A lot of kennels won't board my dogs, due to their breed, nor do I get a lot of interest in coming to my house to care for them when we are away, so I hire a young woman who trains and shows Dogos to live in my house when we are gone. She knows how to handle my pits and my dogs are inconvenienced as little as possible, she is worth everything I pay her and more......

I leave my dog with my parents, I boarded him in a trainers private kennel once but I wasn't happy with the dog's living conditions, it wasn't dirty or anything, but he basically slept in a crate in a small air conditioned shed, the crate was a plastic crate barely big enough for him, n during the day he was in an outdoor wire fence kennel, probably about 5x5ft, n there was a bigger, 20x20ft? play area where he could go do his business n play ball with the trainer etc. It wasn't a bad experience or anything, but I was uncomfortable with the situation. The vet accross the street from me lets the dogs out at 10am and 3pm, the rest of the time they are in the crate, alone all night. I dunno how my own vet deals with boarded dogs, but i'd probably take him there if I ever have to board him. I'd like to open a boarding kennel myself one of these days, then I'd at least be able to do it the way I think it should be done and blow all these other kennels outta the water.

With our first shepard we boarded her twice. First time in Ohio, I would never do it again, small space and I didn't think it was secure at all ( hubby found that kennel), the last time in South Carolina, we did a walk thru of the kennel first, paid extra 15 bucks a day for an hour 1 on 1 play with someone from the kennel, and they never took her toys out of the bag. =( Never again. Now with Elea, we've taken her with us every time we've gone somewhere, go our son's wedding in Ohio, dog friendly hotel, my son watched her the nite of the wedding, Myrtle Beach, bike week, pet friendly hotel and she went every where with us, including the bars =) people didn't mind her at all since she was so well behaved and LOVES harleys. lol darnedest thing I've ever seen, I swear she was a biker chick in a former life. When we went to eat, she was in her cage in the hotel room.
Much less stressful for her, no worrying about her for me and I could keep her on her raw diet.
Our friends think we are a little wierd wanting the dog with us, but too bad. Besides she's better company then most any ways..lol

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and they never took her toys out of the bag. =(

Cujo's rawhide was given to another dog at the kennel, he barely ate while he was there (not surprising though) and his toys were never given to him because "he started shredding his toys in the crate"... well, thats what he does! I specifically gave him a really big tshirt that I wore for 3 days with my scent on it for Cujo to sleep on, shred to pieces, whatever, it was like a $4.99 shirt from Target, but he never gave it to my boy.

I didn't have a problem with boarding until one of my puppy buyers boarded her male she got from me. He was 5 months old last month. While being boarded, he got chemicals sprayed in his eye and it was removed last wk. They put a fake one in so that the facial bones will grow normally until he's matured. I've been lucky and had people come to the house to watch my dogs (family/friends) , and will continue to do so especially with what happened to the pup.

Oh, Angela, that's horrible! Sorry to hear that <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

My dog comes with me! She is a pro at flying and airports and everything inbetween. Triple AAA have a great book about all the places that allow you to have pets. We stayed in some nice hotels and it wasn't expensive. Also nice to have you dog with you!

On the other hand, we have friends that either take the other dog into their home, or stay in ours. We also have cats and have friends stay in our home.

Be very, very picky about your boarding facility!

How do people deal with barking dogs in hotel rooms? I don't know how my dog would react to being in a hotel room at night if someones walking down the hallway (or are they only motel type places with outdoor entry to rooms?). Do people mind if a dog barks once in a while? I've been to one of the few beaches in Florida that allow dogs n someone got mad because my dog was digging in the sand n it "might get sand on my stuff"... well, they didn't have a dog, so why go to a place called "pet beach"? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I'd also like to take my dog camping sometime this winter while its nice n cool here in Florida but I know I have a higher barking tollerence than my friends do, if someone gets up to go pee at 4am, I know he'll be going nuts in my tent n wake everyone up. He has a pretty solid "shut up" command but by that time everyone will already be awake lol. I'd like to go camping one night on my own just to see how he'd do before subjecting other people to his barking, but I'm a lil concerned about camping all on my own in a big state park hehe.

When we took Elea to myrtle beach, she was great. we would leave the balcony door open while we were in the room and she could go out and watch people. The only time she barked was when she'd see another dog. At nite she'd sleep straight thru. The hotel we were at had quite a few dogs staying there and I never heard any of them. Also, they tend to put the pet people in the same general area of the hotel, not spread all out.

What hotel did you stay at? I go to N.C. to visit my brother occasionally and usually spend a day at the beach. It would be great to know of a pet friendly place in the area that we could stay overnight at. My boys love the beach!

I let my 6 month old Doberman stay with the guy who got me started in Schutzhund, his Rott ended up attacking my Dobe. End of the story my Dobe had 2500 dollars worth of dental work, and is now missing lots of teeth, even though my friend accepted responsibility and completely paid, he felt bad and I have a great doberman that loves Schutz but will never have the bite needed.