U.S. to implement border rules for Canadians travelling with dogs

For Canadians, a road trip with their dog to the United States is about to become more stressful and costly, and this is not sitting well with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

New American rules kicking in on Aug. 1, 2024, add several restrictions when crossing the border with your beloved pet, leading to the federal government actively seeking a complete exemption for Canadian travellers.

Despite months of talks to try and sway the U.S. away from this move, Canadians will still face these strict new rules when heading south of the border, as will Americans returning to the U.S. from our country.

Americans have made some concessions regarding receiving official government validation for your dog’s records and the type of microchips. However, at this time, dogs crossing the U.S. border will still have to have a chip and a vaccination record signed by a veterinarian, and owners will have to fill out multiple forms that get inspected at the border.

“If you are travelling with a pet or planning to import an animal to Canada, you will need the right paperwork at the border to meet Canada’s import requirements,” Canada’s government states online. “If you don’t, you risk experiencing delays at the border, and your animal may not be allowed into Canada.”

Canada’s health minister, Mark Holland, says he is worried about the negative impacts.

“Having these forms done by veterinarians in Canada is going to [take] a lot of time to get validated,” said Holland. “As well as making sure all dogs have this chip. It’s going to cost a lot of money.”

Feds believe cooler heads will prevail

According to the new regulations, as of Aug. 1, 2024, dogs that do not meet the U.S. import requirements may be subject to additional testing or requirements at the owner’s/importer’s expense, may be denied entry and returned to the country of departure at the owner’s/importer’s expense, or other enforcement actions.

Holland believes this will hurt tourism and cross-border trade since many truckers travel with dogs.

“Frankly, I don’t think this is a good use of a border officer’s time,” he added. “It’s fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.

“There are a lot of issues at the border. Whether or not my Maltese is another Maltese and having a border officer figure that out doesn’t make sense to me,” Holland noted.

The federal health minister said there would be a two-month grace period during which people without proper documentation would receive a warning, but the feds are still pushing for a full exemption.