Leaving dog in kennels for a night

[Whaleandsnail6]

Im keen to hear if anyone has any positive experiences of leaving their dog in a kennel for a night. When we go on our main holiday for a week, my dog is going to a pet sitters house where she has been before, enjoyed and settled well.

Unfortunately, a situation has come up where I have to go away for a night in a couple of weeks. My pet sitter is unavailable and the family I could potentially leave my dog with is also unavailable.

I have found a nice looking kennel nearby that has space. Their website looks lovely, light kennels, with music, 5 times out of kennels per day and I can go and visit next week but I can't ease the guilt that she's being left in a kennel. I'm picturing her lying staring out of the screen (they have glass doors rather than bars which makes me feel slightly better) just waiting and feeling sad for me.

She is great at being left at home, we have a doggy cam and she just sleeps but she is a rescue and I'm so worried she'll think she's been abandoned.

I'm really just looking to ease my guilt here but others (hopefully positive) experiences would be good to hear.

My dog gets excited when he realises that he's going to the kennels. He adores it. It sounds very similar to the one you have described - he has music, no bars or cages, underfloor heating (for cold weather obviously), a couple of play areas, lots of games.... He runs in without looking back once - it's me that is left standing there thinking he could at least try to look sad at me leaving him! Mind you, he has sussed out which pocket all treats are kept in for each member of staff and has them wrapped around his little paw. He would never get that many treats at home. And he sometimes picks up bad habits, like the time when there were huskies staying at the same time and he learned how to howl - which he proceeded to do back at home when he wanted my attention!

Seagreenuser that's so lovely to hear. I'm thinking of asking to leave her as a day boarder before I go so I can prove to her I'm coming back... I don't know if dogs think like that but it makes me feel better!

Mine is fine in kennel and we used one near our holiday place, that didn’t allow dogs so she could come to the beach with us too.

Our regular kennel has music, off lead exercise field, agility and a very expensive unit that we don’t use that has a TV and orthopaedic bed. I think it does help doing shorter stay to get used to it first.

My dogs loved going into kennels, they used to practically drag us in there and tell us to bog off! . We used the same kennels from 1993 until the year before last when they decided to close.

When we got a new dog, we used to do a slow introduction. So a two hour stay on a quiet day the first time, then a half day, then a full day with a pick up in the evening and finally an overnight. Even my fearful rescue with Separation Anxiety loved going.

We take our dogs on holiday with us, but used the kennels for occasional things like weddings and the music festival we go to annually. It’s always a useful thing to have as an emergency back-up as well. When mine needed to go in at short notice for two weeks while I was in hospital, I knew they were happy and being well looked after, which took the stress out of the situation.

We were really upset when they decided to close down, but now have a lovely lady who looks after them in our own home and all our family and friends use her as well.

So nice to hear of these positive experiences. Well, kennel is booked and I have a trial day next week where I can leave her for a few hours to see how she is. It does look very luxurious so I am hopeful all goes well.