My dog goes to daycare which I feel good about after a couple years, as it happens to be a daycare attached to her vet clinic.
But in day to day life. You need someone to watch your dog for the day, or only a couple nights that you don’t think need boarding. I do not have siblings. Bummed to say I would not trust my mom with my dog…not completely. She loves dogs but is too scatter brained. I do have a couple friends I would trust. And my Aunt is the person I would trust the most with her.
How comfortable are you leaving your dogs with others? Who are they and did it take a while to gain that trust?
We asked my parents if they wanted to watch our boy when we go for vacation. They had two dogs the same breed and lost their boy a couple years ago, so they were happy to have my boy for visits. But my boy is a pandemic puppy and it takes him a bit to get used to people (although he is getting so much better). It took a few visits at least for him to warm up and not bark at them in their own home! We are still working on getting him accustomed to their house, their yard, and them. I go visit every 2 weeks and stay overnight and finally he is pretty comfortable with them, but it was a big project!
There are friends that would be willing to take him, a couple that doggy-sits as a little business a block away, but the way my boy doesn’t trust everyone, we decided that getting him used to my parents was the best plan even if they live 1.5 hours away.
With my late girl, we had a friend who absolutely loved dogs and very good with them come stay at the house with her. But she was totally fine with people, even strangers.
I agree, it’s important to figure out some type of plan, especially if you are one to go traveling, and we have to take our dog’s feelings into consideration too.
Number one is they must be a kind-hearted, compassionate person. Even if they aren’t a passionate “dog person” (one of my sisters is strongly a “cat lady”, but she likes my dogs, and she treats them well), if they understand that I treat them a certain way, feed them a certain way, etc., and follow my instructions and preferences when they care for them, then I feel secure they’l be in good hands.
I observe people when they are around my dogs. I see how they behave, and how my dogs behave. I have a very dear friend who didn’t even like to snuggle with her own dog, and isn’t very touchy-feely, so she doesn’t really enjoy petting dogs (or cats), but she loves them, and she is kind and generous, gives to animal rights and protections groups, and respects them. I trust her to care for my dogs, because she respects me, and wants me to feel safe when she watches my dogs.
I have met people who my dogs simply won’t warm to, won’t approach in a relaxed manner – these are people I watch carefully – I have observed people who claim to like dogs, but if they are annoyed, will react by striking or kicking or hollering. I would never trust them with my dogs.
I also will NOT trust someone who tells me “Oh, your dog will love mine, They’ll have a great time together. My dog loves everyone.” This is a person who knows very little about dogs in general, and their own in particular. You can’t guarantee that any 2 dogs will get along any more than you can guarantee that any 2 people will get along.
I need to feel that a person not only likes animals, but respects them as sentient beings, respects their right to be treated lovingly and respectfully, respects and understands that each is an individual.
I also need for the person to respect me as the one who knows my dogs best, so that if I ask them to “meet” my dogs in a specific way, both for the safety of the person, and the comfort of my dogs, they don’t argue with me about how much they know about dogs, or how dogs love them, or (especially) that they “know how to handle dogs/deal with dogs”… For me, that says it all – that this person has an ego in the game, and doesn’t think they need any input from the dog’s owner, who knows them best. No matter what they do after that point, they’ve made a lasting (and negative) impression on me.
I rarely trust anyone with my pets with the exception of certain family members. The person must know my dog nearly as well we I do, get along well with my dog, have had their own dogs and share my views on correcting him/her, understand and know their schedule, understand and follow my house rules for my dog or pets, be responsible around animals in general, and most of all my dog must like the person. I also rely highly on my gut instinct to help make up my mind. If something doesn’t set right with me about the person or my dog behaves different around them ie more protective, guarded,stand offish or anything out of his/her character I trust what they are saying with the behavior about that person. Always trust your pets judgement of people they see things we do not.