Taking a pet to Spain, and the heat question

Spain is a two to three day drive, usually through France and over the Pyrenees, and the paperwork is the same as anywhere else in the European Union. The thing worth planning around is the weather at the far end.

Heat is the real constraint

A car with air conditioning is comfortable at thirty-five degrees. A dog walked on tarmac at thirty-five degrees is not, and the last few hundred metres of a journey are on foot. Between June and September we drive the southern legs early and late, and the hand-over is at the cooler end of the day.

Brachycephalic breeds

Flat-faced dogs, bulldogs, pugs, French bulldogs, boxers, and Persian cats, cope badly with heat because they cannot cool themselves the way other animals do. They travel, but not in the middle of a Spanish August afternoon, and we will say so when you ask for a quote rather than on the day.

Practicalities

• Two to three days door to door, depending on where in Spain
• An overnight stop, with the animals staying with the driver
• Water at every stop and more of them in hot weather
• A vet in Spain for the tapeworm treatment before any return to Britain