Hi wishpoo!
Ocsi is a poodle from Hungary. He was born and breed there. I bought him from a lady at the market who was selling 3 adorable little black poodle puppies. He cost me around USD$100 (my cousin and I negotiated with her a little, I was in college at the time so I got a small discount

however, the economy in general has been tough for the past like 10 years!! so she was happy that after my THIRD visit to her and her puppies in a week's time that I bought one).
Many vacationers from Germany visit Lake Balaton (probably why there are a ton of puppies for sale there every market) and so the breeders bring with them a 'passport' for their dogs. Ocsi has a 'passport' that shows who breed him, his shots & booster shots and some basic bio data (birthday, breed etc).
My aunt of course thought I was crazy b/c I bought him without doing my hw first. But after researching the United States Agriculture website we found out that (mind you this was almost 7 years ago) that dogs needed to have a letter signed by a vet that the dog was in good health (since I was flying through Germany mine had to be in English, German & Hungarian) and they needed to have a rabies shot.
^^this information should still be on their website if you look it up
However, the vet recommended that puppies NOT get their rabies shot so close to the flight date (his recommendation was 30 days+ prior to flying). So he did not recommend giving Ocsi a rabies shot. There is a clause (or was?) saying that your dog coming into the US did NOT have to have a rabies shot IF you quarantined him for 10 days after arrival. The good news is that the quarantine can be within your own home- it does NOT have to be in a government facility. They stated that your dog must NOT interact with any other animals during the 10 days, but can afterwards.
We flew Lufthansa, Ocsi's ticket was $75.
So.... when we arrived in the states (after 12 hours of straight travel, gosh was that rough on both of us! the vet gave me sleeping pills for Ocsi so he was knocked out- but when he finally did wake up at the airport in Atlanta he felt like sh!t. He had diarrhea and threw up

so never again will I drug him- and I haven't over the past 4 or 5 times he's flown with me he's been an angel).
-Btw, Ocsi flew in a hard sided carrying case in the cabin with me- I could never put a dog in cargo, my heart would just break from worry about all the tragic stories I've heard.
So going through customs we weren't hassled at all- the only request they had was for me to give up the small bag of kibble I brought with me from Hungary. That's it!!
Ocsi and I were so happy to have the trip over and done with and I have been so happy to have him in my life for the past 6 years.
