Boarding a dog question.

[kddlm]

Not specifically Dis related, but just curious as to what is the longest that others have boarded their 4 legged family members for a vacation? We are doing Fantasy Cruise this spring and will have to board our Morkie for 10 nights. This will be the longest ever and I'm already feeling guilty.

 

[BuzzyBelle]

We left our dog for 12 days this summer and she was fine. She does suffer from some separation anxiety so I was worried about leaving her so long, but other than some tummy troubles (which she gets every time we board her) she handled it well.

 

[tabrizia]

We're doing 2 weeks in 2 weeks when we go. Our dog loves where we board him so he'll be fine. He has boarded there for a week and a half before, so we aren't worried at all.

We did have friends watch him when we went out of the country for a month because it was a lot cheaper to have our friends have him, unfortunately he appears to be allergic to one of their cats, so we'll likely board him next time we go for that long again.

 

[Blackadder337]

The longest we boarded our dog was 9 days and we paid a little extra to have her bathed on the last day before we picked her up and it worked out well. Granted she was super excited to see us when we did finally pick her up. But the day after we got home it was like we were never apart.

All you can really do is , do your research, ask for references, past experiences, look for reviews online etc.. Often your local vet or groomer can give good recommendations too. At least you'll know they're being looked after.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I have found college kids from church, or someone who just wanted to make extra money. They stayed at my home and I paid them well and bought groceries for them. I don't like boarding. Mine would be so stressed. But that is me. Is there someone in the neighbor hood willing to make money and stay at your home your comfortable with?

 

[kddlm]

I am totally comfortable with the facility we are keeping him as it is our local vet/animal hospital. The place is kept immaculate. We went on a tour before we left him for a few nights in Sept. No joke, if my eyes were closed and someone brought me through there, I would have thought I was in a mall, not the boarding section of an animal hospital. No urine smell, no wet dog smell, no trace of animal smells period! Totally contrary to the tour experience of a local "pet resort" place we went to. It was like doggy prison...(dark, all concrete and stunk of urine), however it somehow gets high praise from many I know (different strokes I suppose). There are trained techs at our facility 24/7 since it is also an animal hospital! I do have friends that would keep him with them, but being a stubborn morkie, who was neutered very late due to some liver issues, at 2 1/2 he still tends to "mark" objects (couches, blankets hanging off, etc...) and I would not want to subject anyone to that in their homes. I am just feeling guilty about the length of time we are leaving him as he is accustomed to sleeping with me every night, etc... I'm sure it's all me and he will be just fine!

 

[whitney250]

I have crazy anxiety every single time I board my little boxer girl. I don't trust many people to watch her and I go through every bad thing that could happen and worry myself sick. I have found that doing a walk through of the resort she will be staying at helps, I also try to talk to the staff as much as I can about what they would do if there were an emergency. I am so glad to have found a resort that a family friend's daughter owns, knowing who's running the place helps so much. We have left her at the same facility twice and she has been a happy girl both times we have picked her up. I call periodically during vacation to check up on her, and that helps ease my mind a bit.

 

[unrequited23]

If you are allowed to leave a comfort item-blanket, towel, tee shirt-that smells like you it might help your dog settle down if he is used to sleeping next to you.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I boarded my last golden for two weeks when we went overseas at her daycare. She was so mad at us when we got back!

 

[wilkeliza]

We bord for up to 5 days, any longer and we find someone to watch them at our house or someone we trusts house. The main reason is we feel like the bording places don't give them much human to pup time and one of our dogs really needs lots of human contact. She is a cuddler to th extreme and gets very anxious if she doesn't have someone to cuddle with after several hours of being alone. So she always goes to a friend or stays at the house with a trusted sitter. The puppy just picks up so many bad habits at the border that anythiny over 5 days is so hard to break him of. The last time he was gone for 4 days he came back barking for whatever he wanted. It has taken me a month to break him of that. I can't imagine what other bad habits he may have picked up with a longer stay.

The facility he goes to is great but since they get 10 hours of group play in the pup care you never know what a young puppy make pick up from the other dogs that are only there for pup care and not bording.

 

[kddlm]

Thanks Thanks for all the feedback! The place we put him does not have dog on dog interaction. (see pics) They have a large outdoor climate controlled area that the dogs spend time in. It is all fenced but the dogs are kept separate for safety reasons, which with mine be a little 7 lb dog, I'm fine with.

 

[martikus]

Our dog is such a cuddler that I just couldn't do the kennel and cancelled our reservation.

We used dogvacay to find a sitter and had great success. We were able to meet and greet and find a home where our dog was allowed on the furniture like he is at home.