Who watches your dogs while you're away?

Whenever my friend, Renee, leaves town, she always asks me to watch her dog and water her plants. I don't mind doing this, because she is a good friend of mine. (And she has Netflix- whoo!) However, she does want me to text her updates all of the time which I find a bit annoying.

Do you have someone in particular who watches your dogs if you are going on vacation?

I'm personally not a fan of boarding dogs, because most places have high fees, tight places, and smell terribly. A friend of mine used a boarding kennel once and was horrified when she picked up her dog. His paws were caked in feces, and he was covered with fleas.

 

We have handled this a few different ways before.

We have used a kennel before, but two of the animals (one cat, one dog) are 13+ years old at this point and they've never really been in that situation often, so we prefer to avoid it.

We've also just taken the dog with us and left the cats to their own doing in the house with plenty of food/water if we're only going to be gone over the weekend (so leave Friday night or Saturday morning, and be back Sunday afternoon).

As far as I know, we've only had someone watch the dog once really, because he couldn't be brought with us. It was a friend of the family and she just came over a few times a day to take him out, feed him, check the cats, etc. We didn't expect updates, but she did text us a few times to let us know he was doing alright. Again, because he's elderly and not be away from his owner much.....so it's a little different.

 

Fiends. Ones who can mind our animals. There are not many. I do have a friend Kay who I can exchange dog minding favours. ..Always the hard one. When we need to go without our friends.

 

It's been a long time since I've gone away. The couple of times that I have had to leave overnight recently, Misha came with me.

However, if I needed to be away and couldn't bring her, either my sister or brother would take her. Both of them owe me multiple doggie sleep overs since I take care of their dogs on a regular basis.

I couldn't leave Misha at a kennel. She is afraid of strangers and would bark and cry the whole time. I am pretty sure I'd have to end my vacation to come pick her up.

 

Whenever I am away from home, some relatives can look over for the dogs and the cat since they are also fond of animals.

 

When I travel, I can't take Homer with me, because he doesn't like being in the car and he is really bothering me, when he is trying to sit on my knees while I'm driving. So even though I always miss him very much, I still have to leave him at home when I need to go out of the town. He usually stays with my mother and he really enjoys it.

 

Great thread! If I can't take my boys I ask a family member or a friend to stay at my home. Being gone is stressful enough on them, so keeping them at home is best. I don't trust strangers, kennels or pet sitters. They just don't know your animals character, likes or dislikes.

 

It is a problem with me. If I can't take Mishka it is very difficult for someone to stay at my home as I live in a secluded spot and no one visits anyway. I could leave her with a neighbour but that has other problems. My daughter lives and works in the city and it's not such a good place to have a dog. I have checked out kennels and am also not keen on them. I was hoping to fly north to see family for Christmas.

 

I try to leave my baby with family. He's very picky about the people he stays with. He loves my mom and sister, so they're always a safe choice. I only board him when there's no other family left to care for him. I've used the same boarder for about five years now, but it's never easy to drop off my baby with them I'm actually on the road right now and I took him with me this time. I just posted a thread asking for thoughts on traveling with pets. Check it out, I'd love to hear everyone's input!