Travel from a Newbie
 

Hello everyone. I have been reading the posts long before ever owning a Yorkie. A lot of great information.
I am the proud new mom of by baby girl Sophie.
I have previously owned Old English Sheepdogs for the past thirty years so you can only imagine the change for us. Going from 100 lbs to 4.5 lbs:D
We have been so blessed to have gotten the most precious, sweetest, dog anyone could ever ask for! Sometimes I just look at her and cry (happy tears) to have been soooooo lucky! So now I must ask a couple of questions and would appreciate any feedback.
My husband and I are retired. Lucky Sophie eh!! Problem is we still want to travel while we have our health.
We did our bucket list trip before we got Sophie so any trips will be 1-2 weeks max.
Sophie was born March 1, 2013. We want to plan a trip in late November for a week. I do not want to make the same mistake with previous dogs whereas we would not even travel because we could not leave them behind.
Sophie will be about 8 months then. The only place I feel comfortable kennelling is with my vet. Ok I must ask is that too young to leave her for a week. We also want to go away in Jan or March for 10 days (gets to -40C where we live). Being that we are with Sophie 24/7 we do not want to create separation issues. I just find it so hard to leave her. At 5 1/2 months now she is potty trained outside. Never used pee pads just ALOT of hard work getting her to this stage. Will I screw up all I have done by training to go outside by kennelling her at 8 months.
If taking her with us was an option we would however we can not.
Second question is how much does your Yorkie eat. I do not want Sophie overweight but my little girl sure loves her food.
Thanks for any comments.
Again enjoy reading posts.
Cheers to all.

Welcome to YT & congrats on Sophie!
Travel: I have boarded Huey at the vet twice since we got him (he is now 4 1/2) but DH & I have decided that unless it is a dire emergency, we will always travel to dog friendly places from now on & take him with us. As for ruining potty training, no clue. We haven't had the best of luck in that area-it is hit or miss.
Food: you are lucky to have a good eater. Yorkies have a tendancy to be picky eaters. There are many threads here debating the brand of food that is best, but I will weigh in on amount. I feed Huey 1 tbsp per lb of body weight a day, split into 2 meals. He is 8 lbs & gets a little less than 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) twice a day of Blue Buffalo Freedom. This gets supplemented with training treats, carrots, frozen green beens and the occasional piece of cheese when I can't resist the face any longer. :D
Looking forward to pics!

Sophie
 

Oh boy I need to my girl on a diet. She is sure a good eater:D She will paw at her bowl for more food. 1/4 cup a day at the least.

We would love to travel with her but unfortunately taking her to Hawaii is not an option.

The potty training has been a long hard road but finally there and sure do not want to mess it up kennelling.

Potty training a large breed wasmuch easier:eek:

She's not going to be kenneled all day, right? The place at your vet is also a daycare where she'll play with other dogs? Can't you make a request for them to take her out to potty on whatever schedule you have with her now? I only ask because the daycare I take my two does that.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with boarding her. I think it is great to do especially at a young age- it will make them independent.

However I would maybe pick a boarding facility. They are more adaptable to take her out, play with her, make sure she eats.. etc etc. If you can find one you like and approve of.

What food are you feeding her? You have to base how much she gets to eat on her age, weight, activity level. It should say on the back of the bag.

Peanut is 6 years old and 4 pounds, he is semi- active. He is on Canine Caviar, the bag recommends ¼ of a cup a day. I will give him 1/8 in the morning and a 1/8 in the evening.. I can tell if he wants more so I will give him a little more, sometimes he eats it all sometimes he just nibbles.

kennel & food
 

So far the only one I have ever trusted is my vet to kennel.
They only kennel for clients of which I have been for over 20 years. No day care there per say. My problem is trust issues. Guess I am too over protective. They will take her for walks if I pay extra (not an issue as we did for our OES). Not sure I trust any friends due to stepping on her falling off couch or down stairs. I keep a very close eye on her. There is another kennel which one of my best friends children own. I trust her opinion of how good they are without a doubt. She even said they would bring her in the house to play. Again, MY problem is trusting ANYONE else with her. Maybe if I kennel for a day so she knows I am coming back?? I do also believe i need kennel her at an early age so as not to become an issue at a later date.
Boy oh boy I have owned dogs my whole life but this one is just so special.

She is pretty active and pretty laid back. We go on some good walks. I just can't believe her appetite. I do NOT want her becoming overweight! I have kept her on the same food as the breeder had which we are both happy with. When she want more she will not stop pawing at her bowl.:D She is on Nutri Source puppy food.

Do appreciate al your comments.

I boarded at my Vet's office back in May when Hannah was 5 mos. She did fine. I called everyday and the tech. there sent pictures to me. When I picked her up she acted like it was no big deal but Hannah loves everyone and everything. She visited all of the other animals on her way outside and then again when they brought her back in. I was told that she fell in love with a Pit Bull while there. My Hannah??? Guess I can't choose her boyfriends for her when she's out but when she's with me...no boys! LOL and good luck!

We have boarded Bailey with the vet and also with our groomer who runs a boarding kennel. He loves the groomer's kennel more, because he has a huge yard they go out and run and play in. Also his son will go over and play with my dogs. His son has asked his dad to see if we would give him Gus (our 7 year old dachshund and Bailey's best friend) because Gus smiles. But before we boarded we did do research and checked the places out really well.

Thanks
 

Thanks for all your comments. I feel much better. When I kennelled before I called every day also.
Wow, I never would have thought a Yorkie could tug on your heart strings like my Sophie has. I absolutely love her to death! She is one special gal (aren't they all).:)
Sophie also appreciates all the help you have give me.:D

We always use a house sitter when we are vacationing. Of course I have 4, but this way they don't have to leave their home and even though their "people" aren't home, they are. Could this be an option for you?

This is exactly what we did back when we had two inside cats. We did try boarding them once and it was a nice place but we just didn't feel it was right for our two at the time. Of course, cats are much different to dogs. At the time, it wasn't to convenient for our son to come to our house because he was about 45 minutes away from us. So we didn't go as often. A few years down the road our son was able to housesit for us and we resumed traveling. We were living in California at the time and knew we were getting ready to retire and move so we traveled a lot and it worked out for us. Now we have Coco and our traveling will only be to places that we can take her. We're good with that because we were able to finish our travels out of the country before we left California. I'm not much for air travel anymore due to all the scanning going on in airports so this has actually worked out very good for us. Oh, and she is a great little traveler:thumbup::thumbup:

Boarding/House Sitter
 

I guess I should have had kids. Then I would have had a built in babysitter.:D
Will let you know how it all turns out as hoping to go away in late Nov for 7 days.
I know its more my problem letting go.
Never have I had a dog that tugs on your heart strings like my little Sophie has. Will take some time as I have gone from 100 lb dogs my entire life to 4 lbs and I feel sooooo protective of her.
P.S. A have now found three of her puppy teeth. She is growing up.