the biggest budget buster of our trip is......

[disfan07]

Boarding the dang dogs!!!

We have 2 dogs. one is 14lbs and the other is about 16-17lbs i think. the place we board them charges $75/night. so we are dropping them off the 14th and picking them up the 23rd. So 9 nights is going to cost us almost $700

My mom was joking that it is costing us more to board the dogs than it is for us to take a 5th person to Disney with us.

Our goal was to keep this entire trip (room, tickets, food, flight, etc) under $5000. Yeah....the dogs kind of ruined that idea....lol

 

[Janepod]

Yep, whenever we would go on vacation and board our dog, by husband would joke it would be cheaper to give him away and adopt a new one when we got home.

(Of course, now that my dog has been dead three years -- I would do ANYTHING to have him back.)

 

[SoonerSarah]

OH MY!

Our dogs will have to be boarded for 12 days (not open on weekends) while we are gone. Our dogs are about 20ish and 65ish pounds. We are going to board them in the more expensive place (at $14 per dog per day) and that will cost us less than $350. We could go with another place that is even cheaper, but it's a vet, no one is on hand during the weekend, although they stop in to take the dogs out, they don't have indoor/outdoor runs. The place we are going with does, and it's a large area that my dogs will stay in, and they live on site.

But man, that's too bad that it costs so much. Would it be possible for you guys to have a house sitter? We have had a couple of college students do that before, we did it last year when we were gone for over 2 weeks.

 

[shellcruiser]

We took an 11 night trip a couple of years ago and priced boarding our 60lb dog. We could have paid for another "child" to cruise with us cheaper. Our solution was a very responsible (read- the parents were in on it) teen who lives in our developement and worked at a local vets office. She came at least twice a day to walk/water/feed the dog. Turns out the whole family got in on it, so the dog got more walks than when we are home . In the end the dog got to sleep in his usual spot, he got walked and fed and we saved lots of $.

 

[disfan07]

But man, that's too bad that it costs so much. Would it be possible for you guys to have a house sitter? We have had a couple of college students do that before, we did it last year when we were gone for over 2 weeks.

Our dogs would not do well with a pet sitter.

Our 11 year old dog is sick and she has to get a pill every morning and she is stubborn as a mule when it comes to swallowing the meds. There have been mornings where after her spitting it out 3 times that we have given up.

They also have to be fed in a specific way so that they dont kill each other. They are fed seperately in the kennel.

They would also destroy a house in 9 days. There are days that we come home to a disaster area after being gone for like 6-7 hours.

We love them, but there are definitely not the best behaved dogs (we adopted both of them and obedience training has just not worked with them...they were both neglected and abused).

Unfortunately, $75/night for 2 is cheap around here.

 

[arminnie]

What part of California are you in? I used a fabulous kennel in Belmont that I adored. I traveled a lot internationally, and they took such wonderful care of my dogs.

 

[gillenkl]

Golf cart - usually around $600 depending on how many days we stay. It's not a necessity, but something we really like.

 

[disfan07]

What part of California are you in? I used a fabulous kennel in Belmont that I adored. I traveled a lot internationally, and they took such wonderful care of my dogs

We live in Valencia

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

No kidding, I could never go on vacation if I didn't have great SIL/BIL that take our dogs to their home while we're gone! My 2 labs along with their 2 labs, they have a full house but thankfully don't mind (for a short time). We do the same for them though.

 

[indimom]

I will second asking the vets office if they will watch them. We had one of our two ferrrets get sick before our 09 trip and knew our pet sitter couldn't handle giving the three meds he needed (he was a fighter also and ferrets have strong/sharp teeth). We almost cancelled the trip, but decided to ask the vets office at the last minute. They were more than happy to take care of him. It worked out really well, he was getting excellent care (they are in the office six days a week, and come in on Sundays to care for the animals that have to stay), and we didn't have to worry. Honestly, I think he got better care than if we had been at home, he looked a lot stronger when we got back.
I was shocked at how CHEAP it was. Keep in mind we live in a Low COL area, but still they only charged $7 a day!!! We provided his food, litter, and a cage for him (because none of theirs were ferret-proof), but I couldn't believe how affordable it was.
On your original question, our budget buster is entertainment. Doesn't matter where we go, we like to DO things. So we always spend a lot on the tickets/extra activities. Can't just sit around a hotel or beach and eat. Gotta have FUN!

 

[DawnM]

We have found that for us, a pet sitter works best. We have them penned into our kitchen/dining/sunroom area and they have access to the basement as well. That is still 1,600 sq. ft of space, larger than our house was in CA! But we don't allow them into the living room or bedrooms as they did some destroying in the past.

I also have a pet sitter who would deal with the pill issue just fine. In fact, she was telling me some of the stuff she does while pet sitting and then kept saying, "Your dogs are a breeze! There isn't anything I need to do with them!"

She charges $30 per day for both dogs to come twice per day.

Now, usually, I use the teenager down the street for $15 per day, but if she can't (and I wouldn't have her give pills, etc....but since my dogs just need feeding and let out, we are fine with her) we hire the pet sitter.

Actually, when we lived in SoCal, our Vet (Gateway Animal Clinic in Glendale) was only $8 per night (45 pound dog) for the dog to board. It is more expensive here in NC.

Dawn

Our dogs would not do well with a pet sitter.

Our 11 year old dog is sick and she has to get a pill every morning and she is stubborn as a mule when it comes to swallowing the meds. There have been mornings where after her spitting it out 3 times that we have given up.

They also have to be fed in a specific way so that they dont kill each other. They are fed seperately in the kennel.

