The adventure of shipping a dog to Nigeria! - Page 1

A while ago I asked here if anyone ever had shipped a dog to Nigeria. Very few answers I got, and most warned me about it being a scam, but I knew the new owner personally as he is my medical director. He waited for over a year to get a pup from me for his second residence in Nigeria. Here are our experiences.

The owner always flys Delta, so thats what we were gonna use. Lots of phone calls later the flight was booked (Greensboro NC -Atlanta-Amsterdam-Lagos nigeria). The pup was off to the vet for all vaccinations and international health certificate. First hurdle was to find out that NC has no state vet anymore to sign off on it and it had to be done by the USDA office in Albany,NY. Since the health certificate is only good as for long as the air line says (Delta 10 days, United 7 days) overnighting it to and back was the only option ($$). Got that all done....ready for flight with owner. At check in they deny the pup (Boy) because the temp in Lagos was greater than 82F. Clerk said he is unable to enter him in the computer therefore. We are stunned, nobody told us about any restriction on that part. And his last connecting flight with KLM was temperature regulated. Lots of arguing, clerk did not understand, supervisor was clueless. They would not even book him to Amsterdam as owners ticket was all the way booked to Lagos. Owner had to fly on its own, and I took Boy back home with me.

The next two days I spent on the phone with airlines and on the internet doing research, trying to ship him via cargo. Well, Delta doesnt ship live animals via cargo to Nigeria (huh?). United wanted a rabies titer drawn after 3 months of initial vaccine, with an additional 3 month waiting period after. KLM and Lufthansa can only be used wit pet shippers, which I got quotes for $4500 and $6100 for. Well, hit a brick wall. To add, everytime I called an airline back, I got slightly different info depending on who you talked to. Found out that I also needed a Nigerian health certificate and one nice lady bent the rules and e-mailed me the forms. Per USDA you dont need anything...lol  Owner says to wait till he comes back and he will deal with the airline. Said that some special assigned pet travel people in Amsterdam were expecting Boy, and thats when we found out how wrong Delta did us to begin with.

Owner went all the way up complaining to Delta head quarters. They started an internal investigation, admitted fault and compensated with some airmiles and travel voucher. We still lost money overall though.

4 weeks later... ready for another flight. Same ordeal, back to vet, overnighting papers ect. Got denied at the counter again. This time not because of the temperature, but because Boy weighing in with crate and food at 78lbs. Appearantly 8lbs over what they can take at the counter. So they sent us to cargo to get checked in (for the same plane). Cargo says cant do it as international flights need to be checked in 4 hr before and need to be pre-booked (for cargo). We are you got to be kidding us! Nice dude says his hands are tied, but he started making alot of phone calls up the latter. Must have gotten finally the right person on the phone. Got sent back to counter.... They are now on the phone with head quarters. Turns out we will miss our flight....again (run out of time).

The owners name is now well known already...lol Turns out the supervisor has the capability of overwriting the computer system and dogs flying as baggage can be booked up to 100lbs at the counter. They can also overwrite the booking problem because of temperature restrictions. They booked the owner and Boy for the next day (Greensboro-Detroit-Amsterdam-Lagos). 3rd attempt went like a charme....well known now at the counter we got preferred treatment. No weight check, no paper check. Just put him in the crate, took him to the baggage area. Got all his stickers on the crate, last instructions and off he went. Only negative that day was.... as I took him for potty break before the flight (we were there hours earlier), I walked him through the airport and on the way back to the counter I got harrassed by an airport employee (woman) about me walking him and not having him in a crate. Told her the crate is at the counter, just had to go potty. She insisted he needs to be in a crate. the folks waiting on their luggage were starting to shake their heads. Her reasoning was that he could be attacked by the airport K9s (which I had yet to see one...lol).

To sum it up. Boy made it to Lagos Nigeria and is adjusting well. The long flight went withouth problems and the transitionings to the next planes were smooth. Lagos Costums asked for an Import certificate, but $50 made that go away. I found out about this too late, even though I had e-mailed them and they sent me papers back from a rottweiler! There is about a 30day waiting time from the application to import to actual getting it. All this could have been prevented if the clerk on the first attempt would have made the appropriate phone calls, and the supervisor would have been more competent in her job role.

Boy is adjusting fine, eating well and everybody there just loves him. He got to see his last ever snow before his trip.

Sounds good,but i would never ship dog to Nigeria,nor i would recommended to anyone in USA. Beside, Europe is closer to Nigeria,so is cheaper for Nigerian to buy dogs in Europe and ship them from there.

What an ordeal!!    Good to hear that Boy is doing well kn his new home.    I can't imagine shipping the dog there without the owner accompanying him - that could go very wrong, heck it went wrong even with the owner.

Like OldShatterhand, I would never export a GSD to Nigeria;  nor would I

recommend that anyone else do so.  There are long-past GSD Breeders

spinning in their graves right now !   Several years ago, we in the UK had a

big campaign - which was eventually successful - against our then Govern-

ment allowing the selling of GSDs to the Nigerian military.

Basically the objections were about the unsuitablility of their climate;  and about

their Army and Police Force not being able to demonstrate any commitment to taking

precautions for the dogs against the heat (like not working them in daytime, properly

equipping kenneling against the sun, etc) or against the general  (sometimes quite  

dangerous ) antipathy towards dogs overwhelmingly present in the population as a whole.  

[ I have seen this trend, too, among Nigerians in England.]  Nor did they show any great ability

in the training of their LE dogs.   Some of which are no doubt responsible for the feelings of

the general public there !

I realise this is not the situation the OP's has been sold into,  but many of those concerns

would still apply.  I wish this dog the best of luck.

My female, Star, had only one littermate. He was sold to India, and, according to her breeder, spent a MONTH in some sort of customs holding/quarantine area there, before being denied entry and shipped back to the States!

The sale to that owner was never completed, and he was eventually sold to a family that needed him as a medical service dog for their disabled son.

I am glad Boy finally made it safely.

He sold the dog to his FRIEND people!!  OP...that was interesting reading! My, what an ordeal...I can imagine your frustration!! Glad the pup is now settled and everything worked out!!!

No way......

The First AKC GSDs (Then called Sheepdogs) Exported from USA went to Cuba, in the 1910s, and the second country was Brazil!

Elkoorr, that is an awesome story, thank you for posting it!

I heard that Dog is a popular cuisine in Nigeria. I rather keep my pups in North America.

I was thinking more of the 'fear and loathing' aspect of mixing with the

locals, rather than being eaten by them.   But I suppose if you accidently

cook your patrol dogs, you'd have a ready market for them...