All the world’s a vacation

by | Friday | November 5, 2010 | 22 comments

When you’re a dog, life is pretty good. You get up, eat, run around, eat some more, play, go to sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat. There are no job responsibilities, no mortgages, no bills to pay. Life is at is most simple and best when it is the same, day in and day out.

So when dog owners go on vacation, they find themselves stumped at how to top perfection. For all its pretty packaging, high end “dog resorts” are usually some variation of the same formula: staying in a kennel with twice a day feeding and walks. Compared to the comforting daily routines, this may seem less like a great getaway and more like punishment to your average dog.

And don’t even get me started on cats: I can’t count how many cats in boarding facilities stop eating and drinking to the point of clinical dehydration and constipation. I always recommend vacationing cat owners try and find someone to take care of their cat in their own home whenever possible.

When it comes to the dogs, it depends on the pet. Brody is pretty easy. He could be boarded without problems. Remember Nuke, my radiology dog who lived in a kennel for 10 years? Fuggedaboutit. He couldn’t care less. Koa, on the other hand? She would probably bark herself hoarse in the first hour. I’ve seen dogs with separation anxiety wear their nails past the quick to the bone in kennel situations.

surfWe planned a short trip to the Magic Kingdom with the kiddos for a few days this week and found ourselves asking the same questions as to what to do with the pets. My new neighbor, kind and neighborly as she is, volunteered to feed Apollo (which is all he needs. Affection from strangers is low on his list of needs.)

I was debating what to do with the dogs- Koa in particular. And although I would never impose upon them unsolicited, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when Grandma and Grandpa offered to open up Grandma’s Resort for Wayward Dogs while we were gone.

If there were such a thing as a dog resort, that would be it. Huge yard full of interesting plants and critters to investigate. 24 hour uncovered pool. Attentive and personable staff. Room service. The list goes on and on.

My husband often jokes that the pets would probably be happier there than with us, and I get so offended when he says that, mostly because some small part of me fears he’s right. They would be happy. And FAT.

So yaay for all involved this weekend:

1. Humans get to explore crass American commercialism in its most distilled form, Mouse shaped churros at $5 a pop;

2. Dogs get the unique experience of ultimate pampering with someone who isn’t obsessively counting each kibble;

3. Cat gets a break from both 1. and 2.

What’s your out of town routine when the pets can’t come along?

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  • Ann Marie

    Like you, our little pooch heads to Grandma and Grandpa… Our biggest issue is shared custody. Both my parents and my husband’s parents WANT to keep and SPOIL our dachshund. We have to rotate who gets to keep Tucker when we go on vacation!!

  • http://www.somethingwagging.com Pamela

    In the 20 years I’ve had dogs, we’ve left them behind infrequently and always used a pet sitter staying in our home.

    Agatha and Christie were fine with it and they had each other for company when the sitter was at work. Shadow came to us as an older dog and slept much of the day.

    With a new dog, I’m going to have to rethink this. Honey is by far my most sociable dog and needs much more attention during the day. I wish the grandparents were an option but they’re really only prepared for a dog that is seen and not heard, doesn’t poop, and leaves no traces of hair on rugs and couch.

  • Lisa W

    So mine go to day care almost every day as it is — sometimes when I’m working fro m home I let Sophie decide whether she wants to go or stay, but otherwise they get ot hang out with other doggies and play every day. Ideally when I leave town they stay with Grandma and Grandpa, but sometimes I have to leave them at the vet, which is their day care location. It’s a tough life! ;-) Hope you and the clan enjoy The Mouse!

  • Cathey

    Grammie has always been our go-to sitter, but now that we have Fiona (8 month old Golden) we’re going to have to re-think that. She’s already knocked me down the stairs once, and with Grammie’s two knee replacements, a chance of that happening to her is way to high!

    And at 89, Grammie also has an inflated sense of how much food an animal needs. Her excuse for my son’s cat (who she has boarded since he went to Montana in 2006) is “But he looked at me and then at the food!” (Karl now weighs 18 pounds and is on a VERY strict diet that is hurting Grammie even more than it is Karl!)

    We do have a hunting friend of my husband who has recently opened a boarding kennel. He is the kind of guy who never leaves the farm and would really rather talk to dogs & cats than people. He walks ALL the animals he boards at least 5 times a day, individually! I’m thinking we need to introduce Fiona to Uncle Billie!

  • Sylvia

    We have 4 cats, Stanley, “The Dude”, Henry, and Henry’s cat The Beast.
    (Yes really. But that is a whole other story). Anyway, our daughter is our sitter as well as our wonderful neighbor, Jane. So “The Boys”, as we call them, get extra attention and they love it. We are so lucky because we never have to worry while we are gone.

