Neighbour on holiday - dog problem!

[loveacupoftea18]

Need advice as DH and I can't decide if we are too caught up in the problem to be objective!! Sorry if it's long, trying not to drip feed!

Live in a quiet cul-de-sac and get along with all neighbours. Our directly next-door neighbour has two enormous dogs who she loves dearly and is very good to. They do bark in the day when left alone in the garden but she is back regularly to let them out and take them for walks.

She is on the trip of a lifetime for two weeks and has a sort of friend staying in her house looking after them, with a dog walker dropping in to do the occasional dog walk.

She's been gone for 3 days. We haven't seen the friend that's staying there since Friday (however we have not been at home every minute) and the dogs are in the garden with the back door to the house wide open, all the time. They are doing absolutely nothing but barking constantly, I cannot describe just how much or how loud. It goes on for hours and hours at a time.

I don't know how regularly they are being checked on (or fed or walked!) and it first irked us when it was impossible to put our DD to bed because of the noise of the dogs barking. Banged on the front door repeatedly however no one in and ended up going around the back of the field to lean over the fence and comfort the dogs. This did cease the barking for an hour but then they're back to it. It's damn annoying but we end up feeling desperately sorry for the poor dogs and don't know what on earth to do.

They've barked every hour that we've been home today. There's still no sign of anyone in the house with them. I've just been to lean over the back fence for 15 minutes to give them a stroke and to quieten them down so DD can fall asleep.

AIBU? Surely this is not ok? What the hell can I do about it?

She's lying so the owner will still pay her.

I sincerely hope your neighbour gets your message! Contact her again and tell her the sitter is lying about the whole scenario.

The Kennels we use aregreat and i feel happier him going in there than having a dog sitter I don't think it is cruel the ops neighbour has an u relable sitter with an occasional dog walker going ime that is worse than a fortnight in boarding .

Our dog rules our life. As a puppy we put him in kennels but the last time we left him he howled like wolf as we drove away.

Since then we don't holiday as a family unless he comes with us. He is old and a bit decrepit now and I couldn't subject him to a week in dog prison.

I understand you are not keen but Doggy prison is a bit over dramatic !

Well obviously kennels would have been better in this case as adequate provision doesn't seem to have been made at all unless I've misunderstood.

Someone is supposed to be in the house full time?

But not walking the dogs(?) & a dog walker has been engaged for the occasional walk?

If they were being walked they wouldn't have to be left in the garden all day & might settle in the house.

Not sure why the owner leaves them in the garden to bark when she's there either!

I know. I meant to put it in quotation marks or put a smiley after it!

We don't really have any good kennels nearby.

Excuse me whilst I cover up his ears.

Next time I think I shall have two dogs so they would be company for each other in a kennels.

I think for a dog kennels are like a prison, you go on holiday and your dog is banged up for 2 weeks!

Id never use kennels for my dogs either. I'd always choose a house sitter, or someone we knew to look after them. It just sounds like this particular house sitter is dreadful.

I think it's good that you've contacted your neighbour (she might not reply immediately if she's away, she might be out of wifi range etc) and also that the house sitter knows you've got your eye on her. The dogs were probably barking more if they were hungry/thirsty/missing their owner.

I dont think kennels are always the best - it really depends on the dogs.
We organised a house sitter, who came recommended but it still didnt ease our anxiety of going away and wondering if she'd look after them.
We have a wonderful neighbour who popped round, chatted with the dog sitter and let us know all was well.

Until anyone hears from the dog owners we have no idea what the arrangement is so cant assume she's at fault, she may well be paying for someone to watch the dogs and potentially more than a kennels as they are in their own home.
Its how the owner responds that matters

My ddog has a lovely sitter and goes to stay at her house. She is highly professional and runs it as a business so is very strict on numbers and vaccinations etc but utterly adores her charges so I am totally relaxed to go on holiday knowing that he is beautifully taken care of (in fact I worry that he prefers her to me ).

This makes me so cross! Your neighbour has bogged off on holiday and either is being taken for a complete ride by this ‘sitter’ or just isn’t bothered to have left adequate provision! Glad you have called them to account. And this leaving the house open thing is totally preposterous! If they get broken into....well, there’ll be no ‘breaking’ and the insurance will be totally invalidated if the house is just left open.

What a shit show.

Hopefully you've ratttled the sitters cage OP and she realises that she's being watched.

