<p>Onward…I think we had a thread here a while back where people were scoffing at $30 and were paying upwards of $50. It adds up for sure either way. An 8 day stay (a week vacation and then pick up the next morning) adds $240. But he does love that place enough that he gets excited when going and they have saved me a ton of stress worryying about him when I was having surgery or (upcoming) moving, etc. </p>
<p>I used to share dog sitting with my ex-husband. Our dogs got along very well and it worked out great. The kids’ smell lived at both houses so I think that helped. It smelled like “home”, kind of. With my current dog, I have a friend who is willing to take him at his house. Whenever I go over there, Charlie comes with me anyway, so he knows the house, the other dogs, etc. He likes it there although he’s always glad when I get home.</p>
<p>We’d get charged for the drop off and pick up days, too. And if you have an early departure, you may drop the pet off the evening before. So that Sat-Sat vaca becomes Fri- to the foll Sun. Our charges depended on the dog’s weight/size (crate size needed.) So when she was little, maybe $20. At 30-35 lbs, about $35/day. I’m on the east coast. I think the groomer was $22/night. What helped in our vet/boarding was that, when she was young, she fell for one of the male attendants. (The dog loved men.) But really, all the staff fussed over her.</p>
<p>Just for reference, when looking for a good person to keep the dog when you travel, we ended up using the guy who did our obedience training classes; and we got his name from our groomer. He does doggy day care in his home with the additional plus of picking up and dropping off for no additional fee. But we would have never thought to ask him if he offered overnights; he happened to mention it in passing one day. So we know, without hesitation, that when our dog is with him, he is being cared for by the next best thing other than us. When we got this dog 1 1/2 years ago we made up our minds that we wanted to find someone from early on that would take him in their home, as opposed to having someone come stay at our home. With our first dog, we had people come stay in the home, but if they were unavailable, we were S-O-L. So we wanted the new dog to get used to spending time with other people and we found a great place. We just didn’t want to do a kennel. Whenever we travel, our current dog sitter will almost always take a picture of our dog and put it up on his Facebook wall (I’m FB friends with the guy), showing our dog having a great time playing outside with his other dogs. He’s also placed video up of our dog being reunited with another dog that we did obedience classes with. It always makes me feel better to see he’s being well taken care of when we’re not home. </p>
<p>I think the fact that your dog spends all days with you since you both work at home is wonderful, so even when you are gone, he/she would be spending less time at a kennel/dog sitter, etc. than he/she would if you both worked full time away from the house. I’d seriously consider it. </p>
<p>our kennel is also a doggie day care…the dogs play in groups together all day except for 2 hour afternoon nap and nighttime kenneling. Our dog loves it , but he comes home all uppity!</p>
<p>I am not a fan of kennels and would not leave my dog in one, unless it was in emergency. My rule is that my dog’s accomodation have to be about the same as at home (aka - not being locked into any small spaces for any amount of time). I figure it’s not fair to him to have to endure this while I am on vacation. I also would not want my dog around a bunch of strange dogs, no matter how well they are tested for disease and behavior issues. Nor do I want one human supervising a bunch of dogs.</p>
<p>So, I found something called Buddy Sleepovers. They have a bunch of people who will take the dog into their home, and it will be the ONLY dog there for the duration of their stay. The dogs gets the run of the house/apartment, and they will find a household that has similar rules for pets (for example, my dog is allowed on couches, so I let them know that up front). This is only for NYC area, but I would recommend finding something like this in your area. That way your dog is part of a family and is not worse off when you go away.</p>
<p>For my other pets, who get stressed out in new environments, someone comes into my apartment to take care of them. That’s also an option.</p>
<p>I would say if you are able financially (it gets expensive) and otherwise (not all areas have these services) to provide an environment for you dog that’s not worse for him tham what he is used to at your house, go for it! But if he would go from the having the run of the house at home to a strange place where he is locked in for 12 hours a day, I wouldn’t get a dog.</p>
<p>Around here we have “cageless” kennels and a lot of doggy daycares. Most of them even have webcams so you can check-in on your dog while you are away. So I think you could easily find a good kennel for the times you are away, and if it is a regular thing, I think the dog would be used to it. A lot of my friends with active dogs send them to the daycare a couple times a week because the dogs seem to enjoy it. My previous dog (he died 3 years ago), used to go to the kennel once or twice a year when we vacationed. The kennel was very good and he was very social and seemed to love it. Now that our kids are grown usually we get one of the kids, a relative or one of their friends to housesit. Also I agree that a lot of fancy hotels are now dog friendly (Kimpton, Ritz Carlton, ). We just dog-sat my cousin’s dog for 4 days and she seemed perfectly happy to be at our house. Of course ours are big dogs (Labradors), I don’t have experience with smaller dogs. </p>
