Australian-origin adult dogs: permits, revised health certification and manifested cargo.
Documents and permits
Dog · Separate cargo service
Obtain the Biosecurity Director’s import permit before shipment and follow its conditions. Changes in the specified import must be reported; a permit can be cancelled if the exporting country’s health status changes.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
The Cook Islands authority states that imported live animals may land only in Rarotonga. Present documents before unloading and remain in the port quarantine area until a Permit to Land is issued.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
Each dog needs a signed owner/exporter declaration: no illness or contact with sick animals in the preceding thirty days, at least six months in the departure country or since birth, and at least four months old at export. Use an official veterinary certificate for each dog, with all pages officially stamped.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
Send by manifested air cargo in welfare-compliant transport. Notify the actual departure date and flight at least one working day before shipping. Only New Zealand transshipment/offloading is allowed in the published pathway, with the dog kept crated within the airport.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
The revised certificate lists distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus vaccination one to three months before export; the dog must be at least seventeen weeks old at parvovirus vaccination. This timing supersedes the declaration’s simpler four-month export minimum.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
Within three days of departure, obtain veterinary hydatid-tapeworm treatment with praziquantel and treatment effective against roundworms and whipworms, plus a clinical examination finding no disease or external parasites. No cereal or animal-origin bedding accompanies the dog.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
The November 2025 review uses contact-killing tick/flea protection starting at least twenty-one days before Ehrlichia sampling and maintained until export. Sample within forty-five days before export and at least twenty-one days after protection starts; IFAT IgG must be negative at 1:40. Gaps in protection or ticks require restarting the process.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
Rules depend on the route, animal and operating carrier. Confirm your own journey with the relevant authority and airline.
Applicable conditions
The local 2013 PDF still asks for five-year Australian freedom from Ehrlichia canis. DAFF says it cannot certify that since June 2020. Obtain a revised permit or written dispensation matching the newer testing pathway before booking; the old statement is not a checklist requirement.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
Rules depend on the route, animal and operating carrier. Confirm your own journey with the relevant authority and airline.
Applicable conditions
The published schedule describes Police permission, sterilization, registration and bans including Doberman, pit bull, bulldogs and Rottweiler, but explicitly labels that section guidance requiring Police consultation. Obtain the current written Police conditions; do not infer breed approval from this summary.
Selected official requirements for healthy adult personal pets. Departure selection does not establish residence history, eligibility, permit approval or airline acceptance. Confirm the actual permit and journey with the authority. Only dogs from Australia by manifested air cargo, using DAFF’s November 2025 review alongside the Cook Islands authority. Cat and other-origin health pathways are outside this checklist; the 2013 dog certificate is not treated as current.
