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Vacation: Board or hire a pet sitter?

3436 Views 36 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  Bonn1997
I have an upcoming vacation that will be almost two weeks and have travel plans. What would be a better option: Boarding them at a place where they'd stay in partially enclosed outdoor rooms that are about 10 x 15 or hiring a pet sitter who would come to my house 3 x a day? The boarding place has a few employees who all love animals and has a good reputation. The dogs would get more human interaction there and would get a chance periodically to roam around on their 5 acre property. However, they're both rescue dogs and I'm worried that they're going to think I abandoned them (or they'll at least be confused about where their home is). For a little more money, they could stay in my house and the pet sitting company would come 3 times a day: Once for 30 minutes (which includes a walk) and twice for 15 minutes. This doesn't sound like a lot of human interaction and usually I let them out to go to the bathroom much more than 3 times a day. They've never had accidents in the house though, including overnight or when I'm away for close to 8 hours.

I probably sound neurotic for bringing this up but do you guys feel guilty when you go away? I was invited to go on this cruise a year ago--before I had either dog. I'm really, really excited about the cruise but part of me feels like I'm putting the dogs through a confusing, scary period just so I can have fun.
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I'd board them. Having a trial run for a day or so might help make your decision though.
I really have an issue with hiring a pet sitter. We're leaving on vacation Saturday and we're having some very good friends of ours come and let Shadow out (we're taking the two small dogs) and watch the cats. I just finished writing the care instructions, and it's 4 pages long! I have a hard time believing someone from a pet sitting business would be able to do the things I've asked in the time they would be at my house each day. Two or three fifteen minute visits a day would not be enough for Shadow, let alone Shadow, the cats, the turtle, and fish.
Just in my opinion, the boarding places around here seem to have more to offer than hiring a pet sitter, especially considering costs.
lol, then obviously there's not many pet-sitting businesses like mine around your area!
Unfortunately, I haven't found any that seemed that up to par. :(

The pet sitting businesses I've found, are usually college students who need extra cash, and don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with that, and some could possibly be reliable, but I guess I'm looking for something a tad more professional when it comes to letting someone I don't know into my home.
One pet sitting "business" I found, on Craigslist (yeah, probably not the best source to find someone great lol), had a nice website set up... but it turned out to be a 12 year old. Her mom set up all the ads and websites. Kind of weird.
I guess I'm too cautious. I'm also very wary of some of the boarding facilities around here. If I were to board the dogs, it'd be at my vet (mostly for medical reasons). They know the vets, the vets have their entire medical histories on shelves behind them (including ever side note ever written), medical attention is right there if necessary, and they can come home with a bath free of charge lol.

Choosing a pet sitting business, or just a friend, or boarding your animals is kind of difficult to choose. Some many personal circumstances have to be considered.
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