Am I mental? Does anyone board/foster? HALP!

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

I have offered to home board a dog for a friend of a friend, he is here this afternoon for a trial to make sure everyone gets on.

Him and whippy boy have not stopped mock fighting/humping for the last three sodding hours.

If I do have him, do you think they will be lake this for the whole three weeks here is here?

Because I will have a nervous breakdown. For sure.

Other than the the tussling driving me bonkers, he is adorable (though astonishingly spoilt).

Anyone who boards/fosters have any pearls of wisdom?

I do it but have no pearls of wisdom, sorry. :o

It's great to hear about the mock-fighting though, rather that than the real thing! I can only advise loads of stupidly long walks, lots of toys and chews and stuff (Kongs? Raw bones?) to entertain them and a large glass of wine at the end of the evening.

Do be take care about off lead walking - unless you know the dog really, really well, he has 100% recall and you have an established bond with him I wouldn't be happy with letting him offlead if I were you. To my horror someone I know (and thought would know better than to act as she did) let a dog she was caring for offlead recently and the poor creature ended up having an accident. He was unharmed but it could have been really serious, if not worse.

Establish all the rules with the owner, including what YOU are willing to accept/not to accept and get a copy of their vet insurance policy and details of current vet should, heaven forbid, your own/the nearest vet need to refer to the dog's past notes. Get another contact number, such as family, in case you need the owner and can't reach them.

And if I were you I'd seperate your whippy babe and their dog at bedtime or you might not get any sleep! :o

I have looked after friends dogs along with my own, it takes a couple of days usually for them to settle down and they are seperated at night time. Actually some come with their own crates, which makes life much easier for time out to relax.

Long walks, toys, training, anything to knacker them out is good.

And like Valhalla says make sure you know Vets/Insurance details etc too.

Thank you both, I have said yes to having him as he got on well (too well) with whippy boy, so it may be a tad disruptive, but they will probably have a great time.

Vets/insurance all sorted.

Would always be super careful with someones elses dog off-lead (it's like other peoples kids isn't it? Always far more of a worry). Though once he is settled I might try him on our very local park as it is completely fenced and secure.

Out of interest am I a very bad person if I don't keep exactly to the schedule they have given me?

I am torn as I would be very pissed of if someone else ignored instructions I had given them, but...

They told me he was 'just a lap dog, cannot walk very far and does not enjoy walks'. Hence they walk him 5 times a day at fixed times so he can toilet, but each walk is just to toilet then straight home, he is not allowed in their (enormous) garden as they have had it 'landscaped'.

When I picked him up I was expecting something the size of a small Yorkie, but he is about the size (and I suspect he might be a cross of) a Tibetan Terrier.

I took him out for nearly an hour yesterday with whippy boy and he had a whale of a time.

So WWYD? Stick to the 5 minutes only to pee, or treat him like a normal dog and give him a bit of a hoilday?

Your home, your rules/routine.

But I think it would be polite to let them know this.

Incidentally a friend who boarded one of my dogs said she thinks my dog has the dog equivalent of ADHD as she didn't settle down with her dogs for the whole 2 weeks...not that I'm trying to worry you or anything She's not that manic at home...honest!

Unless there were specific reasons why the dog can't be walked properly - ie health or age - I'd advise them that they were talking out of their bum he had been fine on a long walk with me the other day when I "just forgot all notion of time" and that therefore I'd be doing something similar while the dog was with me as this is MY routine.

Poor dog, only 5 minute walks... :(

Nope, he is a perfectly healthy (if slightly porky) fouy year old.

I am inclinded to tell them I might take him for 'slightly' longer walks in order to fit in with my routine and then just go for it.

Is only a slight untruth. When I mentioned my routine and said I walked for around and hour and a half a day they were aghast and said he had never walked that far in his life and would never manage it.

He is super cute, looks like this.

if as you say he is slightly porky then I think the longer walks would do him the world of good!

But I would mention that you are going to walk him with your dog/s as you say there is no reason healthwise for the poor thing not to be walked properly.

he does indeed look gorgeous. good luck!

I am dog sitting for my friends in April, they are going to a wedding overnight and I am going to their house to stay for the weekend... but they have gulp 6 dogs. 2 GSD puppies same age as my lolly, an old GSD (he's my fave) my dogs Mum, and 2 other GSDs. It will be manic, but good fun.

Might put me off GSDs for life!

nah.