Unfortunately, there are not a lot of dog friendly places to go on holiday (sometimes you’re actually wanting a break from being a dog parent). When you go away, you want to know your dog is safe and happy.
At the moment, there are three options for this:
1. Send them to a kennel:
Personally, I am not the biggest fan of this idea, and neither are a lot of dogs! If I could describe kennels, I would say they are a larger and more comfortable version of a dog shelter. The dogs are often kept in their own restricted concrete fenced off area with a dog house, blanket, water, and some toys. They often do have nice open spaces for them to run and play, but most of the day they are scared, confused and lonely in their restricted area.
If you do go the kennel route, you need to ensure you ask the right questions before leaving dogs in the hands of strangers:
- How regularly are they exercised?
- Is the kennel well maintained?
- Are dogs allowed to be in the same fenced area? If so, is there around the clock supervision in case there is a fight (which will likely set off all dogs to get hyped up and attack their roommate too)?
- Are the staff trained to recognise whether dogs need to be kept separate as well as what to do if there is an emergency?
2. Send them to a home-based dog boarding:
We run our own home-based dog boarding facility, so please note I definitely have a biased opinion here. Having people look after your dog in their home means they will have human comfort/interaction 24/7 as well as other dogs to socialise with! We have definitely had some dogs that are extremely nervous at first and we let them take their time gaining their confidence – never push them before they are ready! Some have severe separation anxiety in an unfamiliar place, even if they have the familiarity of their beds, and are on edge the entire time. These are definitely more challenging, but not every dog is the same!
If you go the boarding route, you can ask the below questions in addition to the kennel questions:
- How are they fed? If they are all fed together it could cause a fight to break out due to any food aggression. They need to be fed separately – some, but very few, can be fed together if there are only 2 of them and they are very familiar with one another – but always double check they supervise feeding time!
- What do they do if dogs don’t get along? Unfortunately, not all dogs become best friends. You will need to ensure they separate those dogs from each other, but still give each the opportunity to play and go outside. When this is the case at night, ask how the sleeping arrangements work.
- Where do they sleep? The whole point of a home-based boarding facility is that they sleep inside. Ask them if they have enough beds for the dogs and, if necessary, confirm there is a person sleeping in each area.
3. Get a house/pet sitter:
This allows you to let your dog stay in their comfort zone and continue their usual routine. The only change for them will be that you won’t be there!
Still, you need to ensure you can trust your pet sitter so there are two important questions to ask below:
- Will the sitter stay overnight with the dogs or just come and go to feed them? This answer should hopefully always be that they will be ‘living’ in your home for the duration you’re gone.
- Will they exercise your dog and how often? Generally, the owner will leave instructions regarding the dogs and how often they must be walked, etc.
No matter what, you want to make sure your dogs are always going to be loved & cared for!
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