We have to leave Tina at a kennel for five days while we attend a conference out of town. Other than 4-6 hour social events, this will be her first time away from both of us for an extended period of time. Anything that we can do in advance to ease the trauma of her being away from us?

Where do you live in AZ? Where and when is your conference? If you are driving to LA for your conference, we would be happy to babysit Tina for you. We live near Palm Springs and right off I-10.

Ricky's Popi

Yeah, I have no personal experience. The closest to "boarding" we have done is that when Kodi was an "only" he stayed at the house for a friend/trainer when we went away. (and he loved her and her dogs)

Now, with three, we have someone come and stay here on the rare occasion that Both Dave AND I go away and we can't take them.

It might help to visit there several times, first with you, then being left for a few hours, before you have to leave her for multiple days. In general, I think Havanese do better with in-home care/boarding if it can be arranged.

I have to say that I really dread moving somewhere and this being a possibility. I've been lucky in that I've always had someone who could stay with Perry (and with my previous dog), the idea of moving somewhere without that network or resources does stress me out. I know there are good boarding places, but still.

Do you know any responsible college students (or people who live with their parents)? With my last dog when I was living in Macedonia that was out in-home care - a friend of a friend was a college student living at home who also volunteered at an animal organization and she was thrilled to house-sit/ dog sit for me when I was out of town. I stocked the fridge and gave her some spending money - but she was more thrilled for a chance to be on her own for a week or two so it was a win-win.

Our puppy has separation issues and we ended up not really crate training so I was really worried about boarding. I decided to board him at a daycare instead of just a kennel and he did really well. He was fine being crated at night even though he’s not usually crated at home.

I think the most important thing is developing a relationship with the person/facility you use. I know a lot of people who’ve had terrible experiences with daycares, and a lot of time that’s legitimate. The place I take my dog is small, allows open play that is supervised by multiple people, and they provide a variety of different types stimulation depending on the weather and the dogs they have that day. You can tell just by looking at the yard that the people who work there are actually engaged in what they’re doing because they have a variety of play structures and surfaces, covered areas and open areas, different types of shade - and it’s always moving around. They know my dog and me well. On the other hand, I tried a new place closer to a part of town that was brand new and seemed really fancy and ultra clean and when we picked up our dog after only an hour and a half and he ran out terrified and peed all over me and the floor - and no one had any idea if anything had happened.

I’ve also had really good luck with using a dog walking app. I’m sure there are lots of people on there who aren’t great, so you can’t just let the app do the screening for you, but it might be a starting point to find someone. I live in a college town so it’s an especially good resource for reliable students who want a dog fix. I met both people our dog stayed with in person and he went for short day visits to make sure it was a good fit.

Before we brought home our puppy I really thought people were way too overprotective of their dogs in this way. I learned very quickly that in some ways I have to be even more careful with my dog than I do with my kids because there’s a real divide between the “old school” way of handling dogs and the “new” way - someone who would never even consider spanking someone else’s kids may still be comfortable using aggressive techniques and throwing around words like “alpha.”

Thanks krandall, Melissa Brill, and EvaE1izabeth for all of the helpful suggestion/advice. Ricky Ricardo, I sent you a PM regarding our travel plans.

I hated leaving mine in kennels. Ugly concrete boxes with wire fence doors. Rover.com supposedly has reliable families and house sitters. I think if you get Ricky to help out you are one lucky dog owner.

I read somewhere, was it here, that a family on Rover had a Havenese in their fenced yard and it ate a mushroom and died? Best a family who knows our breeds particularities. Mine will try to put anything in their mouths.

We had to board Scout when he was a about 10 month old because we had to go to a wedding out of state. I thought it would be best to do a trial run before we left. I decided to leave him at the pet hospital over night while I was at work. I dropped him off at 6PM and picked him up around 8AM. When they brought him out he looked scared. When I got him in the car his nose looked a little irritated. The next day his nose was pink! I was so upset!!! I took him back to the vet and he said dogs will rub there nose when under stress. It took a few months for the color of his nose to return! I found a pet sitter for that trip to stay at our house. I have never left Scout or Truffles due to that incident. We only go where they can stay We have a trip planned for summer and my friend has it marked on her calendar because she will be staying with the furkids. I really recommend a test run before leaving for an extended period of time. If you are boarding at a kennel make sure it is a glass enclosure. When Scout had both ACL surgeries I made sure he would be in a glass enclosure!

I do remember reading here at some point that the difference between one night and 5 nights means very little to the dog, and that really helped me. At the end of the day, when you find someone or someplace you’re comfortable with, it’ll be harder on you than Tina! I think the cousins thought my kids were a little weird because they wanted pictures every day we were gone. They had a brand new baby so it wasn’t a good time for us to take our dog with us, but next time they’ll meet him and I’m certain they’ll understand completely

I tend to agree with others who have indicated that they thought Havanese were probably not the best breed for using a traditional kennel for boarding. Cassie is so people oriented that the thought of her having to spend so much time with other dogs, rather than people, seemed a bad idea. We opted for taking her to a pet sitter’s home rather than having a pet sitter stay at our house because when my granddaughters had spent time with her when we were away for a long day, they said she spent much of their playtime going from room to room searching for us. So we decided that might be a problem. We did a one day, then a two night stay at pet sitter before a much longer period. She comes back happy and does not resist going into the pet sitter’s house...we hate leaving her, but get daily updates and pictures. Planning a vacation late summer and will make reservation with pet sitter months before, actually will call and make sure the dates work for her before making vacation reservations..would hate to ever have to find someone new and go thru the same vetting process before leaving!!