We either board them at day care, or they stay with a former daycare employee who now does pet sitting on her own. I actually have no idea if she has insurance. There would be no property damage since they're at her house, not ours, but in the event of injury, we figure we would cover it. We understand the normal risks of dogs being together. If we felt there was evidence of negligence, that would be a different story. But we've used her for years and she's cautious and uses good practices, so hopefully that risk is very small.
Post by Norticprincess on Oct 2, 2014 10:48:53 GMT -5
With previous dogs, I've boarded no issue.
With the current one - she will NEVER be boarded again. She made her feelings on being boarded crystal clear by flipping out and being missing for 15 days the only time we tried to board her. She wasn't there 6 hours before she got out. Now there is some debate about how secure the fence really was at the time. Licensed, bonded, etc didn't prevent her from getting out. Our vet said it happens a lot more often than you hear about, it can happen at any of them. The old practice she left had lost a few, none were the way she got out. Most had climbed or dug out.
Now she normally stays with friends who have her litter mate and another pup of the same breed. She loves being there and they love her. She stays with my mom for short things, my mom has 4 of her own so it can get a bit crazy.
We have another friend we are investigating leaving her with, as we have a month long trip coming up and don't want to put her on just one person. They have done rescue before and are used to dealing with pups with separation anxiety. They have a dane so they have dealt with the giants. Used to pupsit a coworker's rottie.
We are also considering another person I know from the vet, she is a dog trainer that the litter mate people also use for daycare a few days a month when I go back to work. Then we will see how she does - the lady also does in home boarding one family at a time. Which is what mine is comfortable with -- if she is in a house with other dogs she knows she is good.
For the cat -- my mom or sister usually stop over and check on her. She is a normal healthy cat so no med concerns. When we were gone for about 2 months we took her to my MIL's to stay. My BFF's younger sisters still live in town so they've checked on her when my mom and sister were also out of town. I completely trust them - I've known them since before the youngest was born. I've petsat for them while they were gone in the past.
To answer my own post, Wyatt stays with the ILs. The one time that didn't work we went him to daycare and then my friend spent the night and watched him.
We also have the option of boarding him and daycare but we haven't had to do that yet. Id just assume friends watch him but he's so energetic it's a real chore.
In the past, I have had friends come by and take care of my cats (and I've taken care of their pets). The last time, I had a friend of a friend who was a professional pet sitter come by and feed my cats and scoop their box.
Now, we usually take the dog to grandma but she can't take care of the cat because she has 2 temperamental cats of her own. So he gets boarded at the vet (which I would imagine would classify as a professional pet service).
Both animals are getting taken to the vet today as grandma is going with us to a reunion on the other side of the country.
Yes. I was referred to her from a friend. She quit her job in a software company and opened up her dog walking/dog sitter/pet sitter business. She has taken great care of our kitties in the past two years. She is worth every penny.
We have 1 cat. We were using our younger cousin who lived close by for the random day here or there, however she lives farther away. And we did have MIL do it once, however she completely ignored our food instructions and fed him twice the amount of cat food + people food -we won't be asking her again.
But we just started using the 14 year old girl across the street. It's been great. She comes over more than I even asked just because she likes to play with him, and it's been a great responsibility for her, and way to earn good money. I did feel horrible though when our kitchen sink leaked while we were gone on our recent trip and her parents had to help figure out how to turn off the water.
I've contrmplated a professional but don't like the idea of a stranger in our house. And Sr. kitty doesn't play well with other cats and dogs, so a boarding wouldn't work well bc he would be cooped up all day
No. We have one cat and my sister stops by to take care of her if we are gone. If we had dogs, I think that we would bc it would be inconvenient for my sister to come multiple times a day that dogs require.
We did in LA, because we had a cat on subcutaneous fluids (every 3 days - later every day). Currently, we use our vet - they only deal with cats and have a separate "cat condo" room for cats that are being boarded. Maximus doesn't like going, but Delilah is good with it. I don't worry about either of them having a medical problem, either, while at the vet. But if we adopt a third cat, we're going to use friends of ours who run a professional pet sitting business in the future.
Right now it's $20/cat/day at the vet, but the professional pet sitter will be $25/day total for all three. Also, our vet is closed on Sunday, so we can't pick up the cats until Monday if we get back from somewhere on a Sunday. If we're gone, say, Friday through Sunday, we have to pay for Fri, Sat and Sun nights at the vet, but we'd only have to pay a pet sitter for Saturday.
Post by Velvetshady on Oct 2, 2014 11:17:25 GMT -5
Depends. Our first option is usually to have my dad house/cat sit. Second option if he's not available, is a professional pet sitter (licensed and bonded).
Yes and not just any kennel. We purposely drive 3 hours out of the way to their breeders who run a kennel. If we're catching a flight, that airport is 1 hour away from them (in between us) and cheaper than our local airport. I've left Hilo at 2 different random boarding places before. One he was happy at but I just didn't have a good feeling. The other, he was so sad and whined so much that his voice was gone in only 2 days and there was a big scrap on his nose.
