Cared for in someone’s home, or kennel?

[Livelovebehappy]

The family are going away for a three night break later this year, so means we have no-one to look after our Whippet. I’m therefore having to decide what’s best - kennels, or someone who looks after dogs in their own home. It’s really stressing me, as I feel so bad about having to leave him somewhere he’s not familiar with, and whether he will feel abandoned. In other peoples experience, what did they find worked for their dog? My whippet likes people, but not so much other dogs. And is very typically needy.

100% own home - with someone who only boards one dog as a time if they’re not a fan of other dogs.

We have a similar situation with our miniature dachshund. We've arranged for him to go stay with a retired couple who have one dog at a time come and stay with them. It's not happened yet but it will definitely suit him better as he will have more attention and it will be a home environment.

I'm a dog sitter, I look after dogs in their own home. The dogs feel most at ease there

Definitely home boarding. My mum’s dog had to go in kennels while she was in hospital & it took a year for him to get back to settled.

Ours goes to a family who have been taking her for years. I think I would forgo a holiday rather than put her in kennels.

Definitely home boarding. Try to put him with home boarder for a trial day first though so he is familiar with the home before you leave him for longer.

Kennel for my dog as her recall is terrible and is nervous and we think she will be safer there. It has a good reputation and she went back happily the second time. We still hate leaving her there though.

Put DDog in kennels for a trial night and see how she does. The advantage with kennels is that it's very hard to have a disaster where your booking is cancelled at the last minute, whereas with homestays you are reliant on a single person or couple.

If you do decide on a homestay, check how professional the candidates are. How secure is their house? Have they shown you their insurance? What happens if they fall ill or have an emergency? Do they check every dog's vaccination record? Do they keep the dogs on-lead for all walks, and if not, what do they do if the dog runs away? If they have good answers and good references from people you trust, happy days.

You could also consider a house-sitting agency - we used to use Animal Aunts a lot, and when an Aunt had a family emergency mid stay, they found someone else to fill in for them with very little notice.

Ddog was fine in kennels to be honest but protests going in (owners love him and let him into their home as he's actually obedient)

100% home. X

Thank you so much for your replies. They’ve helped me make a decision. It’s years since I’ve had to use boarding and I didn’t realise until someone at work mentioned about people actually looking after dogs in their own homes, as an alternative to kennels. It’s so hard putting trust in someone else. I’ve just checked on an agency I’ve found on line, local to our area, and picked someone who has no other dogs, with multiple 5 star reviews. Will wait for her to get back to me and book a trial day in.

We have a nervous Border Collie who takes a looooong time to warm up to new people and doesn’t really like dogs she doesn’t know. We decided to go with kennels for several reasons:
1-the kennels manager is a qualified behaviourist - we had 10ish settling in sessions and she WhatsApps me updates and photos each day.
2-DDog is safe. She can’t escape, they don’t do any dog socialising and they only allow experienced people to handle the nervous dogs. They’ve set it up so she’s in a kennel where she can be let out to play ball and go back in without any human contact if necessary.
3- they feed her endless cocktail sausages to desensitise her to other members of staff. they do it safely through the fence until she’s confident enough with them to come out. She absolutely loves it!
4-I wouldn’t trust other people to be as careful as we are with her. For example, if we have visitors to the house we keep her out of the way. I would worry constantly if she went to someone else’s house, what if she got stressed and nipped someone. In a kennel environment she has her own space, her own bed and she can hide away if she wants to.

Why not get someone to live in your home?

I think kennels would suit our dog better as he would have his own space. I think being in another person's home and having to get to know them and their routine and be their dog for a few days would be quite stressful for our dog.

If you're going to use a home boarder, please make sure whoever you use is licensed by the council or their insurance will be invalid.

Lots of people who advertise on sites like Rover are not council licensed and are not insured if something should happen.

We use kennels, it suits our dog - he’s not interested in other dogs or people and loves the routine! We trialled a home boarder in our house and also him in theirs and it just didn’t work, he found it really stressful and spent the whole time waiting by the front door for us to come back.

I would go and meet boarders/see kennels and ask as many questions as you can, check they’re actually licensed etc and do some trials to see what your dog prefers.

Dogs sat in my own home, not by someone local who is running a dog walking/pet sitting business around looking after my dog and just popping in and out - I pay to have the focus on my dogs. Expensive, but just part of the cost of a holiday for me.

Of your two options, if you absolutely must, then kennels - at least you know you have a better chance of security. In someone else's home, you don't know who else is coming and going or leaving doors open.

We use a kennels we trialed and ours goes in with tail wagging as she loves it there. I am wary of boarding as you run the risk of the person not walking or treating your dog well. Some have been known to use shock collars to stop barking.

The same risk applies to kennels though.

A dog died last summer after a kennels left it in a van in the middle of a heatwave and forgot about it for several hours.

Kennels. Our local one is very well run and both dogs are happy to go in. As pp have said, with kennels you're not at the mercy of someone falling ill and having to cancel last minute.

Get a pet sitter who stays at your house.

It depends on the sitter and the kennels! I’d rather use a good kennels over a poor sitter. I also find kennels are more geared up to cope with anything.

A word of caution. We had a sitter lined up for our cat this week. She’s broken her foot! Luckily we managed to get him booked in the cattery we use with some flexibility on dates else we’d have had to cancel our holiday. Our neighbour looks after him for a day or so but longer he boards but this time we thought we’d try a sitter. I think Ill stick to a cattery.

We’re very lucky to have family. They live away but ddog knows them so it’s home from home.
Dumping dog en route to the airport with covid bed ridden relatives wasn’t by finest hour

Home boarding or pet sitter 100%. Can you book your dog in for a trial night to acclimatise him?

Same here. If it was kennels or no holiday it would be the latter.
Ddog would be devastated to be in kennels, he’s a people dog