Difficulty of living in Lisbon with medium sized dogs

[j.hamley]

Hello!

I am being moved for work to Portugal, and the destination will be Lisbon.

I will be taking with me my dog, as this will be a long deployment - he is a border-collie mix. He is very energetic but very good into the apartment, but I am still very anxious, as I have read in these forums Portugal is not good for dogs and Portuguese people in general are not very fond of them.

What I am afraid of is that I cannot find any information about dog laws in Portugal and in Lisbon in particular. Are there many dog owners in Lisbon? Is it very difficult to own a dog in the city, in your experience? Is there any park where dogs are allowed?

And, are there neighborhoods that you would think more suitable to owning a dog?

Thank you very much!

- Jane

[mehereinportugal]

Jane, I moved to Portugal three months ago with my two dogs, albeit up on the Silver Coast about an hour out of Lisbon. I bought my two dogs with me but like you had heard absolute horror stories about the dogs here.

It isn't great and many dogs spend their lives chained and are then literally abandoned, kicked out onto the street or deposited uncerimoniously at a shelter (and not just by the Portuguese either).

I think Lisbon is probably a bit different but I haven't found it anywhere near as bad as I had imagined it to be, although I have had to stop wanting to adopt every animal not wearing a collar that I come across.

What I will say is that there are loads of Portuguese who own dogs and love them as much as we love ours but they do just have a different way of thinking of their dogs. It is changing slowly but like anything that has been the way it has been for hundres of years it isn't going to happen overnight.

////snip////

[siobhanwf]

Hi Jane and a very warm to the Portuguese section of ExpatForum

Living in any city is not easy with a dog.
It is all down to you really and your attitude.
The Portuguese treat dogs differently to the way we do...eg....a Portuguese neighbour of my dog trainer was horrified at her dogs beingkept in the house when she went out for a couple of hours...why? because they did not have their freedom!!! Her dogs roam free in her garden and they are dearly loved...her babies.
We live in a rural area and locally all dogs are chained, which I must admit I do not like at all!!
But they are not badly treated, fed well and do have human contact for the most part, albeit for a short while.

The leglislation for Portugal states that dogs must be suitably restrained in a separate passenger area where they cannot interfere with your driving. When they say restrained this means using a special lead that is fitted into the seatbelt, which for your dogs safety and to prevent injury to their neck it should be used with a suitable dog harness. Alternatively they should be contained in a crate/travelling kennel or behind dog guards. courtesy of Angelic Dogs

One of our member is looking into the laws on dog sin Portugal at present and I have asked her to comment if she can

[AHKS]

I live in the center of Lisbon, in the area Picoas(near Marques de Pombal) and in our area there are lots of dogs. Even in our building, several households have dogs. If we just had the right lifestyle and time, we would as well.. But that's going to be within another couple of years. Until then, I have to settle with petting others
Anyways, I've never noticed a 'dogs not allowed' sign in a normal park here in Lisbon.

Furthermore, I've luckily never seen a dog just chained or likewise here in Lisbon but I'm sure it probably differs from the rest of the country. In Lisbon, the dogs generally live in the apartments and are walked by their owners(Sometimes in lease, sometimes not). Furthermore, even though I visit a lot of the different neighbourhoods in Lisbon, I haven't seen many homeless dogs either. Homeless cats, yes, but dogs, no.

As mentioned before, I'm sure Lisbon differs from most of the country(I haven't yet had time to go around PT a lot). I also heard the horror stories before arriving but can't recognize them inside Lisbon.

[canoeman]

Public areas cities, parks your required to clean up after them, public transport they require muzzling, car travel as Siobhán says, chipping, rabies pet passport but you'd need them anyway to enter country.
You must also register your dog at your local Junta da Freguesia, yearly.

The other thing is to check whether apartments allow animals.

[siobhanwf]

Dogs are not permitted on beaches during the summer months from June 1st to the end of October.

[siobhanwf]

Originally Posted by canoeman

Public areas cities, parks your required to clean up after them, public transport they require muzzling, car travel as Siobhán says, chipping, rabies pet passport but you'd need them anyway to enter country.
You must also register your dog at your local Junta da Freguesia, yearly.

The other thing is to check whether apartments allow animals.

One other thing you must be aware of is that unlike the UK where a rabies jab is valid for 2 years here it must be done yearly

[j.hamley]

Hello everybody!

Wow, thanks a lot for all the replies and the warm welcome. I am not used to Internet forums and I thought I would have had to wait a month before seeing an answer. You have all gone beyond what I was expecting, thanks so much.

Thanks for describing the situation in detail, it is much better than I had thought and not different from how things used to be in Italy, where I grew up while my father was working there, in the 80s.

I have one question about beaches: are they ALL off-limits to dogs during the period you specified? Are there any areas around Lisbon where a dog can jump into the water during the year?

Thanks again for all the replies - I am very anxious (I love the idea of moving, but my dog already had a difficult life so it is important for me to know he will probably do fine) and reading all these posts really made my day.

[siobhanwf]

WE have two rescue boxer babies. We have had them from 7 months old. They love their life her in Portugal and have had no problem adapting. We rescued them fro the UK (Home Counties Boxer Welfare. So I understand where you are coming from!!

Some of the beaches around where we live (on the Silver Coast 80 kms north of Lisbon) are not closed to dogs during the summer season. it is just a matter of working you way through the beaches to find out what is what.

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with your move and how you settle in here in this wonderful country.

[mehereinportugal]

The nearest beach to me is off limits during the summer months, however I am an early riser and I often take them down about 6:30 before anybody is about and let them have a run on the beach without any problem at all, however make sure I pick up everything. Also many of the beaches do have a large "dune" area with trails running through them before you get to the beach and you can let your dog run on these, it is just the actual beach they are not allowed on.

I have asked a friend of mine who is very involved with dogs to get in touch with you - she helped me with advice on mine when I was moving over and it was really helpful.

Was really pleased myself to read the post from AHKS about Lisbon because you do hear loads of horror stories but like AHKS it is not as bad as you are imagining.