They would also destroy a house in 9 days. There are days that we come home to a disaster area after being gone for like 6-7 hours.

We love them, but there are definitely not the best behaved dogs (we adopted both of them and obedience training has just not worked with them...they were both neglected and abused).

Unfortunately, $75/night for 2 is cheap around here.

 

[I*heart*MickeyMouse]

holy crap! $75/day for 2 dogs? They better treat those dogs like KINGS for that amount of money!!!!

I pay $22/night for my dog (12lbs coton detulear) and that is the second tier of treatment. He gets an extra play session, a treat before bed, and an extra hour of snuggling/outside the kennel/one on one person time per day (they spread it out usually 3 20-minute segments) ...

 

[jedijill]

I feel your pain. When I lived close to my parents, we had a deal. They would watch my dachshund when I was gone and I would watch their two dachshunds when they went out of town. Now I live in Denver and have to travel for work. I was using PetsHotel at Petsmart and I was paying 30/night for just one session of playtime. I asked around at work and was referred to a wonderful kennel just outside of town that only charges $20/night with unlimited outside time. (They originally charged $18 but just raised their prices). My dog loves this place! She gets to run around outside (depending on weather) and play with other dogs. This kennel actually raises show dogs so they are really dog people.

Ask around....you may be able to find a better situation for your dogs!

Jill in CO

 

[edk35]

Boarding the dang dogs!!!

We have 2 dogs. one is 14lbs and the other is about 16-17lbs i think. the place we board them charges $75/night. so we are dropping them off the 14th and picking them up the 23rd. So 9 nights is going to cost us almost $700

My mom was joking that it is costing us more to board the dogs than it is for us to take a 5th person to Disney with us.

Our goal was to keep this entire trip (room, tickets, food, flight, etc) under $5000. Yeah....the dogs kind of ruined that idea....lol

TELL ME ABOUT IT.... We now have 2 dogs and they give us a discount to board them together and we still spent like 900 bucks this past summer. At peak times the place we use charges 28.50 a day. Then you get a 25% discount for the 2nd dog per day. Of course we also add Social Play at 7 bucks a pop x two and we get that every other day. Oh and don't forget the baths at the end.

We are going to Disney for 5 nights in Jan. We will end up spending about 360 for both.

 

[dfchelbay]

Boarding the dang dogs!!!

We have 2 dogs. one is 14lbs and the other is about 16-17lbs i think. the place we board them charges $75/night. so we are dropping them off the 14th and picking them up the 23rd. So 9 nights is going to cost us almost $700

My mom was joking that it is costing us more to board the dogs than it is for us to take a 5th person to Disney with us.

Our goal was to keep this entire trip (room, tickets, food, flight, etc) under $5000. Yeah....the dogs kind of ruined that idea....lol

$75 a night is really high. Any chance you have time to call around other places? Whenever we've boarded our dogs, it was $15-$20 per night for the 1st dog and $10 per night for each additional dog. I couldn't be a bigger dog lover and babier of my pets, but $75 a night is crazy high, and I would be searching for another kennel.

 

[effervescent]

I feel your pain on that! We are lucky with the dog care as my friend has a kennel and charges $12/night. Usually our friend/neighbor catsits for us for cheap, but she is moving before our next trip. Our vet charges $30/night for the cat....yeah our budget is shot with the pet care!

 

[rolltidepixie]

It cost $15 a nite to board my english bulldog. It's at a vets office but they are great with him. He was a rescue with some problems due to being mis- treated when he was younger. When we got him we had to have his tail removed because the people had let it get infected. He has some dominance issues too, as he thinks he's the boss of everybody. He can be real sweet as bullies are till you start messing with something such as his nails. So a vet is the place for him. When he gets bossy, they just ignore him, as we do and do what need to be done. When we left him at another place, they said he got snarkey with them. Meaning they were scared of him. Yes I realize an english bulldog can be intimidating when he wants, but if you know the breed as our vet does, it makes a world of difference when you leave him and know they are going to take good care of him. Hoss does just fine at a vets.

 

[neatokimmo]

Threads like these really make me want to build a doggie hotel at my house.

 

[merriwthr]

We were really lucky and found a young man who started his own pet sitting business - on days when my daughter and I can't get home to walk our 5yr old lab - we just call and he goes over and takes her for a long walk.

For long trips, he will keep her at his place with his two dogs - since mines a lab, she's never met a "stranger" either (just ask, she'll show you the way to the jewelry)... and charges us $40 a night for that. When Sadie is having a camp over at his house, he still comes by and feeds and pampers our two cats - one of which receives a fluid IV every other day - for no extra fee.

You may want to start surfing the internet in your area - lots of people who are out of work are starting businesses like this to keep them busy while they look for a corporate job.

Thats what I did - and then met him a couple of times, and spoke with people that he had been working with to make sure he was someone I could trust with my four-legged children.

Unfortunately, kennels know they have us pet-lovers over a barrel... and charge us an arm and leg for the privilege of enjoying our pets for a few days!

 

[MrsPete]

And don't discount how difficult it is to find a place where you're willing to leave your dog! So many places just have them sit in tiny cages (on concrete) all day long with only short bathroom breaks.

The first time we left our dog, we visited 4-5 places and never did find something acceptable; we were fortunate that we ended up finding a relative who was willing to let her stay at their house. The second time we boarded her (the relative had a newborn baby, and we just couldn't ask), Camp BowWow had opened, and we like them.

I'm seriously considering opening a small dog kennel as a retirement business. I have the land, and it seems profitable.