  • Tonya

    Alley (our cat) stays home, and her big brother (my grown son) comes by daily and takes care of her. She gets stressed enough being home alone. I can’t imagine how she would be staying elsewhere!
    Clyde (our dog), on the other hand, goes to a boarding facility in the country that is in the owners’ back yard. They live onsite and spend most of their time out with the dogs. The dogs are rotated in and out of the play yard individually all day (from early morning until bedtime, not just 8-5), so he has the chance to get out more than the usual twice a day. That gives me a little relief from my guilt in leaving him. I was very concerned about leaving him the first time, as he’d been in a shelter for a couple of months before I adopted him, and I didn’t want him to think I’d abandon him at yet another shelter. I spent lots of time looking for the best possible option, and this one ended up rating higher in my book than the fancy dog resorts. Clyde doesn’t need fancy. He needs attention, food and room to run and play. In the absence of “grandma’s resort,” it’s my best alternative.

  • http://feather-light.com AmandaL

    When I had to go out of town this summer for a business trip, I boarded my 2-yr old Great Pyrenees, Moses, at his normal doggie daycare – and it was so great. He got to play with his buddies all day long like he normally does, and he was with people I trust. He was one tired dog when I picked him up!

    For the cat, rabbits, and guinea pigs, I rely on a combination of bunny-savvy friends and a pet-sitter to come to the house once a day. For recent trips it’s been all pet-sitter and no friends, and the one I’m using now is doing a decent job. Everyone’s still alive, anyway :-)

  • http://www.happilyheatherafter.com Heather

    My dog Darcy stays with my mother when I have to go out of town. She definitely suffers from separation anxiety, so I know a kennel would be cruel and unusual punishment to her – I could never do that! Luckily she’s gotten used to staying with my mom and will settle for that until I return.

  • http://www.romeothecat.com Caroline

    I have THE BEST pet sitter! She comes and feeds and snuggles with Romeo and Pugsley twice a day when we’re gone. Even though she doesn’t have to, she spends at least 30 minutes with them each time. Sometimes they even all take a nap together on the couch. THEY LOVE HER. And so do I. I never, ever worry about them while we’re gone. It’s the biggest relief for us.

  • http://www.brrnese.com Kathie

    How true! I have used a wonderful local kennel in the past but after Gretl suffered the 1st of 3 grand mal seizures I wasn’t willing to leave her in a kennel setting when I traveled. Fortunately a good friend owned her brother and so since that time her dogs stay with me and mine with her when we are away. My older Berner Holly could never handle a kennel setting so this is perfect for her and when I left our puppy Charlotte for the first time in September I’m not sure she noticed I was gone she had so much fun. They sleep on the bed here and in Napa where they stay, and my friend’s girl Abbey gets up on my couch the minute they walk out of the house (she’s not allowed to do that at home) – all I think pretty good signals that they have comfortably settled in.

  • Amy

    My dog is far too spoiled to go to a regular kennel, so we bring him to a daycare kennel, where he plays all day. When he comes home, he sleeps for two weeks straight. It’s so expensive, though, so I think for longer trips (week+), we will try to fly out of NJ, where my in-laws live (we’re in DC), so he can stay with them. They work, so it won’t be camp for him, but I know they’ll stop in during the day and will shower him with the affection he’s used to in the evening.

  • martina

    Our dogs are fortunate to have “Gwandma”, my mother always very very willing to dogsit. They adore one another. When Mom comes here, it takes me 5 minutes to get a hug because the dogs have surrounded her and she is busy hugging and talking to them and getting kisses back.

  • Chile

    When I had both dogs, they would usually go to a boarding facility in a neighboring town. It was one of the first resorts in this area; its run by two animal loving women. They have about 5 acres fenced in and a creek, an indoor play area and the luxury suites with beds, tvs and radios. It’s clean and beautiful and well staffed. I didn’t have to pay for any extras because everything was included and it was a really awesome price. And neither Blade or Cookie pouted when I picked them up.

    But then there was a time that a friend house sat them twice for me. After Blade passed and I only had Cookie, she started hanging out at her Aunt’s (a friend of mine that has a yellow lab, we switch off on doggie duty). Sometimes Cookie goes to another Aunt and Uncle’s house (they have two Bostons that we also switch out sometimes) And yet another option is going to Grandma and Grandpas where she has a huge fenced in yard, a secret garden, three dogs to play with through the fence and a pool. Not to mention all the belly rubs and treats she could ever desire. She usually stays there for our week-long vacations. And she is spoiled rotten even moreso when we pick her up.

