Boarding my dog while on vacation advice???

[dottiesyrky]

Thanks Jeanie.
Yes the memory of my poor little mite sitting on the concrete floor, no bed, wallowing in disinfectant will remain with me for ever. I guess it was the outside run cages for big dogs and they hosed it all down to clean them. She did look bewildered and, at only five pounds, so small in that big cold cage. How anyone could do this to such a cute small little baby I don't know.
What to do for boarding? Some swear by a sitter staying in the home, ha ha, that does not work always either!! My neighbor had a tiny Maltese and was going from Ca to Boston on vacation. She left at 6 am and was assured the sitter would be there at 10 am to take over and stay in the home. I was asked to keep an eye open for the dog, which thank goodness I did! By noon, no sitter, so I went over and took out the dog and fed her etc. Again at 4 PM, same thing.
At 6 PM my neighbor called from Boston to ask if all was well as she had not been able to reach the sitter by phone!! Again I went over and took care of the dog. You can imagine the neighbor was beside herself, so she called a good friend of hers who had looked after her dog before and she said she would come over later to take the dog. I could not keep her overnight as my sweet little five pounder would not tolerate another dog on the house!!
I went over to be with the Maltese until 8 PM when the kind friend came over to take the dog with her.
Of course my neighbor did not want any more of the " sitter" , so I put a note on her door saying the dog was with me and to come over when ( or if) she arrived. I did this as the neighbor did not want her in the house and wanted her key back. At 9.30 PM, she shows up with some lame excuse and I got the key from her and told her the dog was gone elsewhere! She was so mad!!! But what feelings did she have for the poor baby, all alone from 6 am, with no attention as far as she knew?? She did not even have the decency to answer the phone or let the owner know she was going to be late!!!
So I know this story is long, but you never know, my neighbor had good references and researched the person, but she lied!! Here she was in Boston with no one to take care of her dog for two weeks?? Luckily I have a key and watched out for the dog, and her good friend came through. Again this experience was one that I thought I would never see!
So it is hard to find a trusty sitter!
End of sad boarding sagas! There must be some good ones??

[BlueBelle]

I suggest if you do find one you think might be good try leaving you pup there for a few hours a few times so that it won't be a totally strange place when you leave for vacation.

[MissSunni]

I can't tell you how much this situation worries me, and with good reason. I got sick right after Thanksgiving and ended up in the hospital. I just moved into this area so I didn't really know anyone well enough to ask them to take care of my 2 Shih Tzus. One was elderly and really did need care. He had bad eye problems. I was so ill anyway, I wasn't able to make any arrangements. My elderly mother was beside herself trying to figure out what to do. There is a large animal hospital/grooming facility/pet shop/boutique boarding right up the street! My mom tried driving back and forth to my house 3 times a day to walk and feed my boys, but it was taking a toll on her, because she was visiting me too. My brother told her he checked it out and the place was beautiful, its got 24/7 emergent doctors at the facility, etc. From the outside it seemed like it would be ok. When I finally was a little more awake, I asked my mom what it was like, and did she see the place, etc. She said it was beautiful and the people were so kind, and when she brought them in they all came over to play with the dogs. So, I said why don't you let them groom them too because they've missed their appt. Long long story…sorry, but I got out of the hospital earlier then expected and the first thing I did was ask my mom to drive me to get the dogs. Of course! She thought I needed a few days of quiet, but as you all know..I needed my dogs. When I got there and asked for them, you could see the actual shock on the staff's faces. I'm dead serious. They expected me 3 days from then. I was paying (won't even tell you how expensive this was) while someone went to bring them out. These were 2 dogs that have been treated royally from the minute they came to me. The door opened and my black and white Shih Tzu and the Gold and White one came thru the door…filthy, matted and shaking. They walked to me with their tails down and heads down, like they were in fear!! I actually just started to cry. I was shocked. I asked what the hell happened? Why were they covered in filth? I saw immediately that George had eye infections in both eyes. But the left one was so bad that his eye was glued shut with gunk. This was at a vet run boarding facility. The one other vets send dogs to for specialists. To end this sad story..My George ended up needing to have eye surgery, and got such a bad infection..he couldn't fully recover. After 2 months of medications and surgeries he just gave up. He stopped eating, all he did was snuggle. This perky little guy who loved his walks more then anything wasn't interested in anything at all. He was a senior dog, but that is not how I ever wanted his last days to be. I carry enormous guilt to this day over how his poor little life ended. I was devastated that my much loved dogs were so mistreated and I PAID for it!! I would have paid anything for them not to have been neglected and maybe abused. My other boy hasn't been the same since either. He misses his brother terribly, and just isn't coming out of his depression that well. He's 9 yrs old. Before this nightmare started if I brought the puppy home, Harry would have loved it…Now he plays with her, sometimes but he's just not himself. So, unless a place has 24/7 cameras on the dog I wouldn't leave them anywhere. Mine was an unusual emergency situation..but really its something I think about all the time now. IF something like that happens again, what is a safe plan for the pups. Something we should all know I think. I'm sorry to be such doom and gloom, but I'm not a stupid woman, so I just had to tell you that appearances are really NOT everything! Lots of advertising, expensive building etc..meaningless if its all BS just for money.

[Doodlebug]

OMG how awful. So many horror stories. This is why we prefer to forgo vacations instead of leaving them anywhere. Neither of us have family who are dog lovers so there is no other option for us. I don't care because I still wouldn't leave them.

[dottiesyrky]

Hello.
I did answer this morning but was timed out and lost the text . So here goes again!
How I understand your experience with boarding. In an earlier post on this thread I related a similar horror story that happened to my little 5 pound Yorkie.
In both our cases we arrived earlier than expected and found sick and neglected dogs. Do these bad places put our dogs in a cage and forget them until the scheduled pick up day, and clean them up for us?? I wonder?
I am so sorry that your babies were in such bad shape, you must have been devastated. Thank God we both came early or we may not have had dogs to pick up. I still feel the guilt of leaving my little shy, innocent girl in that place, but I thought she would be happy and well cared for.
After what happened I never dared to leave her again, she just came with us or we didn't go. Our present boy is not such a well behaved traveller and now and again we had to find a good place for him where he would be treated right. Not easy!! No more kennels, however fancy and vet run they appear to be! Even home sitters cannot always be trusted, as I also posted above. After a long hard search I found that a daycare/ boarding facility run by qualified and caring people was the way to go for me. I tried it out by having my boy there for day care first and then for a night or two. I visited at various hours and checked out the place. The real test is when my dog loves to go there and hates coming home! There's gratitude for my 24/7 loving care! LOL!
I agree it is important to secure a boarding place where one can trust our dogs will be happy and safe. We should do it in advance for future use, especially in emergency.
I feel a very important requirement is close to 24/7 supervision. I do not go for short visits for feeding, walks etc and then being left alone most of the day and night. Getting those requirements is not easy!
Hoping our experiences will help others to be cautious in trusting some boarding facilities. All that glitters is often not gold!
Good Luck!