Cheap, but good alternative to Kennels?

Steph998

My son recently moved out, and OH and I are taking advantage of this (no trashed house on our return) to go on a much deserved holiday. He works 24/7, and is taking a break, so he deserves it.

Trouble is, we have three dogs.

Two papillons, and one golden retriever. The golden always goes to our nephew, and the paps used to go to my parents....but they are now eighty (parents, not paps ) and recent illness means they can no longer look after the dogs.

Nephew has special needs, and cannot cope with three dogs.

Son cannot look after himself in the flat, let alone dogs. Anyway, he is never in, and they would pee everywhere and probably choke on fag ends, rizlas and bottle tops.

We have no one else to look after the papillons. Being toy dogs, we would hate the idea of kennels as they love human company and hate the cold.

I tried looking for pet boarding, but they want £15 per day...per dog! More than our holiday is costing for two weeks. Pet sitters cost ten pounds per day for a one hour walk and feeding/cuddle...but they would be alone the rest of the time.

I don't want to leave them where they will not be happy.....any ideas? Apart from sack the holiday idea?

Mutter_2

Our dilemma too.

Is the holiday already arranged? If not, could your son not stay in his vacation time to care for them?

I've thought of house/holiday swap to overcome the problem, not heard much about it recently though.

I'll be interested to read any solutions.

jaycat62

Hi,

I'm afraid it is expensive, I have someone to stay with my cat at night when I go away (which is only once a year for a weekend), and they charge £15 per night. If my cat wasn't so scared of things I'd let him go to a cattery.

Do you have any good friends that could move into your house whilst you are away?

Savvy_Sue

Holiday in the UK and take the dogs too? That's if you haven't yet booked it.

UKTigerlily

Hiya, I use a website called http://petsitterswap.com/Welcome.asp, you enter what pets you have & what you'd be willing to look after & then it shows you the closest people to where you live that would look after the type of animals you own. I used it recently when I went to Ireland for my Rats & found a lovely retired lady who came & did a great job & the best thing is money isn't allowed to change hands!

Also, where are you? For example if anyone was close to me i'd happily do them! They'd probably be ok in kennels, kennels are heated & not cold at all, ours had infra red heat lamps & were very cosy! At this time of year less dogs are in kennels & so the Owners have much more time to spend with each dog. Might be worth visiting a few to see what you feel about them?

I doubt you're close by but i'm in Leicester if you are & could help out! I hope you find something that suits you & the dogs x

MrsTinks

Unless you can find friends you trust (and make sure your dogs are ALL insured!) to leave them with then I'm afraid it's either pay for kennels or house/pet sitters... at least these are properly insured to look after your animals... Not sure where you'd stand on the petsitterswap thing if anything happened... if you allow them access to YOUR home then I think any issues with them possibly "removing" anything would not be covered by your house and contents insurance so I'd be very wary of that...

Errata

This website http://www.homesitters.co.uk/?source=adwords&kw=housesitters&ag=homesit&ad=152&gclid=CK-t_KTO95YCFQL91AodjlNaWg might be of help.

GracieP

On our last holiday we organised care for them through this website; http://www.g-angels.co.uk/. It was cheaper than kennels, and imo, far better than kennels. They stayed in the house of a family and were walked a couple of times a day. It was obvious that our dogs were well cared for and had a big fuss made over them while we were gone. I'd rather that if they are away from us and confused as to where we are, they are with people who will make an extra fuss over them instead of at kennels where they spend the majority of their time in a smallish space with no-one but each other.

Unfortunately the cost of pet care is just one of those responsibilites that comes with having dogs. We often go on shorter trips as the pet-sitting is too prohibitive, or organise trips we can take the dogs on.

MissMitch

Probably a bit late in the day to set this up but I once answered an ad in Loot that was a couple with the same breed as mine looking for mutal, non-financial, dog-sitting i.e. they looked after my dog in their home when I went away and visa versa .

We went round and met them & their dog first, and checked out their house and they did the same with us. It was a great success for about 5 years and a great weight off my mind to know my dog was enjoying herself with a dog she got on really well with and with people I trusted. It was a really good thing to do, and if you don't want to go through a paper / gumtree / freecycle etc you could always put an ad in your vets.

oystercatcher

We just book a 'dog friendly' cottage in the Uk and take them with us. We've had some lovely holidays. They're part of the family and I'd hate to leave them behind.

My friend who is a dog groomer sometimes looks after peoples dogs in her own home, I think she charges £10 a day/night which is less than kennels. So it might be worth phoning round local dog type buisnesses or looking in the vets to see if there's anyone near you to do this.

Oystercatcher

Errata

Private sitters are a good idea, if they have proper insurance to cover the damage a little darling can do to their new expensive leather sofa, and if all parties agree what action needs to be taken if the sitter is taken ill or called away from home.