At the end of September Hubby and I have booked a vacation for our 5th anniversary. We’ll be gone for 3 nights/4 days to Edisto Island which is about 4 hours from our hometown. Any other time we’d take Bubba with us, but this is our honeymoon trip since we never took one.
One major thing I have to worry about is Bubba. We’ve always been able to leave Alley home alone because he’s fully self sufficient. We can give him two clean litter boxes, his automatic feeder, and his water fountain. He’ll be completely fine for 4 days on his own with a friend stopping in to check on him from time to time.
Our trips definitely changed when we brought dogs into our life. When we had our rescued American Bulldog, Brutus, we had a very difficult time taking vacations. We quickly found out he was dog aggressive, so we couldn’t board him. We’d have to hunt down a family member or friend who would be willing to take care of him, and that was difficult as well. Most of our family members were scared of his sheer size even though he was a complete baby to humans.
Now things are different. Bubba is a very happy dog, sometimes too happy. When he’s in a new place he’s soooo happy to be there he gets hyper. He does the same thing when he meets someone new. He also has a weak bladder, so most of our family members and friends don’t want to keep him for fears that he’ll pee all over the place. I don’t blame them because he does pee all over the place when he’s hyper, but it’s not something he can control. He does have “doggy diapers” we can use during those times, but that doesn’t really matter to most of our family/friends. Other than that he’s a great dog. He’s never been aggressive towards other animals…dogs or cats.
I think this time we’ve decided instead of tracking down someone who would be willing to puppy sit for a few days, we’re going to give boarding a try. Our wonderful vet clinic, Foxnest, also runs Camp Dogwood for dogs and Miss Kitty’s bed and breakfast for cats. Both facilities are fairly small, so they only accept a limited number of boarders. To me that’s a good thing because it means each animal gets more attention plus there’s less of a chance of another dog acting aggressive towards him. The cost is extremely reasonable at $10-15/night. I checked other kennels in the area, and most of them were $40-60 a night. I also love the fact that he’d already be next door to the vet’s office, so I can sign a waiver giving them the right to treat him immediately during an emergency.
The only problem is we’ve never boarded before, so Bubba’s never been in a situation like that. All of his experience with other dogs happens just a few hours at a time…never 4 full days. The way Camp Dogwood is setup, during the day the air conditioned kennel house door is left open so the dogs can go to the play lot or back to the kennel to sleep as they please. My biggest fear is that he’ll either attack or be attacked because he’s never been in that kind of situation with other dogs. Every time he’s played with other dogs we’ve been there to supervise.
Also, he’s never stayed overnight somewhere else except for the night he had his tail surgery. He got to have a sleepover with Dr. Ross that night because his tail didn’t want to stop bleeding. I love having a vet who takes the animal home with him to make sure he’s going to have the overnight care he needs in a situation like that, but let me get back on subject.
Maybe I’m just seriously overreacting, but our pets are like our children. Sending him to “doggy camp” for 4 days is like sending my child to summer camp. I’ve never been in the actual Camp Dogwood building, so I think if I can drag myself out of bed before the office closes tomorrow I’m going to go check it out.
I have this idea I’m going to propose to Hubby, so tell me what you think about it, too. I’m thinking since we have a month until the trip that we should maybe do a trial boarding run. Since it’s only $10-15 a night, if the boarding house isn’t booked up next Friday night I thought maybe we could board him one night so we’d see how he’ll react in the situation being left with other dogs without us. I guess I just don’t want to get to the beach only to be called and told to pick my dog up because he suddenly decided to turn aggressive towards another dog even though he’s always been 100% perfect around other dogs.
Am I overreacting? Of course I am, but what would you do? It can’t hurt to do a trial run anyway, and if nothing else I think it would at least ease my mind.
