Leaving dog home during vacation

[sangria]

Did this once but it was for a weekend.
Dog sitter came over few times a day for feeding, playing etc.

Sitter said that most of the time she noticed our dog was just kind of sitting facing the door and waiting.

She did fine though. She just didn’t act like herself.

[georgeharrison]

How many overnights are you talking about? And how does your dog spend most of the day/night?

We had to do kinda this with our doberman when my H was in the hospital. I would say he spent probably 5-7 total nights alone. But, he has full run of the house day/night and sleeps on the couch most of the time. It wasnt ideal, but he was ok. I did spend a good 2-3 hours at home with him in a chunk once/day, so it wasn't like I just ran home and let him out and then took off again. I think that helped a lot.

I personally wouldn't do it for vacation, though, that would make me sad.

[winecat]

Have you checked into a service like Rover.com?

[jaycee]

Apr 20, 2018 21:09:40 GMT -5 georgeharrison said:

How many overnights are you talking about? And how does your dog spend most of the day/night?

We'll just do two nights.  But we have a vacation planned this summer for 6 nights.  He is old and likes to be left alone most of the time.  I'm a SAHM so he is used to having me around though.

It makes me sad too, which is why I'm here asking about it.    The kennel was terrible for him, my parents and friends won't take him and so I need to come up with something else.  I'll look into rover.com like winecat suggested.  

[isabel]

We found our last sitter on rover.com.

Our dog has never done well with kennels, so we’ve always left her home. She has a dog door, but the sitter comes in the morning and evening for meals and walks her at one of those times. We’ve used two different sitters from rover.com and both have been fantastic! I highly recommend. Our dog is so much happier and more relaxed at home even though she ends up being alone a lot of the time.

[insominac]

My brother stays over my house. I give him a gift card as a thank you.

[MrsAxilla]

We started with an in-home pet sitter when our guys were around 10. They were used to us working full time, so being home alone wasn’t an issue. We pay $15 per visit for all the animals (we used to have three dogs and two cats, but now we’re down one of each ). We do three visits a day, and they stay about a half an hour each time. We’ve been using the same people for almost six years (a married couple), which has been great because they really got to know our pets and could adjust based on our needs. For example, when one elderly boy needed mobility assistance, the dude made the visits because Floyd was 120 pounds and didn’t want to be touched. We had a muzzle to be cautious and he was totally fine using it, but he didn’t need to because Floyd knew him.

It’s worth it, IMO. Just a word of caution - every pet sitter we’ve had has been....odd. Like they spend too much time with animals instead of humans - lol. Make sure they’re bonded, though.

[jaycee]

Apr 20, 2018 21:21:45 GMT -5 isabel said:

We found our last sitter on rover.com.

Our dog has never done well with kennels, so we’ve always left her home. She has a dog door, but the sitter comes in the morning and evening for meals and walks her at one of those times. We’ve used two different sitters from rover.com and both have been fantastic! I highly recommend. Our dog is so much happier and more relaxed at home even though she ends up being alone a lot of the time.

How many nights have you left the dog?  Do you think a week is too long?

[CloudBee]

We're struggling with what to do with our elderly dog. He's almost 12. DH's parents used to watch him, but are now in their mid 80's. They just can't handle him any more. Last year we paid a dog walker to come to our house 3 or 4 times per day. Horrible experience. We have a camera with sound, and after a few hours passed our dog started howling. Once the sun went down - he was obviously terribly upset.

We paid extra to have the dog walker sit with him and watch TV, cuddle, etc. She did not. She was in and out quickly, and often arrived late. She even left our radio on for him thinking it would sooth him. He's never left at home with the TV / radio, and we had checked "no" on the intake sheet for that.

So - not what you were hoping to hear. But our world travel has taken a hit. We're thinking of taking him with us to a cabin in Vermont this summer. No plans for a big trip for now.

Our experience has been that elderly dogs are more challenging than puppies. Their needs are just as extensive, but they've developed routines, attachments, and tend to have difficulty with deviations.

