Taking dogs on ferries - Experience/tips?

[Lazermilk]

• Mods - Please can this be kept here rather than moved to travel, it is more specifically about tips for the dogs sake so I assume I will get more answers on that here. Thanks*

We are planning a trip back to Scotland later this month and will be driving in order to bring our dog with us, we plan to take a ferry overnight from Amsterdam to Newcastle, I am hoping we can get one of their per friendly rooms to bring the dog to, but if not seems he will either need to stay in the car or in their kennels.

Has anyone done this with their dog and have any useful tips for it? Whats best to do in case we cannot get a room with the dog?

Will be our first time so anything useful appreciated, thankfully our dog is very chilled out usually and never seems to get phased by much, so it shouldn't be stressful for him hopefully.

I am aware about getting him wormed no more than 5 days before arrival and get the stamps in the passport before travelling, he already has rabies shots, has an EU passport and is microchipped, is there anything else needed?

Info about the pet rooms on the ferry:

https://www.dfdsseaways.co.uk/onboard-our-ferries/...

[halfpenny43]

Lazermilk said:

*Mods - Please can this be kept here rather than moved to travel, it is more specifically about tips for the dogs sake so I assume I will get more answers on that here. Thanks*

We are planning a trip back to Scotland later this month and will be driving in order to bring our dog with us, we plan to take a ferry overnight from Amsterdam to Newcastle, I am hoping we can get one of their per friendly rooms to bring the dog to, but if not seems he will either need to stay in the car or in their kennels.

Has anyone done this with their dog and have any useful tips for it? Whats best to do in case we cannot get a room with the dog?

Will be our first time so anything useful appreciated, thankfully our dog is very chilled out usually and never seems to get phased by much, so it shouldn't be stressful for him hopefully.

I am aware about getting him wormed no more than 5 days before arrival and get the stamps in the passport before travelling, he already has rabies shots, has an EU passport and is microchipped, is there anything else needed?

Info about the pet rooms on the ferry:

https://www.dfdsseaways.co.uk/onboard-our-ferries/...

Hi - yes we've done this a few times on the Rotterdam - Hull route, although that boat does not have dog friendly rooms so we have used the onboard kennel once and then left him in the car twice.
My wife's dog is pretty sensitive and has pretty high levels of anxiety so the kennel for him was terrible. They seem ok - essentially a plastic box with metal grate door on the front. He had a chew toy and blanket and I think from memory there were 6-10 kennels in the room.
This was all too stressful for him. When we left him in the car - he was much happier and seemed more settled when we reached our destination.

I think you've got everything needed as well as making sure the regular shots are up to date.

Good luck with the travels.

[garythesign]

We took ours on the fast ferry to Dublin port a coule of years ago.

Journey was about two hours and ours were fine in the back of the car.

The cat a little less chilled

[Lazermilk]

Thanks for the comments so far, if we don't get the room for him then I think we will try the kennel, he was crate trained from a puppy and is generally happy enough still to sleep in there if needed, although we don't actually use it anymore regularly.
I think he would likely prefer this to being left in the car as he only ever travels places with us in the car and doesn't get left in it at all, so maybe a bit confusing, I also heard it can be noisy down on the car level?
He loves other dogs and has never shown any kind of anxiety towards them, even if they are getting all aggressive towards him he just looks at them slightly confused as to why they don't want to play! So I think if other dogs were in neighboring kennels he wouldn't care, if anything it would probably keep him company in a way.

I will still try to get a room booked instead though as this would be the best way for sure.

[snowandrocks]

I looked at the Newcastle ferry when we went from Scotland to Holland last summer but, at short notice in the summer at least, it was ludicrously expensive and I didn't feel especially comfortable about leaving the dog for so long.

In the end I went with the overnight Harwich to Hoek of Holland route, really cheap for a shorter ferry on a nice boat with a decent cabin. The dog went in the kennel on board which was clean, spacious with blankets, water and a camera linked to the TV in the cabin provided. There's a small outside deck next to the kennel to let your dog out before bed.

There's also a nice beach at Dovercourt and all along the coast to the north of Hoek van Holland - our dog is luckily pretty chilled out but slept like a log in the kennel and during the long drive north after a good run on the beaches.

[Lazermilk]

snowandrocks said:

I looked at the Newcastle ferry when we went from Scotland to Holland last summer but, at short notice in the summer at least, it was ludicrously expensive and I didn't feel especially comfortable about leaving the dog for so long.

In the end I went with the overnight Harwich to Hoek of Holland route, really cheap for a shorter ferry on a nice boat with a decent cabin. The dog went in the kennel on board which was clean, spacious with blankets, water and a camera linked to the TV in the cabin provided. There's a small outside deck next to the kennel to let your dog out before bed.

There's also a nice beach at Dovercourt and all along the coast to the north of Hoek van Holland - our dog is luckily pretty chilled out but slept like a log in the kennel and during the long drive north after a good run on the beaches.

Thanks for that, I might look into that option also, the cameras in the kennel is a nice touch to keep an eye on them too.
I have checked prices for the Newcastle one and seems pretty reasonable at somewhere around £400 return, for a dog suitable room will be slightly extra so will call them tomorrow to check availablility.

[snowandrocks]

Yeah 400 quid is fair enough, especially once you consider the fuel saved. They wanted almost £1k for the dates I needed, I was also driving a fairly economical Honda estate and had plenty of time so ruled it out.