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Relocating pets BACK to Oz from the Philippines (Manila)

I just wanted to share my experience to date with relocating my pooches back to Australia from the Philippines as I know whether to bring pets or not is part of the decision making for a number of expats looking to relocate to the Philippines when offerred a job.

In short, after 11 months and $30k AUD (2.5 times the cost when I initially priced it) I can only bring one of my two dogs into Australia. One dog got an blood infection from a tick bite that went unnoticed at the boarding kennels in KL and as a result has failed 2 E-Canis tests (or should I say tested positive). Ive been told it could take up to another 12 months to rectify but no guarantees.

This isnt a pity party so Im not looking for sympathy - just sharing my experience and contact recommendations.

1. Getting your dog/pet out of the Philippines
As most people are aware because the Philippines has rabies Australia will not allow the importation of pets directly from the Philippines. However, if the dog spends 6 months in a country compliant with Australias AQIS/DAFF then it can return to Australia.
So from initially contacting relocation companies in the Philippines it took almost three months for them to leave Manila. There were a couple of reasons for this:

(i) I was dealing with it from Australia, so mainly via email and phone calls.
(ii) Because one dog was a bull terrier / staffy cross it made it difficult to find a country to accept her - Singapore said no to ANY terriers
(iii) A number of countries will not allow your pets to be stationed there for six months (eg Indonesia) if you are not living there as well or do not already have a work permit for that country.
(iv) Some airlines will not take some breeds of dogs
We eventually got them into Malaysia.
I recommend Crown Relocations as they were the most helpful from the couple I dealt with.
During this time my dogs were boarded at Better Dog in Paso Tamong and were well looked after.

2. Despite paying for rabies shots to be done in the Philippines Australia does not recognise them, so have your boarding kennels/relocation company organise it to be done the day they are released from quarantine. Once this is done it will take a further 21 days to do the RNATT test. it is only from this point Australia starts counting the six months.

Also some tests will need to be carried out in Australia

3. Continually keep communication up with your relocation contact.

Companies / suppliers I would recommend
1. Manila - Crown Relocation in terms of service and responsiveness and price.
Boarding Kennels - Better Dog - I got regular emails and photo updates of the dogs. The kennels are clean and no cages.

2. Malaysia - Armstrong Relocation - again customer service, responsiveness and cost.
Kennels - Pet Playground - my dogs stayed here for 7 months. Wonderful service, regular email and photo updates and good clean comfortable conditions for the dogs - no cages.
Armstrong relocation now have a boarding house and my dogs are currently there - again for the same reasons.
Australia - Jetpets of course.

Hope this helps people

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