Transport day — what to expect when your dog arrives

Transport day is the moment months of waiting finally becomes real. It's also, for your dog, the end of an exhausting journey and the start of everything being unfamiliar at once. A calm, well-prepared arrival makes a real difference to how the first night goes.

The journey your dog has just had

Most dogs travel by road in a licensed transporter's van, often for three to four days across Europe. They travel in crates, with the driver making scheduled stops for water, toileting and rest. It's a legal requirement that these journeys are properly documented and that the vehicle and driver are authorised for animal transport.

By the time the van reaches you, your dog has spent days in motion, surrounded by unfamiliar dogs and people, with no idea where it's going. Whatever personality you've been promised, the dog that steps out of the van is a tired, overwhelmed version of it. That's normal.

Where the handover happens

Rescue dogs travel under commercial import rules, even though yours becomes a pet the moment it's home. That has two legal consequences worth knowing before the day:

• The dog must be delivered to the address on the import paperwork. APHA (the government's Animal and Plant Health Agency) says it's against the law to collect a commercially imported pet from a public area such as a motorway service station or car park. For most adopters that address is your home. If your dog is going to a rescue's UK kennels or a foster home first, that's the declared address and you collect from there.
• The dog must then stay there for at least 48 hours. In practice that means no walks, no trips out, and no "quick visit" to family until the 48 hours are up. Your rescue may call this "doing traces": Pawprints to Freedom's adoption pack explains that the address is recorded so the authorities can spot-check the dog's microchip and passport.

Confirm the plan with your rescue before the day, including a rough arrival window and a phone number for the driver. Cross-Europe timings drift, and a van that was due at 2pm can easily arrive at 9pm.

Getting your dog safely inside

Have a plan for the handover before the van pulls up:

• Do it in an enclosed space — a closed room, or a garden with the gate shut and gaps checked — never on an open driveway or street.
• Get the harness and slip lead on before the dog has both feet on the ground. Agree who does this with your rescue beforehand: some drivers put a slip lead on for you.
• Keep it quiet: one or two calm people, not the whole family and the neighbours.
• Let the dog come out in its own time. Don't drag it; don't crowd it.

The first few hours

Once your dog is safely inside, the goal is simple: let it decompress. Offer water. Show it where it can hide — a crate with a blanket over it, or a quiet corner. Then, mostly, leave it be. Resist the urge to introduce it to everyone or to start bonding. That comes later.

What happens over the following days and weeks — the hiding, the not eating, the slow thaw — is its own subject. The first three weeks have a rhythm worth understanding before you're in them.

Before the dog arrives, make sure you've also sorted insurance for an imported dog — cover from day one matters, and imported dogs have some specific considerations.

To put all of this on a calendar, from the kit you need beforehand to the follow-up vet checks months later, try the arrival planner.

Sources

• APHA — bringing new pets into Great Britain responsibly (July 2025)
• Pawprints to Freedom — adoption pack (dogs)