<p>Ours is a doggie day care too and I started him here doing a day or two of that. They have the play off leash time. And the kennels are actually more like 5x5 or 5x6 closets in the sense they are solid walls of plexiglass–in some places clear so dogs can look out but also opaque in places so they aren’t being contantly looked at by other dogs. No chain link. Reminds me all around of a kids daycare place. </p>
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<p>I no longer dare stay at a Kimpton in Chicago, after my dog peed TWICE on the bed, when I left the room. I gave housekeeping a huge tip, but I was so embarrassed. At least they didn’t charge me for a new mattress. </p>
<p>My mom stays at a line called Drury which is dog friendly and (knowing mom) very reasonably priced. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the tips and advice. It’s nice to know that this idea isn’t an impossible dream – although I need to do a lot of research before making any decision. Some of the options mentioned sound quite good, I have to see what’s in my area. </p>
<p>My only advice would be if you get a dog make sure and do research on the breed. I think in some ways the fact you will normally be home all day with the dog could make it harder for the dog when you go away on vacation. For example I’m with my beagle all day. If I go somewhere without him, he panics even if the rest of the family is with him. He keeps checking around the house thinking I’m going to show up or sits by the front door waiting for me to return…I know you are thinking of a dog smaller than a beagle but when you look up beagle it’s does say they can have separation anxiety…so just to be safe I’d check the breed of dog you are thinking about.</p>
<p>Well, OP is interested in an older dog, so the personalities, phobias, problems will be more apparent. That’s an advantage of not getting a puppy, as cute as those babies are, along with the housebreaking issue done already. I would never have gotten this dog we now have, had I known what kind of adult he was going to be. I do love him dearly, but he is a pain in a way my other dogs were not. But by the time all those things became clear, i was stuck with him emotionally. Had I met him as an adult dog, no way would he have ended up here. </p>
<p>There may be an older dog in need of a home that is used to the sort of being left at home at times that the OP may often have. I know that when a dear friend of my MIL passed away, her dog was quite used to being taken to others’ homes, as she was in the hospital and nursing homes for several extended periods in the last 2 years of her life. A very sweet dog that was very flexible. The family had no trouble placing him with someone. </p>
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<p>My dog just did this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. H and I were gone for the longest time since we’ve had him, a week and a half. But H came home a couple of days before me, so our dog was delivered back home when he got in from the airport. Within a couple of hours, H had texted me a picture of our dog, sitting at the garage door, waiting for me to come in. It was quite pathetic. While I almost felt guilty, I know he had a great time with our trainer, and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to feel bad about him staying with just my H. I learned that lesson when my kids were babies!</p>
<p>However, I am leaving again tomorrow for three nights and H has been gone since last Saturday, so we’ll see how the dog responds when the trainer comes to pick him up in the morning…</p>
<p>DH used to say ours knew when I turned the corner, en route home, and would head for the door. But she was also happy on her own time. Some dog behavior is learned. And so are many of our responses A psychologist friend called it them training us- they sit by the door and we trot over, to put them out or take them for a walk. </p>
<p>Our very unfriendly cat, does make an appearance when college kid (it’s really his cat) comes home. Seems to know. And I hear her yowling when he leaves. My dog is not happy when we all leave and he’s alone with the grandmoms and whoever at the house and is overjoyed when we return. </p>
<p>There also are dogs somewhere between “puppy” and “older” - a dog a couple/few years old is still trainable. </p>
<p>"Well, OP is interested in an older dog, so the personalities, phobias, problems will be more apparent. "</p>
<p>lol. I got my beagle at the pound 3 months ago… so I had no idea what his personality was. It’s possible he may eventually get used me leaving but it’s also possible that because I have no idea why or how he ended up at the pound he will always have abandonment/separation issues. Basically he follows me around the house sort of like my shadow all day long. It reminds me of when my kids were young and the only time I was alone was when I went to the bathroom.
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<p>We have cavaliers (ie the doggies in the picture), and they love everyone. We travel a lot, both of us are pilots, and the girls might spend up to two weeks a month with the guy who watches them. But…they love him, he loves them, he lets them sleep with him and they get excited beyond belief when we get near his house. He also has other dogs for them to play with, so they love going there. We feel no guilt at all because they are very happy. If we had to leave our dogs at home and have someone come over and feed them, no way would we do this. They would be too lonely. But this setup works great for all of us. So I think it depends upon the breed you have, the dog you get, and the situation you have worked out for when you’re gone.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is realistic to be a foster home if you have never had a dog. Rescue dogs can have “issues,” and I would think they need someone who is an experienced dog owner.</p>