I have had dogs that would have been perfectly fine in kennels and dogs that would have been absolutely traumatised. Really depends on their temperament. Our two at the moment would never recover, so we chose a doggy daycare (which we rarely use) that also offers in-house dogsitting. They are over twice the price of kennels, though, a sitter would probably come in at the same price.

I would call RSPCA if the dogsitter seems to disappear again. If you make it clear it is urgent (i.e. not only because of the barking), they usually do attend. In my experience the only thing that takes them longer is to respond when you report a puppy farm, as it is usually a bigger thing to organise. Other than that, they have always responded within 3h.

I have a big people-centered puppy (10.5 years old lol). I couldn't imagine leaving him for a length of time to vacation. I plan vacations that he can come with us. No flights (he's too big) and no dog-free hotels. I do think if you have more than one it may be ok to kennel or leave them with family, as they wouldn't necessarily be feeling abandoned, but i couldn't enjoy my time thinking my best friend was unhappy. I had an injury once that required an extended stay in a rehab facility. My dog stayed with my parents (who adore him) with my 2 kids, so they were all together but i felt awful all around (for kids, dog, my parents). I hate to sound dramatic but dogs bring so much happiness and ask so little in return. We really are not worthy of them.

I've been an unofficial pet sitter to friends and I'd trust friends to sit for my pets - all the animals I've ever had would all much prefer being at home with a sitter than in kennels. One or two would have coped, the rest would not have done.

I think in this case it's unfortunate for the dogs and neighbours that this almost certainly isn't what the neighbours had expected or intended. It certainly doesn't mean that house sitting is not the best option for many pets

I don't think your neighbour will thank you for getting the RSPCA involved. Sounds like the dog sitter is working shifts while looking after them.

Which would make the owner irresponsible, leaving her two dogs who she knows don't cope well alone in the garden when she isn't with them, for this long with a sitter who she knows won't be around most of the time. My own dog doesn't like being left alone and would start to get distressed and bark after half an hour/an hour or so. I absolutely wouldn't leave her for two weeks knowing she'd be on her own and distressed for majority of that time as the person I've chose to look after them will be working during night and sleeping during the day. It's not fair on the dogs or the neighbours.

Plus the sitter would have told OP she was at work, instead of saying she was in the garden when she wasn't.

@whosorrrynow I own a kennel, I have customers who travel 40 miles to us. Yes, there are kennels closer but we have a fantastic reputation and are worth travelling for.
I board many a home boarders dogs because they don't trust other home boarders. Go figure!
Many of our dogs, by the owners own admission, get out more than they do at home.
The dogs drag their owners in, they love coming here so much.

I did a lot of research and spent a great deal of money building a facility I wpuld happily leave my dog in.
I am proud of what we have achieved and it is far, far from being a prison

I am proud of what we have achieved and it is far, far from being a prison
@Twoheaped, It's great to know that there are establishments such as your's where the owners genuinely care

I fear that you are in the minority though?

Where are you twoheaped? I’d travel for a kennel like that.

I am on the East Lancs/North Yorkshire border.

And yes, I guess we are in the minority as people wouldn't need to travel so far if there were more of us around.

@twoheaped: we regularly travel 90 mins to put our dogs in kennel like yours! It's so important and you can see when a kennel owner cares about their dogs and job.

I guess we are in the minority
I wonder why more of the genuine dog positive people dont set up in this kind of business, sounds as if there is untapped business opportunity here?

To those who say that they would pay for a kennel, I dogsit for many of my friends and give dogs the utmost care, either in their own homes or in mine. It is possible to find responsible dogsitters.

Ooh I'm on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border too. But West Yorkshire.

If your neighbour finds out they are being left for hours and hours she's going to be distraught as she obviously thought she'd sorted out somebody to look after the dogs whilst she was away.

Leaving them like this is cruel. They are anxious because their owner has gone and they have been left on their own. Barking in this way is a distress call from them. The longer they are left to bark then the more psychological damage is being done and they are likely to show separation anxiety when she returns.

The fact that they stop for a bit when you comfort them shows this.

I would suggest leaving a strongly worded note informing the person looking after them that if she leaves them again you will call the RSPCA - presumably she will at turn up some point to feed them) - and if she does it again I'm afraid you'll have to call them.

She hasn’t made adequate provision for them while she is on holiday (either that or her dog sitter and walker have let her down big time) call her