What would you do with your dogs if you were leaving for three weeks?

[Labradorks]

I'm going through some anxiety over leaving my dogs for three weeks to go to Europe. It's not for at least six months. But, I'm thinking things through and have come up with some potential options:

1. The best choice would be to hire someone to stay at my house. I don't know of anyone who would benefit from staying at my home (typically, younger people with roommates or who live with their parents who need extra cash are a good bet) as most of my friends have homes and pets of their own and unfortunately no older children.

2. Boarding is an option. I won't board them in a cage for three weeks. I have used a facility with large outdoor fields where they put like dogs together in acre-plus fenced areas with trees and creeks. Sam LOVES it but he is a dog's dog. I took Linus and Sam a few weeks ago as I had a last minute work trip and Linus was upset at first but by the time I picked him up he was perfectly happy. However, three weeks is a long time and I worry about injury.

3. I could have a friend take one dog (Linus) and board the other dog or find another friend to take him. My dog loving friends have two or more dogs so taking both dogs for three weeks is just out of the question. The one friend that could take Linus does things that I don't like, like allowing her dogs to run out her front door and across the street to greet visitors. That kind of stuff freaks me out and I'm not all that comfortable leaving them there.

What would you pick? And, no, I am not going to cancel my trip.

[ZoeysMommy]

Oh man, i feel for you right now.

I dont even know what to suggest, i have issues leaving mine overnight. If i had to i would ask my mom or board them with my vet who i do trust.

#2 would be my choice

[dxboon]

Can their breeders watch them? I have a Lab breeder watch mine, or my younger boy's handler stays at the house with them.

[Tanya]

urgh I feel for you (well sorta - the trip to Europe sounds awesome!). I used to love travelling but now it get all anxious and not want to leave my dogs. In fact, I haven't left penny overnight since I got her! Two years now!

If you have a friend you trust that would be my choice. I have one friend I trust. Rocky is a tad easier. If my parents were not coming with me I would see if Rock could stay with them and Penny with my friend (if she could). I think my two would be fine separated (assuming penny knew the place and people - as she hasn't been separated from Rocky overnight either. but they are not crazy bonded.). I don't know any of the boarding places here well enough to trust. I mean I know about them and have been to some but none I'd want to use. There must be one that would be ok.

what about having a friend look after them for a few weeks then bring them to boarding (unless they are happy to take them the entire time). a good mix of time in a home and time at boarding to have fun.

[kimbersmom]

Yes. We have a week-long trip planned this summer and I don't know what we're going to do with Kimber. We have one set of friends who have watched her for a long weekend and I'm hoping we can push it to a week with them, but they travel a lot too and don't yet know their summer schedule...

[shellbell]

Out of the three options you listed, for me personally I would feel best with option 1. Since you have six months, I'm wondering if maybe you could start putting the word out to friends, coworkers, etc, maybe someone would know a good responsible person who could use the extra cash....like a niece/nephew, etc. And you would have time to feel them out and make sure you were comfortable with them. This might be kind of off the wall, but if there are any colleges or vet tech schools, maybe try to scope that out to see if a student in that field would be available to stay at your house? Or ask your vet for recommendations for an in house dog sitter?

I'm another one who has major separation anxiety from my dogs and try to avoid trips. I have to travel for work a few times a year and luckily it is usually only a couple nights, and my husband is home to watch the dogs. Last month I had to take a four day three night trip, and my husband was also not going to be home. I drove my dogs up to stay with my parents, which I know is always an option but I still hate leaving them.

[crazysage]

we are fortunate that we have some close friends that are going to watch our two when we go to NZ for two weeks in Feb.
We are currently watching there dog for a month, so its a fair swap.

If you have a good friend, with a dog that yours gets along with, that would be my suggestion. It will be a dog vacation!

[Annette47]

We’ve never been gone for more than a week and we’ve gone both the boarding and dog-sitter (although we have someone who comes in rather than lives in) options. The dogs don’t seem to mind either way, but we prefer having someone come in a couple times a day to feed, play, and walk them (we have a dog door so they can go out for potty breaks on their own if needed).

For a longer trip, we haven’t done it yet, but we have two separate friends who do pet sitting out of their homes. For a longer stay I think I’d look into that. One works through dogvacay.com (I think that’s the name) - might be worth checking there or similar sites to see if you can find someone. Or my trainer will do in-house boarding - she brings her dogs and moves in for the duration. The only problem with that is she would be out at work a lot so it wouldn’t be that much more company than our regular dog-sitter.

[doubledip1]

I'd hire someone to stay at your house. I wouldn't kennel them, but the good thing about a kennel is that they have insurance in case of injury.

I'm hiring my boyfriend's sister to stay at my house with my 2 dogs, my cat and his cat for the week we're going to London in January.

The dogs are more comfortable here than at someone else's house, and 3 weeks is a LONG time to have someone else's dogs in your house.

I would definitely look for a college student and vet them SECURELY and I'd also buy a couple Dropcams and have a friend stop over to check periodically just in case.

[MightyThor]

Have you tried dogvacay.com? We've only had to board Thor once but it was SO HARD to find him a place because he was still intact and over 6 months old. And even then, the place that would take him didn't allow him to play with the other dogs - he only got people play and walk time. I watched the web cam during his play time and he spent the whole time wanting to play with the dogs on the other side of the fence and had no interest in fetching with the employee! It made me so sad, so when I got home I looked up some people with good ratings and insurance on Dogvacay.com and did a few meet and greets. I found a couple of people I liked, including a woman with 2 young labs that had a blast playing with Thor. So when (if) we have to board him again before he's neutered I'd go to one of those folks.