with poor assistance from the disability assistance office I was concerned.

We also found that in addition to the difficult process of needing a UK certified form that required materials to be overnighted to Albany NY and then sent back to my vet within 10 days of travel I also needed a tape worm treatment administered within 5 days of arrival. 

How could this work out timing wise?

I found out that some countries allow for electronic versions of the endorsed forms, sadly the UK was not one of them.

I also learned that if your vet is certified by the department of agriculture, they can submit the forms electronically to the USDA regional office for endorsement, then the USDA either overnights it back or sends the document electronically if the destination allows it.

My vet was certified and submitted the forms electronically.  This is good as it assures there is time for corrections if necessary.  They did mail back the forms in time to get the tapeworm treatment.

My vet wanted to make it possible for my guide dog, Becky to travel with us so she worked very hard.  She also consulted with other vets about travel to the UK.

The result was that in addition to the UK forms we also did the Ireland  (EU) forms and a US health certificate.  I also carried my vaccination history for Becky.

Some additional absurdities were happening in the background.

Reading over the requirements on the web sites for Ireland and UK we found buried in the info some concerning items.

We found that the chip must be inserted before the Rabies initial vaccination and if timing is off then the dog needs a full Vaccination as if it was the first time.  This also must be done at a specific time way before travel. 

Lots of document hunting later, and help from Kim, the Guiding Eyes Vet Admin who got me the dates and we were ok.

Then we found a requirement that the dog must have a record of rabies vaccination with no breaks in coverage.

This was a problem.  Becky had one time when as a puppy when she had soft stool and they purposely waited about a week after her vaccine due date so that she was healthy.  So, we had missed coverage.

What did I do about this?  Nothing,  I prayed they would not search my documentation with that level of detail.

By this point I had forgotten about the requirement for ADI endorsement, as I had remembered we had it from my grad Council days.

OK, so now after several months of going over the web sites.  After many vet visits, After  consulting with my vet.  Things seemed to be falling into place.

At this point my bills for Becky cost more than my ticket to Europe. I was still afraid I didn’t have everything, but we decided to go for it.

Frankly, I had even asked Becky’s final trainer, the person that home trained us if she could take Becky in an emergency and she said she could do that.

So, off to the Boston airport with Becky we went.

We had certified documents for the UK, for Ireland/EU and for the US.  We had hard copies of the Aer Lingus documents.  I had my Guiding Eyes ID.

We arrived three hours early to the airport and that was a good thing.  Our travel experience was about to get very stressful.

We had checked in online and when we approached  the desk to check our bag the first thing the person said was do you have the paperwork, and we did.  The second thing they said is “do you have an appointment with the department of agriculture in Edinburgh?”  We said no as that was not a requirement on the UK site for our travel requirements.  She said it was required for Ireland so they assumed it was needed for the UK.  We showed her the web site with the list and there was nothing about making an appointment but, all the other requirements were there.  We said as the UK is not part of the EU we followed their directions.

The woman said she only knew what Ireland needed and assumed it was the same in the UK.

We then waited for a supervisor while I experienced incredible stress wondering if yet again I’d be denied the flight and either go home without my wife and send her on the trip, join her later without Becky, or stay at a hotel and try to go in the next day or so. 

The supervisor was nice enough but felt there would be a requirement for an agriculture person to meet us.  We showed him the UK site.  He then went to the Edinburgh airport site.  He dug deeper and deeper into the site and finally after a long time found a place that said, before traveling with your service dog you must email them two days in advance of flight and arrange an appointment.  It also said the dog must be from a ADI certified school.

The man then spent an hour trying to call Edinburgh.

He offered to put us on a later flight so we could arrange the agriculture meeting, but we realized then the tape worm treatment would be outside the 5 day window.  It was fly now or never.

After some time, and only with a few moments to spare, he said, he would let us on the plane but we needed to know that he could not guarantee what would happen in Edinburgh.  

That was terrifying.  I had thoughts of Becky being quarantined.  Or, perhaps us being  sent home.  I discussed with Heidi her staying to be with our friends and I would return home if needed.

Heidi said it was my decision and to her surprise I decided to go.  I would trust in the goodness of humankind and hope for a reasonable bureaucrat.

With fears about what would happen on our landing and concern about the ADI certification, we took a leap of faith.

We headed to security.

At security I was a mess, so stressed out worrying about what would happen.  And there was very little time now to catch the flight.

The security person told me to take everything off of Becky.  I was so frazzled I started to comply knowing I should not do that but he was adamant.  At that point I would have done anything he said.  I would have taken off all my clothes if he said to.  The events were wearing me down.

Finally I got enough courage to say no to the man and another security person came over and agreed with me and  Becky went through with harness and collar on. 

Security is always different.  This time for example they checked Heidi’s hands with swabs instead of mine.  I’m sure that isn’t the correct process but I said nothing. 

I told Heidi later I appreciated her doing that as a few times in the past I failed that test and was strip searched.

We ran to our gate and right onto the plane. 

