A Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy going abroad

We receive enquiries from outside Italy, mostly from Eastern Europe. It is possible — we have done it before — but it works differently from a placement within Italy, and it is worth knowing that before falling for a photograph.

The puppy does not leave at eight weeks

In Italy a puppy leaves its mother at 60 days. To leave the country, however, it needs the rabies vaccination, which cannot be given before 12 weeks of age. After the first dose another three weeks must pass before it counts for travel purposes.

The arithmetic is simple: a puppy going abroad leaves at around four months, not before. That is six or seven weeks more than an Italian placement, and the puppy spends them here with us.

This is not red tape to be worked around: it is the time it takes. Anyone offering to send a two-month-old puppy to another country either does not know the rules or is breaking them, and in both cases it is worth asking what else they are not doing.

What travels with the puppy

• Microchip to the European standard, registered
• European pet passport, completed by an authorised veterinarian
• Valid rabies vaccination, with the dates recorded in the passport
• Export pedigree — the ENCI genealogical certificate carrying the stamp that makes it transcribable abroad
• TRACES health certificate, issued by the official veterinarian of the local health authority after a clinical examination of the puppy

The TRACES certificate is the one that surprises people who have not been through it: when a puppy passes from a breeder in one member state to a family in another, the movement counts as commercial and the official certificate is required. The passport alone is not enough.

Some countries additionally require treatment against Echinococcus multilocularis in the days before departure. It concerns few destinations, but it has to be checked case by case.

The export pedigree, and why to tell us early

The Italian pedigree on its own cannot be transcribed abroad. ENCI has to apply the Export Pedigree stamp: that document, and only that one, is what your national kennel club will accept in order to register the dog as a pedigree Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

How you get there depends on a decision made much earlier, when we register the litter:

• If we already know the puppy is yours, we register it in your name from the start. ENCI issues the certificate with the Export stamp and posts it to you. That is the short route.
• If the puppy is already registered to us, the change of ownership has to go through the Delegation first, and the certificate then goes to ENCI for the stamp. Same destination, a few weeks longer.

This is why we ask you to talk to us early: the litter is registered in the puppies' first months, and if by then we know who you are, the document sets off down the right road.

One thing to expect: the export pedigree almost always arrives after the puppy. It is posted to the new owner's address and does not travel in the crate. The dog leaves perfectly in order — microchip, passport, vaccination and health certificate are what matter for entry — but registration with your own kennel club happens afterwards, with that sheet in hand.

Who comes to collect

The puppy does not travel alone. No couriers, no cargo holds, no handovers halfway in a car park.

You come to Ostellato. That is how we see who we are entrusting a dog to, and how you see the mother, the house and the place where he grew up. It matters even more when you live far away, because it is your one chance to check in person what you have read on a screen.

How far ahead to move

If a litter interests you, talk to us while the puppies are still small. It takes weeks to schedule the vaccinations at the right time, book the visit for the official certificate, and reconcile two calendars.

An honest note

Rules change. The European framework was updated in April 2026 and individual countries apply their own conditions, particularly for young puppies.

What you read here is how it works today, but before travelling it must be confirmed with your own veterinarian and with the animal health authority of your country. We do the same at our end, with the Ferrara health authority, for every single puppy that leaves Italy.