Can't bring myself to leave him - anyone else have this problem?

[Sandy]

I cannot bring myself to go away overnight, and leave Toby with someone else, or heaven forbid, at a kennel.  I just can't do it.  I know - my husband and son tell me I "humanize" Toby too much,  but with no small children at home, it's easy to do.  :)  I worry that it will throw him off his routine, which is that he sleeps in his crate, in our room, and has never, ever made a sound in there or balked at going to bed.  He stays in until we wake up in the morning.  I would hate to ruin that.  I can't stand the thought of a kennel - I feel like he'd feel abandoned.  I'm probably being silly, but I'd rather stay home, or go somewhere that he could come than leave him.  Am I the only one?  :)

[Kendra K. Rhoton]

Nope, I cry and cry every time I have to leave Remington. But I do EVERYTHING in my power to make sure he doesn't have to be boarded.... even if it means paying someone else a lot more to stay with him. He is my little cuddle bug and the thought of being all alone for so long makes me heart hurt for him. However, there will come a time I'm sure when you have to board him as it will for us.... :(

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Honestly I haven't! But I have a good support system here - DH and I have left Peri overnight quite a few different times since June (when she came home to us). Either she and Taquito stay with my sister, my parents or she stays at her daycare place. I guess that is technically boarding but she LOVES it there! Plays all day long (i see her on camera) - inside and outside and is only kenneled overnight for 7ish hours. She is exhausted by then anyway. Is there a place like that around you? I am sure Toby would be great with that. These doodles are pretty adaptable (usually!). I do miss her like CRAZY though :)

[Sandy]

Toby's never been to a day care place, because I am at home all day (I teach piano from home). I really wouldn't want to leave him somewhere that he'd never been before. I don't have an overnighter coming up imminently, I was just thinking about this and thinking that it would be very, very hard to do.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I figured that - I was just giving you a suggestion in the event you need to leave him :) I think we worry about leaving them more than they worry about being away from us!

[Camilla and Darwin]

I was worried the first time I left Darwin as well. Neither of our families, (DH's or mine) are dog people and wouldn't take care of him overnight. We did a lot of research into where to leave him, and found a great place. We always pay for daycare as well, so he plays from 9-5. He was happy and tired when we went to get him. I am relieved that we have somewhere trustworthy we can leave him if we need, but I would much rather bring him with!

[Frannie & Callie]

It is VERY hard, but if you can find someone/somewhere that you trust completely then it becomes less difficult. I completely humanize Callie as well and couldn't leave her if I didn't feel good about it. I'd recommend talking to everyone you know who has dogs and finding out what they do when they have to travel sans pooch. That's what I did and found a wonderful woman who does private boarding in her home (she runs a doggie day care out of her house also). She not only provided me with references, but I had to provide her with references too, and we pretty much interviewed each other. She only takes 1-2 new dogs every year, and I feel lucky that she took us (she is in love with Callie). She's expensive but Callie LOVES her (I actually feel a little jealous sometimes!) and has the best time there! (and she picks up and delivers, which is worth a lot to me!) I would bet that there are people like that in every community.

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

I would never put my dogs in a kennel either, but thankfully there are great alternatives... you can ask someone you know to housesit, or use a in-home pet sitting service. My dogs LOVE to visit the dogsitter because they get to play with a bunch of other dogs and play all day. I doubt they even miss us. A day or a week away doesn't change their behavior when they come home, they just go back to following the normal old boring routine :)

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

We used to have a Toy Poodle (for 16 years). When she was young we would board her at the groomers where she went often and they loved her. Then as she got older I started finding someone that would come to the house 4 times a day and let her out and feed and play with her. I've used a Vet Tech from her Vet, as well as neighbor kids, and a neighbor friend. Even if it is a friend I always paid them. It was great one time over Christmas the heat in our home broke and when she came to let the dog out she noticed it. By the time she called us to tell us, she already had a repair guy there to fix it ....... that was worth double what we paid her. Besides, if she hadn't been coming, we would have come home to busted pipes because we lived in CT at the time. However, with Lucy and Sophie there is no way that I could take them to a kennel for boarding. It would break my heart. I'm not sure what the difference is but it just won't happen. I've only had to be gone one night when DH was in the hospital, and I was able to get my niece to come spend the night with them. I still worried though because they are much larger dogs than she is used to. Same way with my mom, she would keep them in a heart beat, but they are just too big for her to handle sometimes if they aren't on their best behavior. I would start planning now though. Give yourself plenty of time to interview people and everything so you don't have to make a hasty decision.

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

I agree that an amazing pet sitter is worth their weight in gold! We've had the same one for the past 14 years and when we moved we made certain we moved within a distance she was comfortable traveling! When the dogs see our bags packed I'm convinced they actually get excited we are leaving because Jenny spoils them rotten!

To find a petsitter takes time but they are invaluable! We've never used a kennel for any of our dogs and frankly, boarding (3 soon to be 4) of various sizes would be a fortune to say the least! We pay Jenny handsomely but nothing near what a kennel would run us. Truthfully though she's priceless!

For short day trips I'll ask a friend of our daughter's to come over, or now her boyfriend. They love the spending money.

Now as far as missing them goes I'll be honest with you.............I couldn't part with Gaston-Cramer over Thanksgiving when we went up to New York so we took him with us!!! LOL The other furballs loved having the break from him and enjoyed their time with Jenny.

Start networking....you'll find someone you trust :)

[Zoe, Benny and Tyler]

No you are not the only one :) Since 2 years I haven't spent a night without Benny except for business travel but then I knew that my boyfriend was at home with him.
If we are going on vacation we will not fly but choose a destination which we can reach by car and where we can bring the dog, ok now the dogs lol.
If I couldn't bring my dogs, I wouldn't go there.
I made the decision to take the responsibility for a dog and I was aware that my personal freedom will be restricted by having a dog but I wanted to make that choice and am more than happy to have this responsibility.
I don't think it is humanizing if you just don't want to leave your dog behind for boarding. The dog is part of the family (or in the dog eyes the pack hehe) and wants to be around.
So don't worry, we are many out there who think exactly like you!
I would just wish all people were like us doodlelovers then we wouldn't have so many sad stories in rescue.

[Tamara & Giada]

I wouldn't want to kennel ours either. I had a wonderful sitter that watched my dog at her house...LOVED her, but she moved, then we had a friend of my dd come in to watch her. Now we have Giada, and have never left and I am afraid to leave her she is very timid and not sure how she'd do :((

[Sandy]

Toby is somewhat timid too. I don't know what it is - these dogs just exude LOVE. You can actually see it in their eyes. He greets me when I come in as if I'd been gone for hours, even if it's only 5 minutes. And - he never eats or drinks if we are out. Silly guy. Anyway, suffice to say that I'm attached. :)