Pet Sitter duties for 6 day Vacation - Please comment

[Namor]

Sadly I must find a pet sitter for my spoiled little guy. He has the best life ever since we are retired and cater to his needs. Unfortunately my usual sitter, my adult daughter, will be traveling with us. So I am looking for someone to care for my boy in my home and water our bonsai. My dilemma is whether I should have someone spend the night in my home with him or just come in 4 - 5 times a day. If I require them to stay the providers are much more limited. I've gone through all my friend resources and am actively interviewing people from Rover.com and some referrals from the Vet's office. I've met some very competent people who are willing to provide care but not stay.

Deuce does not sleep with us in the bed. He has his own bed but we are always here aside from date night or an occasional late night party. He always has his eyes on me. Should I worry about him being alone all night or am I being OCD about my dog?

Thanks!
BTW - Our home is lakefront, swimming and Kayak available off our dock, and we are surrounded by Civil War Historical sites.

[BayleighL]

Originally Posted by Namor

Sadly I must find a pet sitter for my spoiled little guy. He has the best life ever since we are retired and cater to his needs. Unfortunately my usual sitter, my adult daughter, will be traveling with us. So I am looking for someone to care for my boy in my home and water our bonsai. My dilemma is whether I should have someone spend the night in my home with him or just come in 4 - 5 times a day. If I require them to stay the providers are much more limited. I've gone through all my friend resources and am actively interviewing people from Rover.com and some referrals from the Vet's office. I've met some very competent people who are willing to provide care but not stay.

Deuce does not sleep with us in the bed. He has his own bed but we are always here aside from date night or an occasional late night party. He always has his eyes on me. Should I worry about him being alone all night or am I being OCD about my dog?

Thanks!
BTW - Our home is lakefront, swimming and Kayak available off our dock, and we are surrounded by Civil War Historical sites.

We have a similar dilemma. I don't like home options (for us) of someone coming and going and our dog being alone all night, someone staying in my house, or my dog staying in someone else's home. We've tried all of these and had some less-than-acceptable results. Our solution was finding a kennel. I won't go into all the reasons we came to the kennel solution, but we have found that by carefully selecting the kennel, doing some day care visits to adjust, and paying for a little extra care (grooming and exercise) that we have more assurance that our dog and home are secure. Yes, you should worry. No, you aren't being OCD. And, you might find as we did that your dog can be flexible and do fine with kenneling and that you'll all be happily reunited after your time away. Good luck!

[yorkietalkjilly]

I'd go for the 24 hour supervision even if your dog has to stay in a kennel or be bored a lot, as long as there is full-time supervision, somebody to check on him every half hour or so. Likely he'll mostly sleep a lot of the time. I just cannot bear to think of my dog home alone should something awful happen - like a seizure, sudden loss of fluids due to vomiting, diarrhea or a house fire or he gets his foot caught tight in an unraveled piece of upholstery(happened to my Scotty when I had cartrouble), etc. No home-alone dog if I can help it.

[danniko]

We had a similar dilemma with Sophie. We are going camping at the end of this month but feel she wouldn't enjoy it/would be stressed out.

Thought about having someone stay with her or having a neighbour come in multiple times a day. Neither one of those ideas made me comfortable because I was nervous to leave her here alone over night or long periods of the day but really don't like the idea of having someone stay in our home overnight. The option of her going to someone else's house wasn't considered because she doesn't like other dogs and can't do stairs and everyone we know has dogs and stairs lol

We ended up booking her into boarding at our vet. They know all of her health issues, they love her and she's happy to be there getting snuggles from them all the time. Costs more than the other two options but our peace of mind and her safety/comfort are worth the extra money.

[Shicks]

I would like to know how it goes, which decision you make. We are retired too, and don't do anything because we will not leave our baby. He is our life. I would be worried to death that something would happen, because that would be our luck. The only traveling we do is going to see our daughter (700) miles away a couple times a year, and we take him with us.
Everyone would say we don't have a life, but we have a wonderful Yorkie life.
Best of luck with your decision.

[Britster]

I know Jackson who is also spoiled and with me majority of the time would be MUCH more comfortable in his own home. I'd rather him spend more hours alone and have someone come 3-4x a day but at least be comfortable in his own environment than kennel him. But his personality is very anxious when he is not with me. He would not do well at all in a boarding kennel type situation. I likely would prefer someone to sleep here in case of an emergency however he won't sleep in bed with anyone but me anyway so he would be fine being let out late and then someone coming again in the morning.

I work as a pet sitter. We offer both in persons home overnight as well as overnights in our own homes. The pups love it. I have a dog that comes to my house often and he's basically my 3rd adopted dog LOL. He's treated as a member of the family. The girl I work for has turned her home into an in-home boarding facility. Some get anxious the first night but most love it because it's a house so it doesn't feel so much like a boarding environment. We have bedrooms for each dog/pair of dogs.

I am not terribly far from you! Ha. My biggest issue is that I have Jackson as well so unless I'm able to bring him, I have trouble doing overnights because then I have to stress/worry about leaving him.

[Cats307]

We had our niece recommend a college student that was a friend. They live in dorms or with parents so moving in wasn't a issue. Had problems the first couple days because she put up the gate so they couldn't go upstairs to sleep and they sat by the door all night (had a nanny cam) I called her and she said she couldn't sleep with them but they all worked it out and everything went smoothly. We were gone for 13 days and I paid her $900 to make it worhwhile. I figured three dogs in a kennel would cost us $60 night so it was a great price for both of us. She's been here two more times since and the dogs love her.