We use to let MIL watch until she went completely insane. We would rather leave them at my parents (and fly out of our local airport) but they work long hours and don't really want to deal with 2 crazies when they get home.
My parents love our dog and welcome the opportunity to be dog owners for small stints at a time. So we're very lucky that we take him to my parents whenever we are away and they "watch" him at their house.
If they ever weren't available, I don't really know what we would do. I think I'd see if a friend would be willing to pet/house sit (or take him to his/her house). I wouldn't want someone who only came a couple of times a day. I'm sure he'd be totally fine but I'd feel bad for him to be all alone at night.
I voted no, but only because we haven't needed to yet since my sister has been available when we've needed dog care. We will use a professional when necessary.
I would have been totally for using someone I know but I use a professional but only because I don't have anyone to ask. All of my friends live too far and it would be very inconvenient for them to do it. I would feel awkward asking any of my neighbors because we hardly talk.
Now after that thread, I would be pretty nervous not using a professional.
We travel a ton, so we go back and forth between our next door neighbors, a married Christian couple who are more wholesome than ourselves, and a professional pet sitter. That way I feel like nobody gets overwhelmed with our pet sitting needs.
When we lived near family I would often use my mom or my older sister.
I let unlicensed, unbonded teenagers and 20-somethings watch my three kids on the regular--as does pretty much everyone I know. Yet over half the board wouldn't even leave a pet in that situation? I have to think this is yet another situation in which MM doesn't necessarily line up with reality. Is everyone here exclusively leaving their kids with licensed and bonded babysitting services as well? I am tempted to do another poll, but I don't want to be all @-ish and cross the MM/MMM boundary...
i don't have kids, so i can't really speak from experience on that, but i'm assuming that most people leave their kids w/ a licensed daycare provider during the day. when someone is babysitting the parents are only gone what, 3-5 hours? and are usually nearby in case of emergency.
when leaving our dogs w a pet sitter we are gone for days at a time, so not really comparable to a babysitter. we prefer our professional pet sitter because she is insured, she is pet first aid trained, and has an established relationship w all of the vets in the area. if she loses our key her insurance pays for our whole house to get new locks, if our dog is injured/lost while in her care her insurance pays, etc. our lady stays in our home overnight and visits 2-4 times during the day between other visits. i like that this is her actual job, so feeding/medicating my dogs is not an afterthought or hassle. she left teaching to start doing this and we couldn't love her more.
My next door neighbor is a retired lady who loves cats and is home all the time. H and I use her. She offered when we first moved in and it's worked out great. Before we moved, we had friends come over and take care of Penny when we were OOT/OOS.
We have a man we found through care.com. He checks on our dog 3 times a day and has been excellent. I doubt he's bonded and insured but has always been super professional. We prefer this to a kennel so much. We've tried several and our dog (shelter dog) hates them.
I'm curious for people who would only use someone licensed and bonded and have kids - are you the same way with babysitters for your kids? I know we're talking longer periods of time that you're away from your house with pet sitters but I'm curious.
Would you mind PMing me the information about him? I forgot you had mentioned this before until I read this, so thanks We're going to a wedding in a few weeks and I was wondering who would I should ask to take care of them!
No, our dog is high maintenance. We adopted her and she was abused early in life. She is, therefore, incredibly protective of us/our house and terrified around new people. It takes her at least 4-5 times of seeing someone for awhile to get more comfortable with them. I would say, after a year and a half of watching her about once every other month, she is just NOW 100% comfortable around my parents.
So, it's pretty much impossible for us to have a stranger come in and watch her. My parents are the only ones who have so far.
We take our cat to the ILs. He loves staying at grandma and grandpa's, lol. He doesn't do well being left at home and having someone come over a couple of times a day to feed him and check on him. He needs to be around people all the time.
No. My in-laws watch ours when we go out of town, we watch theirs. It works well and saved money for everyone. Plus I think my dogs would happily chew off my arm to be around my in-laws, it's sick how much they love them.
My friends and family fight over who gets to keep my sweet boy when I'm out of town. He usually stays with my mom or an old roommate. I do have a boarding place that I really like on the rare occasion that no one is available, but I'd rather have him with a friend or family member.
Post by belovedbride07 on Oct 4, 2014 12:09:07 GMT -5
Where we used to live, we had a crazy cat lady friend (and I mean that affectionately!) who would take care of our two kitties, and refused to be paid. I always attempted to somewhat compensate her in baked goods, or little souvenirs if we went somewhere fun.
Then we moved to location #2 and had no one, so we hired a professional. He was great; a little wacky, but totally trustworthy. (His services were $23/day.)
Now we're in location #3 and haven't found anyone yet, but we need to before Thanksgiving. We were going to see if we could hire a teenager from church, but after cuadrado's story, I'm nervous about that and we'll be going with a pro. So far I found someone who is only $15/day for cats (with an extra holiday fee); I need to do some internet searches on her and make sure everything looks good.
Last Edit: Oct 4, 2014 12:09:31 GMT -5 by belovedbride07
Trying for #3; FET 8/18 -- BFN. Leaving things up to chance for now... After three years, three IVFs, and two FETs, we finally have our miracle babIES!