any experience with this?

5/28/2015 9:40:14 AM

Yes

5/28/2015 9:44:59 AM

We typically have a friend with a dog watch ours. Sometimes we drop him off for an extended playdate. Other times -- if the person lives nearby -- we'll have the stop by three times a day or just stay over. In the first case, no money exchanged hands but we bought them a thank-you gift. In the second, the girl stayed over nights, so we payed her $100 for the weekend and made sure there were breakfast supplies, beers, and such.

5/28/2015 9:51:11 AM

Quote :

"any experience with this?"

no, never. didn't know it existed.

5/28/2015 9:54:41 AM

in all seriousness this is one of the reasons i've yet to get a dog. There's a lot of weekends I just up and leave town and constantly having to drop off a dog, or find a sitter is tough. I see a lot of my friends either back out of going somewhere because of the dog or spend a ton of cash boarding it up weekend after weekend. Am I selfish? Probably, but i also want to be the best owner possible and it's probably not where i'm at in life right now.

5/28/2015 10:04:17 AM

Isn't this what friends and family are for?

5/28/2015 10:12:11 AM

Family let my last dog get hit by a car, and what are friends?

5/28/2015 10:15:14 AM

^^^ All good reasons...but are boarders that expensive? I feel like there are a lot out there these days, driving most of the prices down to being very affordable.

There's also this website that is almost airbnb-ish. You have people that live in your neighborhood that sign up to take care of dogs...they often have dogs themselves, they are in the area so they can take your dog to parks that he normally goes to...stuff like that. I've been trying to get my wife to sign up for it to make some extra cash on the side since she works from home. Also because it would give our dog company at the house:

http://dogvacay.com/

5/28/2015 10:27:56 AM

i imagine they aren't that expensive, i really don't know. My childhood dog had a traumatic experience at a boarder and ever since i've always felt that boarding, for me, would be a last resort. I have friends who's pups absolutely love their dog daycares and i'm sure my experience is an extreme outlier but it's certainly left a lasting impression.

5/28/2015 10:50:26 AM

^No its not, theres plenty of horror reviews online about people coming back to dogs with mental problems after boarding them. I've spent a lot of time training my dogs, the last thing I want is to board them for a weekend and come back to a pitbull with mental problems.

5/28/2015 10:53:49 AM

Yeah...we usually get a friend/family member to stay at our house or we drop him off at a friend's house that he's familiar with. With that being said, my little cousins are moving out of town and they usually stay at the house when we're out for extended periods of time....so we might possibly go the boarding route. I just recommend looking at places that your friends and family board their dogs at. I'm not against online reviews, but personal recommendations are more important for these types of situations.

I'd also heavily consider the dogvacay.com site I posted earlier. I like the idea of my dog staying at a house with one or two other dogs as opposed to a building with dozens of other dogs. Less likely to be confrontations and more of a "homey" feel.

[Edited on May 28, 2015 at 10:58 AM. Reason : .]

5/28/2015 10:57:51 AM

I posted this in the pet thread in the lounge a while back.

Quote :

"I looked into local boarding places and stumbled across Rover.com and there was a well reviewed woman only 10 minutes away from where I live. It's basically like Airbnb for dogs and it's very reasonably priced. Most range from $20-30/night. We're a little nervous but you can arrange a meet and greet with the owner at their house before hand to check everything out. "

Since that post, we've used her 5-6 times and it's been awesome for $20/night. She's super flexible on pick up times (we've picked him up close to 11 pm) and drop off times. She only sits two dogs at a time and you can tell she genuinely cares about the dogs. We get text and picture updates while we're gone and I think all bookings come with vet insurance if something happens during the stay. I'd highly recommend trying it out if there are good reviewed sitters nearby. PM me if you want to try it and I think I can get you a $20 referral coupon.

5/28/2015 11:31:33 AM

Quote :

"Isn't this what friends and family are for?"

yeah i guess. but personally i hate watching me friends or family's dog. they ask me to and i have a hard time saying no (that's a me problem, i know). but, i don't really wanna spend my weekend watching somebody's dumb, smelly, shedding, shitting dog. or going over to their house multiple times per day to feed it and everything. obviously, i'm not a huge dog person. but i do think when you ask somebody to watch your dog, some dog owners don't fully realize that it is an inconvenience/hassle. definitely ask somebody who is already a dog owner and/or dog lover.