[Wylie's Mom]

I'm a Rover sitter and have had nothing but great experiences. I only do boarding in our home though. My clients are always so comfy leaving their pets with me bc I work from home - so I'm with them the majority of the time. I text a lot of pics too, so that they can see their kiddos are settled in. So, I wouldn't hesitate to try Rover.

As to whether have someone stay or stop by - I think if you're talking 4-5 x a day - then they really don't have to stay overnight.

[Namor]

Originally Posted by Shicks

I would like to know how it goes, which decision you make. We are retired too, and don't do anything because we will not leave our baby. He is our life. I would be worried to death that something would happen, because that would be our luck. The only traveling we do is going to see our daughter (700) miles away a couple times a year, and we take him with us.
Everyone would say we don't have a life, but we have a wonderful Yorkie life.
Best of luck with your decision.

Yep you definitely have the same dilemma. Although this vacation is a go and I will just have to work through this, we do not travel much either. I've begun to look at travel trailers as a possibility to include our little man in some adventures. Maybe rent one at first. I'm not much on flying to a destination but I want to see the US. The Grand Canyon and the parks out West are my dream while I can still walk (just had ankle replacement and it's fantastic). Now all I have to do is convince my spouse.

[yavenay]

Originally Posted by BayleighL

We have a similar dilemma. I don't like home options (for us) of someone coming and going and our dog being alone all night, someone staying in my house, or my dog staying in someone else's home. We've tried all of these and had some less-than-acceptable results. Our solution was finding a kennel. I won't go into all the reasons we came to the kennel solution, but we have found that by carefully selecting the kennel, doing some day care visits to adjust, and paying for a little extra care (grooming and exercise) that we have more assurance that our dog and home are secure. Yes, you should worry. No, you aren't being OCD. And, you might find as we did that your dog can be flexible and do fine with kenneling and that you'll all be happily reunited after your time away. Good luck!

When I do have to kennel, I always use my vet. My vet has boarding and grooming in addition to vet services. Since my vet has all of my babies medical information I do not have to worry about any emergencies because the kennel is next door to the vet office plus they have webcams setup so that I check on my baby. They know Duchess and I feel Duchess is in great hands. However it's expensive as hell but for short term boarding I always use my vet.

[yavenay]

Originally Posted by danniko

We had a similar dilemma with Sophie. We are going camping at the end of this month but feel she wouldn't enjoy it/would be stressed out.

Thought about having someone stay with her or having a neighbour come in multiple times a day. Neither one of those ideas made me comfortable because I was nervous to leave her here alone over night or long periods of the day but really don't like the idea of having someone stay in our home overnight. The option of her going to someone else's house wasn't considered because she doesn't like other dogs and can't do stairs and everyone we know has dogs and stairs lol

We ended up booking her into boarding at our vet. They know all of her health issues, they love her and she's happy to be there getting snuggles from them all the time. Costs more than the other two options but our peace of mind and her safety/comfort are worth the extra money.

Same here, I do the exact same thing. Everyone at the vets knows her plus you get the added peace of mine of having them know all of your babie's medical history.

[BayleighL]

Originally Posted by yavenay

Same here, I do the exact same thing. Everyone at the vets knows her plus you get the added peace of mine of having them know all of your babie's medical history.

Unfortunately, our vet doesn't do boarding but we board at the practice he was in before he set up his own practice. They are getting to know our dog, but the reason we didn't choose them as our vet practice is that they are very large and you don't really know if you'll see the same vet or vet techs every time. We preferred to see the same vet. We used to board our other pets at a different practice we went to that offered boarding, but with that set up the dogs barked incessantly and our new kennel the dogs are quiet and calm.


We've run into new problem in our area. Kennel space is at a premium so people overbook ahead because there is no penalty for cancellation. So the kennel will show they are booked full and have last minute openings. We won't plan for our dog that way, so it has limited our choices for one upcoming trip.

[Namor]

I work as a pet sitter. We offer both in persons home overnight as well as overnights in our own homes. The pups love it. I have a dog that comes to my house often and he's basically my 3rd adopted dog LOL. He's treated as a member of the family. The girl I work for has turned her home into an in-home boarding facility. Some get anxious the first night but most love it because it's a house so it doesn't feel so much like a boarding environment. We have bedrooms for each dog/pair of dogs.

I am not terribly far from you! Ha. My biggest issue is that I have Jackson as well so unless I'm able to bring him, I have trouble doing overnights because then I have to stress/worry about leaving him.[/QUOTE]

Hey isn't your Jackson a swimmer? He'd love it here!

Yes, in interviewing pet sitters many have their own animals to care for. So finding a home situation without other pets is challenging. Deuce is not used to being around other dogs except my daughters yorkie. But I will keep at it . I have expanded my search to the teacher community since many do not go back until the last week of August. I'll keep you informed.

[canana]

Originally Posted by Shicks

I would like to know how it goes, which decision you make. We are retired too, and don't do anything because we will not leave our baby. He is our life. I would be worried to death that something would happen, because that would be our luck. The only traveling we do is going to see our daughter (700) miles away a couple times a year, and we take him with us.
Everyone would say we don't have a life, but we have a wonderful Yorkie life.
Best of luck with your decision.

You and your family are all so sweet! It's definitely a wonderful Yorkie life! And anyone who thinks otherwise has never owned a Yorkie

[canana]

The first time we travelled for 5-6 days, we left Scottie with a friend of ours who also has a Yorkie. Now when we travel, I leave both of them with my mom. I find it so hard to trust anyone else. I would never let someone live in my home. And I've had bad experiences with kennels with my past dog.

I say go with the travel trailor! No baby left behind! haha

Are you travelling by plane or by car? How come he can't come with you? And, who's taking care of your daughter's yorkie?