Boarding

[Deb Reed]

Hi All,  I've learned a lot thru these boards.  Thanks to all of you.  I am considering boarding Annie for a long weekend.  Thurs-Mon in October

She is one year old now and has never been boarded.  I have checked out a few facilities and found one that seems really good (clean, good staff, etc.).  I brought her with me to both facilities that I looked at and she was shaking like a leaf both times the minute we walked into the place.  She is normally not a nervous dog at all, so I was surprised by her reaction.

Now I feel like it would be heartless of me to ever leave her at one of these places. 

Thoughts?

[Jaime + Oliver]

We boarded Oliver twice at a larger "dog hotel" facility and when he came home he slept for days.  it just seemed like he was stressed the whole stay, despite great facilities and staff.  Since then we've found an in-home situation with a doggy daycare/dogwalker.

I would try Rover.com, local vet techs, or dog walkers that would also consider doing in-home boarding (theirs or yours).  Another good resource might be any of the instructors that teach obedience classes.

Based on our guys experience, we like to avoid the bigger non-home situations.  Good luck!

[Doris]

Where do you live? I have never used a boarding facility.  I tried Bodi at doggie day care twice and he came home shaking. They told me he spent most of his time up front with the people! Do you attend a church where you might be able to find a college student?  My son has done this . . . that's why I'm interested to hear where you live!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Just my opinion, but I could never board either of my dogs and wouldn't be able to take a trip that required it, certainly not by choice.  Ours are with us almost 24/7 and although they get along well with other dogs, they both are very dependent on us and just don't tolerate new circumstances well, sometimes even with us.  It's probably of our own making, but their whole lives have been with us, so I wouldn;t expect them to just adapt and feel secure with a whole new envirorment and to understand that we will be back to get them.  Maybe that is over thinking it, but it seems best for our two to make other arrangements that they are familiar with and have had the experiences of us coming back for them. They each stay at a friend or our daughters house, sometimes together, sometimes one at each home. They both have 2 doodles , and one is a sibling of our first dogs, so they have known those 4 dogs their whole lives. This is as comfortable as I or they are with us leaving them. And even at that, it's pretty hard to leave because they act like they don't understand why they are not coming home with us.  

I like the advice of getting them familiar with a day care that you might be able to board and so you can eliminate some of the stress for them, and you most likely.