Yes Emma it can seem confusing, I've been watching these types of threads on Dogsey for about four years and the mists are only now clearing

What I've done to simplyfy it in my mind is look on it as two seperate actions.

1) Going out from UK your dog will need to have had the rabies jab, and as Paw Paw has said most EU countries require it once a year. Please do your checks on France but if you make it as far as Czechland your dog will be allowed in he's had the jab withing the last 12 months.

2) Now, when it comes to returning to UK you will not get back in unless you have the proof that the jab was successful, again as Paw Paw has said there is a very high success rate but the way I understand it the UK is the only country which requires proof that it has worked.

So as we live in Czechland we have our two monsters done every year, but as we have so far not taken them to Uk we don't bother with the 'proof of jab working thing'

So far as DEFRA are concerned your dog may well have the rabies jab, but while on holiday it could maybe get bitten by a rabid dog, and if he is one of the tiny minority where it didn't work he could possibly return to UK with rabies.

Lots of 'maybe' 'possibly' and 'tiny minority' in there but government civil servants don't deal in maybe's and possiblies

Norway and Sweden require titre test also (but I think you only have to wait for 4 months after the positive results tho I am not sure as I never went there with my dog...And I don't know if that applies to dogs coming from UK or just other EU countries...But you can check it out on DEFRA and they have helpful links too

I don't know about tags...But I suppose that if your dog is miccrochipped (which it has to be if you want to return to england anyway) and if you carry the pet passport with you than you have a proof that you dog was vaccinated...

The tags they give us when the jab is done are just to make it easy to show people our dogs have been done.

Our dogs are (of course) microchipped.

I think you are saying the tags are not really very secure and you are correct, anyone could copy them or steal one of another dogs collar, but this is Czechland and they tend to do things here 'because it's always been done that way'