5/28/2015 12:43:01 PM

I would think most people don't ask people who don't like dogs to dog-sit their dog. If you have friends that do that, then you have stupid friends.

We only use people who already have dogs (and our dogs get along) or people that want to chill at our downtown house for a few days and also like our dog. We also still pay them or give them dog-sitting gifts (wine, food, etc).

5/28/2015 12:54:54 PM

Quote :

"definitely ask somebody who is already a dog owner and/or dog lover."

Obviously. Are you not a dog owner?

5/28/2015 1:36:27 PM

I have used a place called camp bow wow, it's a local chain I think. It's $60 a night for two dogs who combined weigh 15 lbs

They do have webcams so I can make sure my dogs are playing and happy while I'm away. I probably spend too much time watching the webcams though because I miss them. It does get really expensive, I was just in nc for 5 nights but because I had the 6 am flight out and didn't get back til late at night that would have been an extra two nights of boarding, so $420. Luckily I had a friend that owed me big time watch them for free.

I'll check out that website next time though because I'm definitely looking for cheaper options!

5/28/2015 2:00:06 PM

Wow, my pit is 60lbs and only 7 months.....at $400 I'll just crate them and put them on the plane with me.

5/28/2015 2:01:38 PM

@LuckezCharm, I'm thinking about using them in a few weeks for boarding my dog when we go out of town.

Which location did you go to?

5/28/2015 3:07:43 PM

Quote :

"at $400 I'll just crate them and put them on the plane with me. "

Good luck. I think most airlines won't take bulldogs. I also don't think it's a good idea, in general.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/mcgee/2014/12/10/flying-with-pet-cat-dog/20143169/

5/28/2015 3:32:19 PM

Most say no bull dog, or they require them to be on a cargo flight.

https://cms.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/Delta_Redacted_March_2015.pdf

Quote :

"During the unloading process a large article knocked the cat’s kennel off the belt-loader side body causing the damage to the kennel which facilitated an escape. A search was initiated. Due to the limited nighttime visibility and the dark color of the black cat an agent driving a baggage tug did not see him and struck him. Cause of Incident: Maxwell died from blunt force trauma."

Poor Maxwell

[Edited on May 28, 2015 at 3:46 PM. Reason : ,]

5/28/2015 3:44:13 PM

I'm thankful that I've only ever had to board my dog once. It was when I was living somewhere without a lot of close friends (i.e. nobody I'd entrust my dog to). Ever since then though I've always had plenty of friends around to look after him.

It's easy for me though - my dog is ridiculously easy to care for and it's not uncommon for girl friends to volunteer to watch him in my absence.

5/28/2015 3:47:50 PM

Well I just checked and apparently camp bow wow is more widespread than I thought. I use one in Colorado Springs. My dogs love being around other dogs so they do alright but they're exhausted when I pick them up.

5/28/2015 4:54:18 PM

Just checked out that site, bowwow looks promising. I think I'll spend way too much time watching them on webcam.

5/28/2015 5:05:17 PM

Quote :

"I would think most people don't ask people who don't like dogs to dog-sit their dog. If you have friends that do that, then you have stupid friends."

not so much friends as it is family (making it even harder to say no) - but yeah, you're right. and i may have overstated my dislike of dogs. i certainly don't hate them or anything. just wouldn't call myself a "dog lover"

Quote :

"Obviously. Are you not a dog owner?"

not a dog owner - not necessarily a dog hater, but i'm not crazy about them either.

[Edited on May 28, 2015 at 5:18 PM. Reason : d]

5/28/2015 5:16:48 PM

DOGBOARDING



is that like boogie boarding with your dog?

5/28/2015 8:35:02 PM

Quote :

"Just checked out that site, bowwow looks promising. I think I'll spend way too much time watching them on webcam. "

I used camp bow wow in Greensboro for a few days. I thought it was a pretty standard boarding/ daycare place. I wasn't a huge fan of the cement floor, but other than that I was happy.
I have 2 dogs that have been going to day care and boarding overnight at group places their whole lives so they're social. They're also big (40 and 70lbs) so I don't worry too much about them getting hurt.

5/31/2015 4:12:58 PM