Archived Message

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
by April B.

I am leaving my Maltese baby at the vet while we are on vacation. We cannot bring him with us, as they do not allow pets.. I am worried sick about how he will get along. My vet assures me that he will take good care of Noah. I am also concerned that he may forget his house training while we are gone. He will be there 7 nights. Please advise me on how I can make this situation bearable. We are so attached to each other.

DISCUSSION:

Hi April,We frequently take a friends pup when they go out of town and can't takt their little one with them. If you wear a t-shirt to bed for several nights or wear one around the house for several days to place your sent on it. Then send the t-shirt with your little one to sleep on while boarding. We have found that the pup is reasured by the familiar sent of the owner. Also include several favorite toys in your pups travel bag.Hope this is of some help
-Cherie

My husband and I have live-in pet sitters take care of our two dogs when we both go out of town at the same time. Sometimes an adult friend does it for us and sometimes we use a professional pet-sitting agency. Both have worked very well.
-Alice

April,I too send a t-shirt with Lucy. Also, she likes to pull the towels down and sleep on them in the bathroom, so I send one of "her" towels, too. The place where I board Lucy will give her playtime in 15 min increments for $5/15 min. I pay extra for her to have two a day. Another suggestion: my son and my guy are Lucy's two favorite folks after me. I made arrangements with the kennel to allow them to visit, and one or both usually stop by, so she usually has a visitor she loves each day. It doesn't seem to upset her much when they leave and they are good about emailing or calling me to let me know how she's doing. This makes me feel better about leaving her. I hate boarding her as much as she dislikes going, I think, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. I, too, "pack a bag" for her with her own dish, food, chews, cookies, and toys (they laugh at me at the kennel, but who cares!). By the way, the first time I boarded her they suggested that if she used her crate that I bring that along too and they took the door off while she was there so she could go to "her own house."
-cathy brown

Thanks for the tips. I plan to implement some of them. I really should have waited to get a puppy after vacation but the opportunities to even find a quality pup from a good breeder are few and far between. I think my little Noah will do better than me!
-April B.

I was anxious about leaving tony (antonio trouble) our 1 yr old but I just hired a bonded and licensed pet sitter who usually comes to the owners home several times a day but she does board at her home (one dog at a time). She came to our home to meet her boarder and had us fill out a food and play schedule and a vet contact and relative contact. I finally feel very reassured. Got her from the internet under pet sitters and wonder of wonders, she lives only one mile from us! She works for a vet and seems to love the dogs. jan
-jan