The little Jack Russell and the Jack Russell-cross he lives with have no idea that they are at the start of a huge change in the lifestyle of dogs in this country.

First they came to the surgery for their check-up and microchips. At their next visit they had their rabies injections. At their last visit I took a large syringe-full of blood from each of them to send to the Ministry of Agriculture laboratory to check that their rabies vaccine had given them a proper immunity. When the results come back their owners will be able to apply for their pet passports.

Once they have their passports, they will be able to go on holiday to Europe with their owners and still come back in to the United Kingdom without going through quarantine. When they come back they will need a health check and treatment for parasites, especially ticks and tapeworms, from a vet in the country they visit before they return.

Finally the wall that made Britain a fortress against rabies for most of the last century has been breached. I do not worry that the end of quarantine from a limited area of Europe will allow rabies into this country. That is far more likely to come from illegally smuggled animals.

I do worry a little that some other diseases that are not present in Britain may find their way in over the next few years. We could do very well without the tick-borne disease Babesiasis, for instance, which is serious problem in some parts of the south of France.

The controls do seem adequate and they have certainly been a great deal better-aired than Margaret Thatcher's relaxation of the feeding-stuff regulations that unleashed BSE on an unsuspecting world were. The end of the misery of quarantine for at least some dogs and cats is to be whole-heartedly applauded.

So what will it be like for two little dogs as they go for their first run on a French beach or through a French forest? The answer is pretty ordinary. They will be able to enjoy country walks with their owners just as usual. In fact in a few years' time it is hard to see there being any cause for comment when people take their dogs on holiday with them.

The problems of heat-stroke in a hot car will be a little more of a worry perhaps but that has always been more of a problem of ignorance or neglect than anything else. It might be a little bit different taking a dog with a cut paw to the vets in a different country.

The two little dogs are a little less keen on coming into my consulting room than they were, but neither the implanting of the microchips nor the rabies injection bothered them or made them feel ill. They just did not like sitting still while I collected the blood samples.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.