Holidays, holiday trips, urgent meetings – there are many occasions when our dog needs to stay at home alone for a longer period. The best thing to do is to find a friendly person to take care of your dog, but this is not always possible. Before we decide to add our dog to the care of a hotel or a pet sitter, we should properly prepare our dog for a stay in a strange place with a strange person.
How to chose the right dog hotel?
Contrary to the common opinion (which is sometimes used by pet hotels), an animal in a room with a TV set and a sofa bed is not necessarily happier than in a pen with a decent insulated kennel. Many hotels have both rooms and boxes inside or outside the house, to best adapt the conditions to your pet’s lifestyle. If they accept a guest who lives in a box, there is no need to put him in a warm room. Some dogs simply prefer to spend the whole day outdoors rather than in a warm house.
We should pay attention to whether the rooms, kennels and beds are suitable for the height and weight of our pets. A kennel that is too small is obviously out of the question, as well as one that is too big, as it causes the animal to lose a lot of heat. An important aspect is the location of the enclosure. If the pens are outside, pay attention to whether they can be seen from the hotel windows, whether they are not too far away from the building, and whether the staff will hear and see them when the animals are inside. Similarly, with the rooms in the hotel – it is good that they are close to the staff rooms, and not in basements, warehouses or garages.
When choosing a hotel, we should not be guided by the principle: I will choose this one because it is the closest. It’s worth travelling a few dozen kilometres further, but be sure and have peace of mind that our pet is safe, well cared for and doesn’t suffer.
If our dog is aggressive towards other animals or suffers from illnesses, and therefore requires careful care, the hotel may refuse to accept it. What then? There is a large base of professional pet sitters ready to take care of our pets. The carers guarantee walks, care, staying with the dog at home or taking him home. If our dog does not accept other animals, we will certainly find a pet sitter who does not own animals. It is best if it is a person recommended by someone you know or who has a lot of experience in caring for animals.
How to prepare the dog?
- In advance visit a potential place where you could leave your dog for few days so you could meet the care taker and check conditions of the hotel.
- Before leaving, let’s get to know the dog and its temporary guardian – let him take the animal for a walk, play with it, feed it, etc. This will give you an idea of the relationship between your dog and care taker.
- Let the carer know about the dog’s habits, and any health problems – in short, everything he needs to know.
- Let the pet sitter and the animal develop a natural bond, without interfering too much with the relationship.
- Do not force the dog to do anything, an attempt to make friends because it can easily have the opposite effect: make the dog discouraged and nervous about the carer.
- It is important that the dog feels safe at the time of our departure so that we do not have to constantly worry about him