I would try being gone for an entire weekend day. 12 hrs. Have the neighborhood teen walk your dog a few times and arrive home late at night. Feel it out and see how your pup does.

[foodiemom]

We did this for the last three years of our dogs life- we used a local pet sitter who came highly recommended. She stayed overnight and did some days go to work at her other job from 9-2 so on those days we had a friend let him out once at around 11am. It’s not cheap but was needed for our elderly dog as he got anxious anywhere but home and really like companionship as we are both home a lot.

[huskymom]

We used a service where our dogs stayed at someone’s house. Maybe that’s an option?

[insominac]

adding more:

I feel your pain. I've only kenneled my dog once and he hated it. He doesn't do well with other dogs and greatly prefers staying at home. And he's 15! Luckily, my brother stays over, but if I didn't have him, I'd look for a professional house sitter. We definitely don't travel together as much anymore for an extended period of time... Kinda sucks.

[AHappierHour]

We leave our dogs at home but normally my older son comes and checks them a few times a day and plays with them. But that’s only for weekend trips.

[HRH Queen Dick I, Orphan]

I don't even like my dog and I wouldn't leave her alone overnight. We use Rover.

[Doggy Mommy]

We have always gotten a sitter who stays at our house with our dog and stays overnight. Our dog is *extremely* spoiled... my husband works from home so she’s used to having a ton of attention, at least one walk a day, lots of play time, sleeps in our bed etc.. We’re lucky to have an amazing sitter who loves our dog and also likes having the house to herself so it’s a great fit. Finding someone is really hard though and I have no clue what we’ll do when she moves or doesn’t want to dog sit any more.

[isabel]

Apr 20, 2018 21:26:50 GMT -5 jaycee said:

Apr 20, 2018 21:21:45 GMT -5 isabel said:

We found our last sitter on rover.com.

Our dog has never done well with kennels, so we’ve always left her home. She has a dog door, but the sitter comes in the morning and evening for meals and walks her at one of those times. We’ve used two different sitters from rover.com and both have been fantastic! I highly recommend. Our dog is so much happier and more relaxed at home even though she ends up being alone a lot of the time.

How many nights have you left the dog?  Do you think a week is too long?

No, I don't think a week is too long. We've done a week on multiple occasions. Our sitter is great about sending daily photos and she hangs out for a bit just to provide some extra company everyday.

eta: My dog will be 16 next month, by the way, so it's not like I'm leaving a young dog or anything like that. She does great. Our sitter loves her.

[carmenere]

Another recommendation for Rover. We booked a sitter through Rover who stayed in our place for three weeks while we were out of the country. It worked out really well - the dogs were happy and we knew the house was being taken care of while we were gone, and the sitter took good care of everything. I think we paid $40 per day which is less than any of the kennels in our area. We’ll use Rover again when we go on vacation next month.

[jenny1980]

There is no way I'd leave a dog alone overnight. They're such social animals and I think most would be really anxious and lonely. We had a GREAT experience with Rover.com. For $28/day our sitter exercised George, took care of him and stayed overnight. She even took him to her office with her during the day! She sent us a ton of photos of them at the dog park, on walks, etc. It was a screaming deal for the service we got. (And there are a bunch more sitters at that price so it wasn't like she was an outlier). We tipped her $50 because we were so happy.

[winecat]

Apr 20, 2018 21:26:41 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

We started with an in-home pet sitter when our guys were around 10. They were used to us working full time, so being home alone wasn’t an issue. We pay $15 per visit for all the animals (we used to have three dogs and two cats, but now we’re down one of each ). We do three visits a day, and they stay about a half an hour each time. We’ve been using the same people for almost six years (a married couple), which has been great because they really got to know our pets and could adjust based on our needs. For example, when one elderly boy needed mobility assistance, the dude made the visits because Floyd was 120 pounds and didn’t want to be touched. We had a muzzle to be cautious and he was totally fine using it, but he didn’t need to because Floyd knew him.

It’s worth it, IMO. Just a word of caution - every pet sitter we’ve had has been....odd. Like they spend too much time with animals instead of humans - lol. Make sure they’re bonded, though.

