How to Bring a Dog to Spain: Part 1

Bringing our dog to Spain was one of the best and easiest decisions we’ve made. As soon as we planned to move it was clear our dog, Clark, was coming with us. There was no debate. He was and is part of our family.

Moving to Spain was something we had planned for a while, so we always anticipated that Clark would have an overseas move in his future. And it was something we brought up with our vet from the start.

While moving him to Spain wasn’t necessarily difficult. It did take a few extra steps and increased our moving budget. But once everything was in order, getting into the country was a breeze -albeit nerve wracking!

I’ve divided this content into two posts: this first post explains the basics of flying to Spain with a dog, and the second post will outline the required paperwork (How to Bring a Dog to Spain: Part 2).

How to bring a dog to Spain — Our dog, Clark, happily adapting to Spanish Life.

Booking Your Flight

Once you’ve decided to make the move, I suggest booking your flight before beginning any of the paperwork required (listed in part two of this post).

First, you’ll want to book your flight far in advance to get the best deal and second, the paperwork portion doesn’t take that much time.

When you look at flights you’ll most likely have to call the airline to make sure the plane has a climate controlled cabin under the plane. Not all planes do.

Our dog weighs a little over twenty pounds (11-12 kilos) and was a hair too big to fly in the cabin with us. It took a few tries with flights and calling different airlines to find a flight that we could travel on together.

In the end we had to choose a flight that was more expensive than we would have liked. Some people manage to have their pets fly on a separate flight, but we weren’t comfortable with that.

We also chose a direct flight from New York to Spain to condense our travel time. So, while we moved to Spain from Texas, we took a road trip from Texas (where my husband is from) to New York (where I’m from) so that we could have a shorter flight (and enjoy time with both our families before the move).

Purchase a Crate

You’ll need to purchase a crate appropriate for the size of your dog.

Be mindful that there are certain dimensions for domestic flights and certain (bigger) dimensions for international flights. The logic being that your dog will need more space on a longer flight.

You don’t need to adhere to this. No one measured our crate, but it’s a good guideline to follow to make your pet more comfortable.

We bought this crate on Amazon. Frankly, it seemed huge for our dog. He’s a skinny little guy, but he’s got long legs, so we opted to give him the extra space.

Crate Train (Again!)

Now’s the time to train your dog to like/love his new crate.

Our dog was already crate-trained and was used to his old, wire crate. Remember the same things you did to crate train your dog? Do it all again with the new crate.

We threw treats in when he wasn’t looking. We offered him meals in his crate, stored his toys and towels inside, and incrementally increased the amount of time he spent in there.

We purchased the crate about a month before our flight, so our “repeat” crate training took place over the course of a few weeks.

At the Airport

Once we were ready to head to the airport, we lined the bottom of the crate with a few towels and blankets.

I truly thought the airline would yell at me for the quantity I put in there, but they didn’t say a thing. I had two blankets (that I wanted to bring for us, but they didn’t fit in our suitcases), three or four of Clark’s towels, plus some newspaper on the very bottom.

We also included a small bag of food and froze some water. We taped all his documents to the top of the crate, and we were ready to go.

Once you arrive at the airport, the tricky part will be finding a place for your dog to go to the bathroom one last time. We left from JFK, and the grass was limited, but we were able to find a small space for Clark to do his business.

At the check-in counter we paid Clark’s airline fee (somewhere between $200-$350) and had them check over our paperwork. Next, they called security to inspect and swab the crate. Once they do this, your dog must go in his crate and cannot come out until you arrive at your destination. And finally, we waited a bit longer until someone from the airline came to cart Clark away.

I wish I could tell you that we handled this calmly. We didn’t. Clark handled it much better than we did.

Arriving in Spain

We flew into Madrid, picked up our luggage at baggage claim and waited there for an airline employee to bring Clark out to us.

Then customs agents reviewed our paperwork. This was a very simple process for us and only took slightly longer than what you would normally wait to pick up your luggage in baggage claim.

During this process, we let Clark out of the crate, and he did great. Our flight was delayed so what should have been an eight-hour flight turned into a twelve-hour ordeal for our little guy. Thankfully, he had zero accidents and was so happy to see us.

The downside? There aren’t any grass patches outside the terminal in Madrid. Keep that in mind if your dog has been trained to go in a grass or dirt patch. In the end, we walked all the way down to one side and told Clark to go on the concrete. He didn’t like it, because normally that’s a no-no, but after twelve hours he was easily convinced.

In Spain

Once you settle in to your new life in Spain, I would suggest setting yourself up with a vet. There’s nothing else you have to do with the USDA paperwork, but it’s always a good idea to have a vet should anything come up.

Keep in mind that while in the US rabies shots last three years, in Spain its an annual vaccine. Even if your dog is within the three years of their last rabies shot, they will need to have it readministered annually to adhere to Spanish law.