[Need advice] Best way to accommodate my fur daughter when I am away

[casper26]

Dear fellow members,

Hope all are doing well and dogs are happy and cherishing
I adopted my fur daughter 3 years ago during Covid. As a new dog's daddy, I learned a lot from this forum! I attach some photos below



Long story short
She had separation anxiety when I first had her. After all the training, she is ok now up to 12 hours. Before I leave her, I will walk her for 30minutes, make sure she poops, pees and has half a portion of her daily food. When I am away or working at the office, I have a camera which I can see remotely. She was sleeping comfortably in her crate, sometimes with her belly up. So, I know she is ok and comfortable.

Now it is post covid, travel is coming back.

For my first work trip, I sent her to the kernel for 1 week, when I picked her up, she lost a lot of weight, lost her voice, could not bark at all. It was obvious her vocal cord was seriously injured. The kernel just said she barked a lot, don't care. So, absolutely no more kernel for my girl.

The second time I travelled for work, I left her with my friend for 1 week. My friend has 2 dogs and my girl played well with them. When I picked her up, she was ok. But, a few weeks later, when I brought her to visit my friend's house for a tea (not to leave her there), she showed extreme anxiety, would not stop barking and just wanted to go home immediately. That was the first time I saw her so scared and behave like that.

My third trip was last month, I needed to visit my parents in the Far East for 3 weeks. Due to the distance, I could not take her with me and my friend was not available for the period. So, I booked a home boarding for her, her boarding fee cost me a fortune, more expensive than my flight ticket! The home boarding was a lot better than the kernel, she had one to one attention and I received plenty of photos and videos everyday. My girl was ok with the home boarding family, she likes to sleep on the mother's thigh. But I could also see my girl losing her shine and losing weight everyday. The family told me she didn't finish her food, not interested with her toys and snacks too. When I dropped her off at home boarding, she was 6.2kg, when I picked her up, she was 4.4kg, losing almost 30% of her weight in 3 weeks' time. My heart was wrenched, but I was pretty sure it wasn't a home boarding fault, they treated her well. When she got home, she had a very good appetite, double portions of her normal food (when she was 6.2kg) and grew back to 5.0kg in just 1 week.

I wish I could be with her all the time, but I have my life and work to do, I need to travel sometimes also. I am trying my best to find a better way to accommodate my girl when I am away. Any suggestion is very welcomed.

Learning from the above experience, I think my girl gets uncomfortable with the new environment and home boarding is very expensive too. I am considering pet sitting - my girl stays at home, the pet sitter to feed her and takes her out for a walk everyday, ideally 1 hour walk a day.

On top of this, I plan
a) to install a dog door so my girl can have free access to the rear garden anytime. The garden is secured, and she poops and pees there normally.
b) to install a few cameras at home and at the garden, so that I can see her remotely. I can call my friend for help if there is any problem.

Any other suggestion is welcomed!
Many thanks!

 

[JudyN]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I would definitely get a pet sitter in - to be there 24/7 if at all possible. And having chosen your petsitter, I would let your girl get to know her first, then leave them alone together for a trial run.

Dog doors aren't ideal - they have the potential confuse a dog when it comes to where they toilet, and there could be a security risk. It would be awful for her to go missing from the garden when you're not there. OTOH, in my opinion 12 hours is too long to leave a dog alone, both from a mental health aspect and the physical aspect of hanging on for so long. So if your potential dogsitter could come in to give her some attention and an opportunity to toilet part way through the day, that would be good too.

I hope it all works out well

 

[arealhuman]

Love the photos! I hope you can come to a solution soon

 

[casper26]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I would definitely get a pet sitter in - to be there 24/7 if at all possible. And having chosen your petsitter, I would let your girl get to know her first, then leave them alone together for a trial run.

Dog doors aren't ideal - they have the potential confuse a dog when it comes to where they toilet, and there could be a security risk. It would be awful for her to go missing from the garden when you're not there. OTOH, in my opinion 12 hours is too long to leave a dog alone, both from a mental health aspect and the physical aspect of hanging on for so long. So if your potential dogsitter could come in to give her some attention and an opportunity to toilet part way through the day, that would be good too.

I hope it all works out well

Ideally that would be perfect. But I could not find a live-in 24x7 dog sitter in my area. Home boarding is the next best solution, but from the last experience, she seems to struggle with the new environment and it was expensive £30-35/day. The pet sitter I spoke to, will come in 1 hour a day, to feed her and walk her for 50 min.

My next trip would be in 2024, I have at least 3 months to train my girl to use the dog door. I hope she learns to go to the garden to poop and pee anytime she wants. From now on, I would not lock her in her crate anymore, she can roam freely at home and play in the garden anytime.

She has never tried to escape from the garden, she is more to guarding the garden by barking neighbour's dogs or any dog passing by.

 

[JudyN]

She has never tried to escape from the garden, she is more to guarding the garden by barking neighbour's dogs or any dog passing by.

I was thinking more of theft - whether that's a possibility depends on how accessible your garden is to someone who is determined, of course.

 

[casper26]

I was thinking more of theft - whether that's a possibility depends on how accessible your garden is to someone who is determined, of course.

ok, this really worries me...

 

[JoanneF]

It's a serious concern, and the reason why many people avoid pet flaps.

 

[Hemlock]

Also it may have concerns for your household insurance. Best to check.

 

[TillyH96]

Ohhh she's so cute!!

Definitely consider a dog sitter or even looking on borrow my doggy for someone who can come in and sit with her/walk her, etc. I've used it before to both borrow dogs and look for someone to look after mine, and have never had any issues.