Our first choice is always to find someone who will house and dog-sit at the same time. It's easiest on the dogs and it's nice to have someone at the house so it's not sitting empty while we're gone.
So far we've never had to kennel the dogs, which is a relief for us because we know it would be hard on our dogs. I know it works out really well for some people, but it would be a huge stresser for our pups (especially Shalai). For one trip last year (in our pre-Beemer days) we dropped Shalai off with a friend of ours who kept her at their house. It worked out well with just Shalai but it's definitely harder to show up and drop off two dogs. They're quite the handful!
For budget purposes we try to make the assumption every time that we'll be kenneling the dogs. It's not cheap (around $35/night per dog in our area) so we want to make sure we can still make the trip in the event that we need to kennel the pups.
Fortunately, our friend Tim came through for us and is staying here with the dogs while we're in Boston. The dogs know him the best and love him, so he's our first call whenever we leave town. I'm sure he's super excited about it, since it's supposed to hit 100* two days this week. And we don't have central air.
How do you take care of your pets when you're on the go? Take them with you? Leave them with a friend?
Depending on where we're going, we'll take Mocha with us. This weekend though, we can't take her with us, so we had to work something out. My parents are always glad to take both Mocha and Pekoe, but since they live 2.5 hours away, it's a bit tough to get them there. Fortunately, we found a friend from high school in the city who's headed back for Canada day. She's driving the pup and the kitty to her parents' place, where my parents will pick them up. No idea how/when we're going to get them back when we get home!
ReplyDeleteWe try to take ours wherever we are going if possible as they are great car riders. But when that is not possible, we end up boarding them. Which they are not huge fans of, but the place we go is cage-less so they get to play with other dogs all day. So when they get home, they are pooped. It is expensive, so we always have to budget in that cost when we are taking a vacation!
ReplyDeleteI wish we could load ours up in the car! Beemer LITERALLY shrieks the entire time he's in the car. It gets old after about 5 minutes so he's not a prime candidate for road trips. We're not sure why he gets so stressed in the car, so we're still hoping to get it figured out.
ReplyDeleteIke either stays with family or travels with us. We've never had to board him. I'm not sure I could do it.
ReplyDeleteHave fun in Boston!!
DecorandtheDog - I wish we could leave ours with family! Unfortunately we don't have a dog-loving family. My new brother in law would probably be up for it (and convince my sister to do it!) but they live in an apartment right now. Hopefully they'll have a house soon and we can leave the pups with them!!
ReplyDeleteWe always have volunteers, thank goodness. The two dogs I could swing boarding, but 16 cats? Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
ReplyDeleteWe always have to find dog/house sitters to stay at our place when we're away too. We've been pretty lucky because my brother-in-law loves our dogs and doesn't mind (too much) staying with them. I also reconnected with an old friend recently and it turns out she dog sits on the side! Now we have a great back up plan in case my BIL can't do it :)
ReplyDeleteIf they pooches can't come with us, then they stay at home with a close friend. We actually don't trust my younger brother to watch the girls because of his busy job - we aren't sure that he'll remember that he needs to run over and let them out or feed them! Sad, but true. So we have a close friend come over and stay with them. The girls know him and trust him, and he's slightly more trustworthy since he has a daughter and is a stay-at-home-dad.
ReplyDeleteI much prefer having the girls stay in their own home than having to go to a kennel. They like their down time and I prefer the comfort of knowing the person that is taking care of them is a long time friend.
oh goodness, tell me about it. since we have older dogs i insist on leaving them with only a vet that i trust. with four it gets, let's just say, a tad pricey.
ReplyDeleteuh, that was me. oops.
ReplyDeleteWe try and take our 2 dogs w/us, they love to travel. Luckily, our 3 lb. yorkie & 5 lb. pomeranian both fit in the small size carrier between the 2 babies' carseats (that way they can both "see" us and be part of the convo on long drives).
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I take them to Paws Pet Resort...it's expensive ($70/night for the both of them). They get their own room w/cot & tv at night,...and play in the doggie daycare w/other dogs all day (there are 2 rooms, separated by size of dog). My dogs get plenty of attention, and sometimes we'll pick up our dogs to find Charlie (our 3 lb yorkie) sitting on the lap of the receptionist! haha!
OH man. I wish someone had told college-age-me that adopting pets was easy...UNTIL you had to pay for dogsitting or kenneling, etc. Nah, despite all these rude awakenings, I'm still glad to have my posse of 4-footed friends. But it does get pricey. Especially if you want good care for them.
ReplyDeleteIt just so happens that my best friend is a vet, and has no problem adding 2 pups to her household menagerie when we go out of town. So sometimes we do that. I try not to kennel my older dog, because she has fear aggression issues, so when I can't have them stay with my best friend I have an amazing dog-sitter, thank goodness. But that costs $25 a visit, and that adds up. But, they're like kids, and they deserve good care, so I pay the price happily.
My younger pup is a Springer Spaniel or Border Collie mix, and your last photo here of your little guy is just adorable - totally reminds me of my guy when he was a puppy.