Does anyone know what is involved when purchasing a puppy in the US and bringing it over to Canada. Is it a difficult process?

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/heasan/import/dogse.shtml

Looks like 3 months and older just needs a rabies shot and a USDA signed and stamped certificate, but I didn't look into many of the details.

Wow, thank you for the reply.

My dog was purchased in the US and brought to Canada, he was 8 weeks old. The litter was AKC registered and I registered him as a foreign dog with the CKC when I brought him home.

I picked him up myself. I had a letter from a US vet stating he was up to date on his shots and healthy. The border guard did check this and look at the pup. He did not ask me if the dog was bought in the US. I said we were at a dog show in the US and there was an older dog that was showing in the US in the car (and I did go to the dog show).

Had they asked or known the dog was purchased in the US I would have had to pay duty on the purchase price of the pup. I did not offer more info than was asked, but was prepared to pay duty if I had to. It was easy cheesy for me.

Am I bad?

Hope that helps.

Thank you for the advice. I hope the same works for me.

Michael, are you picking up the puppy yourself or is it being shipped to you?


I had an 8-week-old pup shipped to me from the US earlier this summer and it was a huge headache.

First recommendation I would have is to NOT have the pup shipped on the weekend or have it arrive past working hours.
Once the puppy arrives at the cargo building and they give you the various papers, you need to get them stamped at customs and take the stamped papers back to cargo to get your puppy (they won't even let you take the puppy out to potty until you get this done - even if the puppy is only 8 weeks old and has been stuck in its crate for over 14 HOURS that day!!!).

Usually on weekdays, during working hours, there's a Canada customs employee in or near the cargo building so it's not a big deal.

I found out the hard way that if your puppy arrives at, say, 10:30PM on a Saturday, there are no customs people anywhere near the cargo building and it's quite a drive to find the main office. I don't know if you've ever tried navigating within a large airport complex (like the Pearson in Toronto), but they do not make it easy for you to locate buildings. Very long streets, no signs, no numbers, no names, nothing.
Just one vast field after another, with one huge warehouse-type building after another. Especially fun to try this in pitch dark at night


Also, if your puppy arrives late, past the working hours of the cargo building, they will either hold the puppy there until the next day, or they will stay open for you, but will charge you a HUGE overnight fee.
I was very lucky to have avoided this fee because the workers there were kind enough to waive it for me, but lesson learned.


You will have to pay duty on the puppy, even if it's a gift (mine was). It was funny because the customs employee (upon finding out that my pup was a gift and not purchased) asked me what the puppy would've cost had I bought it.
He had no way of knowing that working line shepherd pups go for 1000-2000$ so I just came up with "oh, about 100 dollars... she's just a mutt"

I don't think we're bad Jennifer

The handling fees were bad enough, the last thing I wanted was to pay tax on $2000 US


Michael, if you purchase the puppy and the price is listed on the papers, you probably won't be able to get away with that. Just be prepared to dish out a lot for the puppy's whole trip if you choose to import.


Anyway, making sure that the puppy is shipped (and arrives to destination) during working hours on a weekday will save you a lot of headache.
It might be a good idea to check the weather in ALL cities that the pup's flight will be going through that day.
Mine was delayed over 3 hours because of thunderstorms in Atlanta - I flew to Toronto from Ottawa to pick up the puppy and this caused me to miss my flight back home that night with the puppy. We ended up being stuck at the airport all night long because we missed the last flight of the night back to Ottawa.

So if you happen to have a flight scheduled home after you pick up the puppy, make sure you leave yourself a HUGE margin (I had almost 5 hours - thought it would be enough, but it wasn't).

If you have a choice, you should definitely have the pup shipped directly to the airport in your city.

In my case, this wasn't possible due to temperature restrictions in Vegas (limited choice of airlines, plus Ottawa has a pretty small airport).
Then again, I heard afterwards that there are apparently airlines (Continental...?) that have temperature controlled cargo holds and as a result have no temperature restrictions for flying animals.

Wish I'd known then


Anyway, sorry for rambling on.

I hope some of what I wrote will save you the troubles that I encountered. It's also a good idea to bring really good treats along to greet the puppy with. You may find this helpful in calming down a scared puppy or in enticing the puppy to follow you on leash

Good luck getting your puppy. I hope you'll keep us updated :-)

Such a horror story Lucky your pup braved it so well (well bred )

My breeder would not ship the dog to me at 8 weeks for that reason. She would have flown the dog in the hold if I or someone they knew would be on the same flight to accompany the dog.

I flew from Calgary to T.O. then drove the 10 or so hrs to Boston. Drove back to T.O. and flew with my pup back to Calgary then drove the three more hrs to get to home. Lucky for me Air Canada still let dogs that fit in a carry on bag in the cabin so he was even right with me.

Add that on to the purchase price of the dog (not a gift ) and it was rediculous, but worth it

Glad you didn't think I was bad. I was going to suggest that the OP have the breeder make a fake purchase price, but you would have to know the breeder, and I suspect many would not do it for contract/legal reasons....then they would be bad too

I'm just curious, can anyone tell us what the rules are (duties, customs) for people purchasing and shipping a Canadian bred dog into the U.S.?

Yuko, did you have to teach your dog to put the "eh?" on the end of his bark, or was he able to pick that up from other Canadian dogs? Sorry, couldn't resist. I guess I'm bad.

Rich