Multiple Dog Household and Travel

[maberi]

So what in the world do you multi household dog owners do with your dogs when you travel (that's a bit of an oxymoron isn't it)?

I'm heading to western Michigan with Kayden towards the end of the month and Heidi has off that week so we both thought it would be a fun road trip. Unfortunately my mom who usually watches Earl is out of town and kenneling Karma is always stressful because she is so fearful of new people and situations.

I told the owner of the place I am going to that Heidi probably wasn't going to come along because we have two other dogs and he exclaimed "Oh, bring them along too, we have plenty of room".

The thought of traveling with 3 dogs though is a bit unsettling

[BigDogBuford]

I work at a kennel specifically so that I *can* travel! It's tough with five of my own and a foster....

[maberi]

How do kennels deal with "fearful" dogs?

[maberi]

Hmm, I might have found someone to take Karma

[BigDogBuford]

How do kennels deal with "fearful" dogs?

We're a smaller kennel, I'm not sure what other kennels do. We'd recommend a 'tester' night to see how she did. Typically it would be the most experienced person (me) handling the dog exclusively to build up some trust. In the rare case a dog won't let us leash them up or touch them, then we'd call the emergency local contact to pick the dog up. Or if the owners were ok with it, we'd just let the dog chill in the kennel, keeping them clean and fed but no play time.

[iluvk9]

Yes, Matt...that is why I am "on vacation" and home. Four dogs.

I love the kennel I found, but with the two car trips I have to take to get them there/back, and of course, the expense, I wait for the summer and take one BIG vacation.

[Mickle]

A friend of mine who knows my dogs has a pet sitting buisiness.

[SvcDogSawyer]

This is why I have a Sprinter. We went to a flyball tournament this past weekend with 10 dogs in the van. Of course that not the same as vacationing, but it's close. When we go to IN(10 hr drive) we usually have at least five dogs, if we have extras they stay crated in the van unless they're playing in the yard.

If you decide to take them all I would suggest you take their crates with you so you enjoy your vacation more. It sucks to go on vacation with your dogs and not be able to sight see and stuff because you can't leave the dogs behind.

This is not something I have ever had to worry about cause my dog can go everywhere I go.

A Pet Sitter is another option.

[pocketpit]

We try to take as many of the difficult to care for dogs with us as we can and have a friend we trust to come by the house to care for the others. We don't take many vacations Thank god for the Suburban. When we go to dog trails we've taken as many as 5 of the dogs with us including Moses, our Presa and still had room to sleep in there.

[airwalk]

I am fortune to have a Mom and a Son and Niece and a Nephew that are willing to either stay or come over. For those rare occassions when they can't, everybody goes, thank goodness for an Expedition.

I must admit it's easier now with two than it used to be with four.

[katiek0417]

Vacation? What's vacation?


When we go away, we take the mobile kennel (i.e., the dog trailer), so we have 2 dogs in the truck, then 6 in the trailer...

For the honeymoon, we'll be leaving most of the dogs with our good friend, Charlie (yes, even Jue)...we may leave one or two with another friend...

I'm very lucky to also have a friend who works at a boarding kennel who is willing to become friends with ALL of our dogs so that if we had to leave them there (like we will the night of the wedding), she is willing to work on the weekend so she can be the one to take care of them!

[maberi]

One of my good friends that Karma actually feels comfortable with (it takes her a few days to understand new people aren't going to kill her) has agreed to take her. In return I'm going to help him put in a fence in his backyard this weekend so Karma and his dog Josie can run around off leash.

This will be the first time Heidi and I have traveled together in almost 2 years. 2 days and almost 1200 miles. Oh what a vacation it will be

[SisMorphine]

I usually take my two with me and have my parents take care of the rabbit. On the rare occasion I will sometimes leave the dogs with my parents, though frankly I know they're too much for them, so I prefer to farm out the dogs to different friends who I know CAN handle their BS, and to separate friends so no one is inundated with dogs.

Though when I move I will have to hire a dog walker. STRESSFUL

As far as fearful dogs: we do an evaluation of all dogs prior to them being allowed to board with us. Though the eval is short (only 15-20 minutes) it gives us a general idea and we can advise the people to drop their dog off for daycare or a single night of boarding prior to their actual stay so the dogs can settle in.

We actually have a handful of SUPER nervous nelly dogs who do fantastic with us and our staff after their initial settle in period. It's nice to know that these dogs have a "safe place" other than just their homes.

[LMM]

A good friend of mine comes to pet sit for me. I pay her a little something something but if I had to kennel 5 dogs every time I went out of town, I'd be friggin' broke!

[airwalk]

One of my good friends that Karma actually feels comfortable with (it takes her a few days to understand new people aren't going to kill her) has agreed to take her. In return I'm going to help him put in a fence in his backyard this weekend so Karma and his dog Josie can run around off leash.

This will be the first time Heidi and I have traveled together in almost 2 years. 2 days and almost 1200 miles. Oh what a vacation it will be

I love good friends and bartering. Just think..you'll help with a fence, and have fun doing it and will know that Karma is going to get to run around because you helped build the fence....and

YAHOOOOOOOO - have a good vacation. Don't waste it!

[mnp13]

We rarely go anywhere that we don't take the dogs, but in the past we've had someone come and stay at the house.

[Hoyden]

We were lucky that Petey had many people willing to get paid to come stay at our house, chill out with the dog, play with the dog, feed the dog, eat junk food, watch TV or play video games. I think he used to look forward to us leaving because our dog sitters usually took him for long rides and longer hikes.

If someone is coming to stay with the dog, I'd suggest having them come stay over a night prior to you leaving so that the dogs are used to them and so that the person knows your routine & doesn't think that because the dog knows what drawer lunch meat is in that he should feed it to the dog.

[maberi]

If someone is coming to stay with the dog, I'd suggest having them come stay over a night prior to you leaving so that the dogs are used to them and so that the person knows your routine & doesn't think that because the dog knows what drawer lunch meat is in that he should feed it to the dog.

I wish it was that easy with Karma. I usually takes about 10 visits for he to actually warm up to people. Once she does you can't get her off of their lap but trying to convince people to come over and ignore the yappy dog running in circles around them is a bit easier said than done.

[BritneyP]

Vacation? What's vacation?

Yep. What she said!

Our idea of a vacation is usually dog trials, ! In the past we've pretty much been able to take all dogs with us, however, this year we have a lot of dogs & at most, we can fit 5 in our van, so I'm currently in a state of panic trying to figure out who's going to watch the rest of them when we go to MD in June.

I'm looking into the pet sitter option, but I'm hoping I can wrangle someone we trust to do it instead...

[Malli]

we have a bit of a boarding kennel at work...

to be honest, most of handling the dogs is management at work, wich I don't agree with, but then again, everyone has such different views on training

Generally even the shy dogs find someone they like after a day or two

If we couldn't get near her then we might set it up so we got you to leave a llong eash on her so we'd be able to take her out the the yard and back. This works because theres someone around 24/7, since we are a 24 hr hospital.