[redheadk]

I pay my youngest sister to house/pet sit or my bff’s college age stepdaughter. In a pinch, we can get dh’s friend to come by. He will hang out with them but not stay the night. We only do that in a pinch for 1-2 nights. We’ve never boarded our dogs but we’ve always had at least 2, normally 3.

[dreamcrisp1]

I wouldn’t (and couldn’t) leave my dog overnight. I use rover if my MIL can’t watch him. He’s had great stays with many different people and loves it because they usually work from home or are home more frequently.

[lostrn]

I used to do overnight dog sitting at people's houses when I was in nursing school. I loved the time away from my roommate, I loved the time with the dogs since I was in no position to have one of my own and of course the money was nice. Rover is probably a good bet to find someone to stay with your dog. I wouldn't want to leave a dog alone like that for so many days. Our last dog also did terrible in boarding, so I feel your pain. So far with our current dog the only trips we've taken we've managed to find dog friendly lodging. I'm not sure what we will do this summer.

[LanaLang]

It really just depends on the dog. Our last dog (Aussie/lab x) would get really depressed and not eat while we were away. She was too old to enjoy the party life at the kennel, so we'd either take her to an in house boarder or leave her with a friend. The current beast (Rottie x) is a nervous wreck. He does best staying home alone with three potty breaks, one including 1/2 hour of attention. We've done it for up to ten days and sometimes we come home to a healthier dog than we left. We hire a teen in our neighborhood and the parent comes along. I suspect when they walk their dogs they may grab our dog. We pay $10/day, but I know that's an absurdly low rate.

All that to say it really just depends on the dog.

[pooh8402]

We do it all the time. My BIL lives close to us, so he comes to feed them and let them out to run around (and we do the same for his dog when his family is OOT). Or my FIL does, he also lives in our city. We have older lazy dogs so it works.

[wambam]

Apr 20, 2018 21:09:51 GMT -5 winecat said:

Have you checked into a service like Rover.com?

This. When we left my dog overnight for my marathon, we hired someone to house sit and take care of him.

[wambam]

I think when I retire, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to walk dogs and house sit for people and take care of their dogs. I’m odd. I own it.

[tacom]

Another nope.

We also don’t have friends or family who can stay with our dogs, so we use a lady from care.com. Will likely use rover when we move

[icedcoffee]

We used to do this. We had a neighbor who would come by 4 times a day and we would do the same for them. We stopped when we went away and noticed they never walked our dog (I could tell they never came by because I can access our garage door opener history by an app). We came home immediately and never did it again. I was livid. They also lied and said they took him out. We now take him to my in laws or board him. A local dog walker has a key to my house in case of emergency but we don't use them often because they are expensive and my dog loves the socialization when we board him.

[mala]

We leave our dog home unless it's a trip longer than a week. We boarded her for our 2 week trip out west (at the vet, she loves them and they love her so it was win-win). Anything shorter we leave her home and one of our neighbors comes over. Ususally it's mom or older daugther from across the street. Sometimes we pay them, but usually we do a dog sitting exchange, they take care of our girl for a few days and we return the favor a few weeks later. Sometimes we try to pay each other if the other doesn't have an upcoming trip. We basically all have the same routine for the dogs. Mom will come over and let Anna out when her kids go off to school, then the Older Daughter will come over after school to let Anna out and spend some time with her, and then either one will come back for feeding and a last trip out. Anna does really well, but she knows them really well, too. I don't worry about her alone at night, though, because she's not allowed upstairs in the bedrooms so she doesn't sleep with us anyway (#meanMommy - she sleeps in her $120 dog bed or has full run of the couch).

[tacokick]

I would not leave a dog along overnight. Our dogs don’t even like it when we move their bed in the bedroom to like a millimeter out of sight so us not being there would seriously stress them out.

I would take care of my neighbors dog when she’d go away. It worked out okay, I guess but when I’d get there in the morning the dog would be frantic to see someone and it was sad to see.

I’d see if someone could stay at your house or take them to their house overnight.