Moments later the supervisor came on the plane and told us he had made an appointment for us on arrival.  He gave us wi-fi vouchers so we could email the person during the flight.

He would trust us about the ADI certification. 

I began to worry about that and emailed our GEB trainer to confirm my memory from my Grad Council days.  I got a text back, and my heart missed another beat.  GEB had dropped the ADI endorsement two years ago.

Our school had a different international endorsement, IGDF International Guide Dog Federation.  A organization based out of, thankfully, the UK.  I would have to hope that would work.

I had fingers crossed all would be ok when we landed.

When we arrived in Ireland there were no issues there and they only glanced at our papers.  I’m not even sure which ones they looked at.

Now, we were on our way to the final stop and the Agriculture person.

We had received an email that said he would meet us. He wanted us to email copies of our forms but we couldn’t do that from the plane. 

When we landed in Edinburgh I was physically and emotionally exhausted, I wanted to cry and be sick at the same time.

We departed the plane and a man approached us and asked if I was Eric.  I said yes and he said to follow him.  He seemed nice.  We followed him and he took care of passport control and took us to our bags. 

By then we realized he was not the agricultural person.  We explained we were supposed to meet someone there and even gave him the person’s name.  

The man turned out to be from Disability assistance and he called his supervisor.  His supervisor said, if the agriculture folks were not there then we were free to leave the airport, so, we left.

Later we found a email asking us to wait as he would be late, but that was many hours later.  We emailed him and he basically requested we email him copies of our forms.

After 10 days of wonderful travel about in Edinburgh we headed back to the airport.

After the stressful trip there I was not feeling great about the trip home, but thought it must go better.

When we arrived to check in they asked us if Aer Lingus was aware of our dog.  We said yes and they had even arranged disability services along the trip.  We waited nervously for the Aer Lingus supervisor to show up.  When she did she was very nice.  Looked briefly at the forms and may have asked a couple of questions but quickly let us move along. 

This time security was easy.  I didn’t even have to take off my shoes.  Frankly, for me security is never the same twice.  I never know what to expect.

In Ireland a woman met us with a wheelchair, she really wanted to give me a ride but she eventually let me walk, and  she then quickly led us  through the airport and to US immigration.  With her help that went fast. 

Once through that security check we were good to go.  In Boston we would be able to just get off the plane and go home.

I loved having Becky on this trip.  She did amazing work.  She took to the city and seemed to truly enjoy the sidewalk work and though we spend most of our work time in the country you would have thought she was a “city safe dog.”  The city activity, busy sidewalks, traffic, buses and unusual loud sounds didn’t stress her at all.  I was amazed.  It would not have been as nice a trip in many ways without her.

However , this may be our last international trip. 

The inability to know I have all documents, or meetings arranged  feels impossible.

Surprises keep happening.

• Did you have a break in rabies?

• Is your school ADI endorsed?

• Do you need an appointment? 

• Do you need any additional countries’ papers?

• Are you able to pay for the vet and documents that in my case cost more than my ticket price?

• Do you need to search through every corner of the web site for the destination airport?

• Will the impact of misbehaving  fake service dogs harden peoples acceptance of our true service dog?

• How much stress are you willing to endure? 

I may have reached my limit.

Sadly, from comments made by some of the supervisors and flight attendants fake service animals are still getting onto planes, and causing problems that folks then project onto us.

An example of this is the first supervisor who said, they had just had a flight were a dog was lost for an extended time on the plane.

On the flight home a dog was a row ahead of us and I would be surprised if it was a real service dog.

My recommendations for anyone brave enough to do international travel.

• Read everything on the government site.

• Read everything on the airline site 

• Read everything on the destination airport sites 

• Have an amazing vet that will do everything possible 

• Have more paperwork than they ask for. 

• Have everything for every country you will touch.

• Double check if you need a meeting with an agricultural  person 

• Have your rabies certificate for return to the US 

• In addition consider having a US health certificate.

• See if you need any international endorsements and have something to show it.

• Try to have as direct a flight as possible.

If you asked me now I’d say I’m not going to travel internationally again.

But, maybe like having a baby, I’ll forget the pain and want to visit my friends in Norway or the UK or travel to places I dream of going to.

If I do travel.  I would pay more for direct flights if at all possible. But, I would always be fearful of missing documents, or appointments. 

It felt like the entire process is designed to get you to not travel with your guide dog. And, despite this the pets and fakes get on and our working guides seem to get unreasonable challenges. It actually felt like I had to have all the pet materials and prove more by having an internationally endorsed  service dog certification.

I hope this  information is helpful to future international travelers.

Conclusion

One of the reasons why I asked Eric to describe his experience is because what he went through was not all that unusual. When I was frequently traveling internationally, it was always a stress if the papers will be ready in 10 days, if I filled out all the papers nobody told me about up front, if I won’t meet a clerk who has no idea about guide dogs and will put road blocks in front of us, etc.

I think in order to make travel with a guide dog internationally a reasonable experience two things need to happen:

• Information should be available with clear instructions

• Legislation needs to change in order to simplify the process