  • Donna

    We’re lucky to have a friend who is willing to move into our house and pet sit while we’re gone. It’s great not to have their routines disrupted, and our dogs (and our cat, before we lost her last year to cancer) just might love him more than they love us! My biggest fear is that he’ll get married and have a house of his own, and thus be less willing to live in ours. ;-)

  • http://www.twitter.com/calidiva Kellee

    When we vacation we hire an in home pet sitter who happens to be our groomer and owner of the pet grooming store we take our dogs to in La Jolla. Her whole family pet sits so she has come to stay, as well as her husband and college age son. They come once during the day for a walk, then stay overnight from 6pm to 7am with our babies..sleep in our bed (that means with the dogs too) and this keeps them happy, in thier routine and their domain. All for the reasonable price of $60 per day. Piece of mind! My Beagle is one of those like Koa who would bark herself hoarse in the first hour in boarding.

  • http://evolutionofdarwin.blogspot.com brooke & Darwin

    We’re lucky in that I’ve become friends with someone who got one of Darwin’s brothers. She picks Darwin up almost weekly from our office and takes her to her house for playdates with her brother. The last time we went out of town Darwin even got to stay with them, and she’ll be doing the same on our next trip.
    We’re also friends with the people who have Darwin’s parents so sometimes she stays with them.
    We’ve boarded her once and I’m fine taking her there as they are Dane breeders so they are very familiar with the breed and I dont have to worry about her as much.

  • http://petsadviser.com Pets Adviser

    Grandma’s Resort for Wayward Dogs… haha! Well, dropping off “the kids” at grandma’s is a time-honored tradition. Sounds like this works for everyone: dogs, cats, humans, wallets.

  • Megan

    Since I’m a vet, I usually have many happy staff members/coworkers willing to take on my kiddos. My parents puppysat for me more than once when I was still in school too. When my parents go out of town, they use a place in St. Louis called [url=http://www.happytailsinc.net/boarding.html]Happy Tails[/url]. They have “free roam” boarding – a large area for big dogs and one for small dogs, plenty of beds to go around, and everyone is separated at mealtime so no fights break out. They’re also staffed 24 hours a day, so if my parents roll in at 2am, they can just pick the kiddos up. It’s a pretty neat arrangement :)

    • Megan

      Also, please excuse my attempt to embed a hyperlink in my comment. St. Louis area residents looking to board can visit Happy Tails’ site: http://www.happytailsinc.net/boarding.html. The “open environment” concept is really awesome for social dogs if you ask me. My parents dogs always have a good time :)

  • http://www.wilddingo.com Wild Dingo

    This is by far the most difficult part of having my dogs. I won’t kennel. I feed raw, so who will do that for me? Just before moving out of the US, I found an awesome pet sitter. Now i’m in Europe, barely speak the language, I’m dying to travel both with my dogs and without and i have no way of really finding good pet sitting. The husky is house destructive, the GSD mix is, well, fearful, so unless the handler REALLY knows how to handle “edgy” dogs who need lots of “hands OFF” handling to do better in the face of anxieties, and isn’t your basic “I like pets” pet sitter, he or she will not be able to walk him. the husky needs lots of walking but the GSD will freak if she is the only one walked. It’s a most difficult spot to be in. I will probably look both at pet sitters and “in home” pet sitters (non kennel type). but something needs to happen in this area as I need a break too! The raw diet will also be something to deal with as well for pet sitting…

  • lin

    When Old Pup was Younger Pup, she had separation anxiety, was dog-dog aggressive, plus, didn’t like being handled by strangers, so we kenneled her, as we didn’t know someone who could handle her issues. When we got Mr. Kitty, we had a friend’s son come in to take care of him (Mr. Kitty is pretty sociable). As Pup aged, I worried that kenneling would be too stressful, and thought about in-home care. But Old Pup is the anxious type, and I couldn’t imagine how she’d handle nights alone (She’s okay with days, sometimes we’re out all day). At about this time, Mr. Kitty developed diabetes. A friend said she had asked at her vet, and one of the vet techs ended up being her petsitter. So I went to our vet practice and one of the kennel aides was looking for extra work. Our vet vouched for her (T. also petsat for her), she was confident in handling Old Pup and giving shots, and best of all, she lives around the corner! T. has now petsat for us several times and I am so grateful to her.

  • Jeanne

    the cats stay home and my sister swings by once a day to give scully her cosequin, feed them and do a general health check. my niece used to stay at the house with chase, but she grew up and ogt a life. now he stays with my mom or at my sister’s house. there’s no way we can kennel him. he whines and cries and carried on non-stop. he had to spend the night at the vet’s once and i felt so bad for them. i could hear him in the background whenever i called to check on him.