Finding holiday care - Christmas

[karenski]

Hi all,
We are thinking about maybe getting a dog some time next year in spring/early summer (waiting for Covid madness to settle down first!) and I’m just trying to anticipate any problems. One of my worries is what to do over Christmas - we always travel to stay with family, who would not want a dog in their house, so we would need to find a dog sitter willing to have a dog over Christmas. How realistic is this? The alternative would be not to see family over Christmas which I would hate - we live too far for day trips. I don’t like the sound of kennels much. I grew up with a dog but we never went on holiday so didn’t have this problem!
Thanks - all advice happily received!
Ps planning for fairly small breed if that makes a difference?

Book well in advance (and I mean very well in advance!) and be prepared to pay the higher rate and you will find a dog boarder/sitter.

If you get a dog you might find that you actually don’t want to leave it at xmas as it’s part of your family
If you do want to leave it you can find home boarding but good ones book up very fast over busy periods

Thanks, that sounds good. Christmas is a big deal for our extended family so staying at home would go down very badly although given the choice I’m sure I’d want to stay with dog Yes I’m expecting it to be fairly pricey.

You will have to hunt around for a good home boarder and also be prepared to pay extra and book well in advance.

I do agree with the PP though that you may not want to leave the dog. I used to go on holiday 2-3 weeks at a time pre dog but can't stand leaving him for that longer period so have drastically cut our holidays down

Our dog walker has agreed to look after rookiedog over Christmas for longer trips we have a lovely lady from Borrowmydoggy who moves in.

Our three dog sitters said they are not doing visits on Xmas day. None of them. So we'll be doing Xmas here again.

THanks all. Wonder if I could convince family they do want a doggy visitor after all..,.

Our breeder has ours back for holidays but in general we take the dog everywhere

We used our local kennels when we went away about once a year for our old ddog. She was happy to go there, our vet uses the same kennels and they have a very good reputation.

Too be honest, if you find a good one, kennels can be fine. Dogs do differ: one of ours frisks in as though going to Butlins for the weekend, while the other looks a bit resigned.

Our dog loves kennels, he bounds in like the kennel owner is his long lost mother. They (in normal times anyway) book up, you have to be very on it & plan in advance to get a space in kennels, no spontaneous Easter break!

I don’t find we want to take the dog away with us on holiday

I'm a dog walker and pet sitter and I don't work over Christmas. Even if offered double/triple time - it's my time off and my clients understand that.

I think you will very much struggle to find someone to take the dog in their home - it's a big responsibility especially with all the excitement of Christmas Day. I would look into kennels and be prepared to book in about a year in advance, and pay 2-3 times as much as normal.

Try your local branch of "Barking Mad" home boarders - many of their hosts will be willing to have a dog over Christmas.

My dog walker is also home boarder and does offer over Christmas but gets full fast.There are 2 of them so they take it in turns to have Christmas of .

My boy loves both of them user them since was a puppy (Is 6 now

Mine goes to kennels every year. He goes quite often throughout the year and loves it. He wouldn’t do well in a home boarding environment but loves his boarding kennels.

They do charge more over the Christmas period though.

Avoid Barking Mad, it’s a big franchise and you aren’t allowed to know where your dog is, just that it’s with one of their “trusted sitters”
Very expensive too

My dog stays at his doggy day carer if we go on holiday without him. Sometimes I think it looks like he's having more fun than me

We have a friends dog for Christmas when they go away and we love having him.

You might find a friend will take them.

They are loads of doggy day care who do overnight stays.

I texted our dog walker to confirm timings for Christmas,and she texted back that she couldn't wait to have him . He is a super good pooch though

Personally I would prefer Christmas with my ddog over a non ddoggy welcoming house..

@Hoppinggreen

Avoid Barking Mad, it’s a big franchise and you aren’t allowed to know where your dog is, just that it’s with one of their “trusted sitters” Very expensive too

Fuck that for a game of soldiers!!

@Santaisironingwrappingpaper

Personally I would prefer Christmas with my ddog over a non ddoggy welcoming house..

It’s not always that they aren’t welcome. It could be that you are doing a lot of travelling over Xmas, your dog doesn’t do well with change/strangers/big crowds, The house already has a dog/cat, the house isn’t suitable for a dog, someone’s allergic to dogs etc etc

Check out your friends! I've had lots of dogs come to stay, I love it!! I'm not in a position to have a dog, but having one to stay is perfect!!

Both sets of parents said they didn't want a dog in the house when we visited. We decide we couldnt let them decide whether we had a dog or not, so took the plunge. It appears, seeing us is more important and are happy for puppy to come with us. ☺️

I couldn’t choose family over my dog. You may feel different once you have one yourself. I am lucky though because my family are all local so no over night stays, thank god.