How to get your pup prepared for Hawaiian import

When I was prepping for Nalu’s Hawaiian animal import process, it was DEFINITELY a process. And in our case, my original return flight got cancelled on us! So if we can do it in somewhat of a time crunch, anything’s possible. Here’s what you need to know.

You may have already discovered if you have done any amount of research and stumbled upon this blog, that Hawaii has very strict rabies vaccination requirements in order to import your puppy to this rabies-free island. What that means is that your dog needs to have had two rabies vaccination shots in its lifetime, combined with at least a 30-day wait after its most recent rabies vaccination.

So if you have a newborn puppy, that means they will have had zero rabies vaccinations in their lifetime. Typically the rabies schedule is 16 weeks or so for their first rabies shot, and then they will receive a second rabies shot at 12 months. So how does that translate to Hawaii’s import standards for rabies vaccinations? While unconventional, you can find vets willing to give your pup a second rabies shot earlier than the one-year mark. But you will still have to wait a full 30 days thereafter before the puppy is ready for import. That being said, you can choose to keep your puppy in the mainland with a trusted friend or family member until they’re ” rabies-ready”. This would be around roughly four months old. And of course, you’ll still need to fly them over after you fly, and submit verification of rabies-negativity.

If you choose to fly a puppy “under vaccinated” for rabies, they can still be imported. But they will automatically be scheduled for a 120-day hawaii animal quarantine stay. The quarantine station can administer their second rabies shot for you a month after the first; and then you will have to wait another couple weeks for that shot’s effectiveness to fully “kick in”. After this timeframe, you can choose to get a rabies blood test; and if the puppy passes the test they can be let out of animal quarantine slightly earlier (the rabies blood test ain’t free; and I’ll have a separate post all about it).

The third possibility is that your dog has already had one rabies shot in its lifetime. You will need to get that second shot, wait for it to kick in, and pay for the blood test to prove rabies negativity and sufficient vaccine protection.

The fourth possibility is that your dog has had two rabies shots in its lifetime. In this instance, you just need to get the blood test to make sure they are rabies-negative and rabies-vaccinated. However, in a lot of cases, dogs may fail the test if the antibodies aren’t showing up strongly enough in their bloodstream. So you may be required to get a booster shot, and to wait for that to shot kick in for sufficient negative blood testing. I don’t know if you would then have to pay for a second rabies test in this instance. I just know that some dogs have a “30-day” stay at the animal quarantine facility and this is usually why.

My original intention was to let my sister get Nalu through the rabies vaccination requirements, and then have him flown to me when he was ‘rabies-ready’. I was happy to pay for the flight and pay my sister for doing me such a huge favor. I figured either I pay for quarantine, or I pay my sister. She’s an amazing caregiver, she was all too happy to offer her help, and it was the same difference for me financially.

Deciding how to proceed forward in getting a puppy ready for import to Hawaii may not be an easy decision. In my case it was a matter of, “would you rather have to separate from your puppy for a short time, and pay someone you know and trust to take care of him in a household environment you know has successfully raised six puppies, where he can run free, and socialize with the other dogs that live there? Or would you rather pay strangers to take care of him at an animal quarantine facility? P.S. you can only see him five days a week for short visiting hours and for the entire rest of the time he’ll be left alone. He’ll be trapped in a kennel, and other than your visits, will get no socialization to speak of?”. Obviously my preference was ‘household with my sister’ even if it meant I had to separate from him for a few months. Especially because I had no idea what to expect from animal quarantine because there are no photos. And yeah, there are horror stories online to be found about dogs that have died in that facility, allegedly.

However, my original plans did not end up shaking out as smoothly in reality than they did theoretically in my head. It was somewhat of a complex situation to describe, but ultimately baby boy’s supervision requirements were proving to be quite demanding. And I really couldn’t spring a high level of puppy neediness upon my sister due to said complex situational factors. So when it all shook out in reality, I decided it was best to face my dog quarantine facility fears, and just bring Nalu home with me straight from the California trip. This also meant I had to seriously hustle to get quarantine paperwork squared away.

All that being said, here is my top advice based on how I prepared my dog for the Hawaiian puppy import process.

1. Start corresponding with quarantine personnel, and start getting your required paperwork squared away ASAP. This can never be started too early if you are 100% certain you will be moving your dog to Hawaii. You can find everything you need to know here <Hawaii’s animal quarantine FAQ page>. Don’t even ask me how I got so lucky importing Nalu with basically two weeks of preparation time. I think I legitimately had to tell the animal quarantine people “this puppy is coming, ready or not, so I hope you have the space”.
2. Understand that the animal quarantine people are NOT going to be very prompt emailing you back. They are dealing with a ton of imports on a daily basis. All you know is your version of this experience, from the mainland, from behind your computer screen. So trust me when I say there is legitimately always a line of people at the animal quarantine facility window submitting paperwork, dropping off dog food, and picking up their dogs in real life, every single day that place is open.
3. Know that there are different “levels” of import, if you will. There is a) direct airport release b) multi-day quarantines that are less than the full 120 days, or c) a full 120-day quarantine. Each of these levels corresponds with how vacc’d up your puppy is. Fully vacc’d= DAR. One shot= less than 120 days, zero rabies shots= 120 days.
4. Can you import a puppy that doesn’t yet have its rabies vaccinations? Yes. But you should basically anticipate that your very young puppy will be in quarantine for the full 120 days. And I believe any puppy needs to be at least 11 weeks old to fly, for basic safety reasons. Nalu was 14 weeks old upon arrival.
5. If your dog has met all the rabies and vaccine requirements completely prior to departure, they may be able to fly in cabin with you or qualify for direct release at the airport. BUT that does not mean you get to walk straight off the plane and take the dog home–you’re still going to go through airport animal quarantine shenanigans, which I’ll explain in a subsequent post.
6. If you are military, it’s possible that the military may pay for all of it for you but I don’t think they can square away the paperwork for you. So handle the paperwork yourself. If not, this entire process may cost you over $1200 USD as of 2020. I do not believe it is always necessary to use an animal import service, which can cost an upwards of $3K– I know firsthand that you should be able to do this mostly yourself, unless there are flight connection situations you cannot avoid in order to reach HNL.
7. If you are importing a new puppy, you need to pick a name– and stick with that name. Because whatever name they put on the dog’s health certificate is what is going to get filed through the animal quarantine facility, all the paperwork, and all of the vaccines they give your pup therein. You cannot change the name on the health certificate once it’s created. How do I know? Because I ended up changing my puppy’s name before we left and had to pay for a whole new health certificate.
8. You will need to prepare the puppy to fly, which I’ll flesh out in a subsequent post as well.
9. I recommend getting whatever age-appropriate vaccines you can in the mainland before flying out, along with your health certificate all from the same vet. This will just ensure they are as safe/healthy as possible upon arrival to the animal quarantine facility, and for their journey through the (dirty) airport. Animals can absolutely pick up other animals’ germs in public spaces.
10. If you use Banfield Pet Hospital, they can take care of everything. That’s the vet we used. If you fly with certain airlines, Banfield Pet Hospital can discount the cost of the health certificate.

Also worth noting, there are additional steps you can optionally take if you cannot avoid the 120-day quarantine process in Hawaii, and want to get your pup out sooner than 120 days. But this additional step will cost you hundreds of dollars more, and it will only get the puppy out about a month earlier. I will also blog about this option, so stay tuned!