Leaving dog in holiday cottage?

[ShoesJerry]

We recently acquired a retired greyhound so have had our first family holiday with a dog this year. I booked a lovely cottage which allows dogs, but was surprised to see when we arrived that all the cottage instructions state that the dog must not ever be left alone in the cottage.

Just wondering from more experienced dog owners whether this is the norm with holiday cottages that allow dogs? We have kept our dog with us at all times, but had originally expected that we'd occasionally leave her for an hour or so to do things like a supermarket shop or to visit a local place where dogs aren't allowed.

We certainly hadn't planned to leave her for any long stretches, but I was really surprised that we weren't allowed to leave her at all. In all other respects, the cottage we booked was really lovely, and I'd be keen to visit again but it's been a slight pain not being able to leave the dog even for really short times.

Any advice on whether this is standard practice?

The dog has had an awesome holiday, by the way, and we've so enjoyed having her with us for the first time. She has eaten doggy frozen yogurt today and thought she was in heaven!

Standard practice. Been on lots of holiday cottage holidays with dogs and every single one insists dogs must never be left alone.

Although I think that if the cottage owners didn't live nearby and the dog was trustworthy (house trained, non destructive, no separation anxiety) I'd probably risk it for an hour or two.

In my experience this is the norm. Glad DDog has had a good holiday!

It is the norm, yes. I only know of 2 very small holiday cottage companies that say you can leave your dog and they are very dog owner focused.
The larger companies have that policy, usually with no dogs upstairs or on furniture too.

Standard.

We usually ignore it though, our dog is fine to be left for an hour or two.

have you seen the destruction a dog can cause in a short time frame? 😬

It is standard practice, but even if it wasn't I'd be too nervous to leave my dog unattended in a strange place in case they weed or ripped something up/knocked something over.

Thanks, all. Yes, this one also has the no dogs upstairs or on furniture too, which I'd been expecting. I was tempted to risk it for an hour to the shops, as she would just have slept in the kitchen, but didn't want to tempt fate so she has had round the clock company. She's walked her little legs off as well, and has enjoyed all sorts of tasty treats.

Useful to know that this is standard practice, then, thank you!

I've found this at cottages. We did stay in a hotel in Cornwall once who were fine with dogs being left alone in the room, so long as you were on the hotel premises. It was quite amusing coming up from dinner at the (Lovely) hotel restaurant and all you could hear were dogs barking in their rooms.

I’m baffled you’re surprised.
She is happy for dogs to come but seeing as she doesn’t know them from Adam - she would prefer they’re not left alone.

It is normal unfortunately.

Although I always think it’s very short sighted to pair an ‘always accompanied’ policy with a ‘no dogs upstairs’ policy as the two are at odds with each other anyway - and I couldn’t guarantee to wake up immediately if the dog howled and I was upstairs in a non adjoining room.

I've seen this a lot and often wondered about it. I have some hazy memory that all t&c need to be in the original booking that forms the contract.

Quite often it's only when you arrive at the accommodation that you get the extra restrictions detailed, I'm fairly sure that makes them non-binding.

My hazy memory takes me back to a test case where the t&c of a car park weren't available to the driver before they accept the offer.

The cottage we've just stayed was advertised as very dog friendly and had the same rule, OP,

I presume it's because of potential damage and/or barking / pining.

Ours also said dogs not allowed in the bedrooms - our dog cried & cried to be separated from us though, so we let him in and hoovered thoroughly each day.

Normal I’m afraid. At one cottage we went to the lovely lady who owned it did let us leave the dog even though when we booked it online it said this wasn’t allowed - maybe they have to say that for insurance purposes? So it’s always worth asking when you get there just in case.

I would never leave any of mine in an unfamiliar place and area far from home because if for some reason they were let loose or stolen it would be difficult to stay on longer to conduct searches and campaigns to find them.

There was a very long thread about this subject earlier in the summer, it might still be searchable, iirc the general view was that it's totally the norm that dogs mustn't be left alone in holiday accomodation

We hired a dog friendly cottage once, there were two together. The couple occupying the cottage next door went out in the evening for about three hours and their dog literally barked and howled the entire time...

Dogs are far more likely to get distressed and either chew, scratch, bark or whatever if they are in an unfamiliar environment, so dogs who are perfectly fine being left at home for a couple of hours may well not be when on holiday.

Normal and ime is also stated somewhere on the website - but may not be obvious when you book.

How do we know this post is genuine without photographic evidence (of DDog)?!

My ddog is crate trained so we take it with us and owners have been fine if we need to leave him for a short while. Could that work?

It is standard practise. You have absolutely no idea how some dogs will react in a strange environment, even if they’re good at home/on previous holidays. They can cause thousands of pounds worth of damage in a ridiculously small amount of time, in which case the home owners have to go through the process of claiming the money back and losing all the bookings while they sort out the damage

I think it is fairly normal. I do leave my dog for up to three hours despite the policy if I need to. She has never chewed or destroyed anything, not even as a puppy. Has had a handful of accidents in her entire life. I would generally close the kitchen door.

She is more trustworthy than my teenager!

yes, it's the norm. We've been taking dogs on cottage holidays for years and always leave the dogs unattended in the cottage and no harm done. (the cottages we stay in are in middle of nowhere and our dogs are well behaved, wouldn't do it otherwise) We've been back to the same place four times and they've always returned deposit and said they look forward to seeing us again, so leaving dogs in cottage unattended and letting them on sofa and in bedroom hasn't done any harm, so far.

We have found once we like somewhere and go again this can be relaxed. We also take cages and leave them in those if popping to shop.

One lovely place we stay has a huge shaded outdoor kennel which is also great.

Oh I wouldn't leave mine in a hotel room, he'd bark the place down at every creak. To be honest, he'd do that even if he were with us, I would never take my dog to a hotel. And I wouldn't leave him alone if there was a lot of noise/other people to disturb. No worries about him being destructive though.

Thanks all, seems like this is standard practice then. We are very new dog owners, so still figuring out how to negotiate all parts of life with the hound in tow! I can quite see why the rule exists - it just hadn't occurred to me beforehand. Ddog has had the loveliest week, and enjoyed part of a Chatsworth farm shop scotch egg for her dinner.

Good on you getting a rescue dog for your first OP, hope you have many more enjoyable memories to come 👍