Russell is a 7 1/2 month old yellow lab; we adopted him from an animal shelter back in August. We need to go visit my family in PA for maybe 5 days or so in early December, and unfortunately there is just NOBODY we know here who can take him while we're gone (we have an excellent person come 2x/day to care for the cats/horses/sheep/chickens but twice a day is just not going to cut it for a dog, especially in wintertime here).
So, I am looking for a boarding kennel for him. I hate the idea of having to board him, but am hoping to find somewhere with sufficient number of play periods with other dogs (which I am pretty sure he would LOVE) that he will be too tired most of the time to really be too sad
Couple questions though:
1) he was only at the SPCA shelter for maybe ten days before we adopted him, but was rather sad and stressed there. I am really concerned that he will think we've abandoned him permanently
I intend to have him do a single overnight stay a few weeks before our 'real' vacation, so he can see that we DO pick him up and take him back home again, but even so. Do you think he'll be okay? I could use some reassurance. I feel bad doing this but there is just no way to take him along and my parents are in their mid and late 80s and I really do feel like I need to visit down there.
2) he is crate-trained and semi-housebroken but prone to accidents if left loose in the house (even supervised) for more than maybe 2 hours. Most of the boarding outfits around here seem to keep them in indoor-only kennels (no free access to outdoor run) and then let them out 3-4 times a day to exercise and to pee/poo. Is that likely to be ok, or would it be important for me to spend a bunch extra money (sigh) and drive extra far in order to use one of the maybe two places that either have them running around loose all day or have all-day free access to an outdoor run? (e.t.a -- for comparison, his normal routine at home is: crated overnight, and either loose (mostly snoozing) when I'm home or crated if I'm running errands during the day, with fairly frequent pee outings, a 45 minute walk in the morning, and an hour or two loose in the backyard with us in the afternoon)
3) Do you think that three 30-minute outdoor group play sessions is sufficient exercise and mental stimulation, or do you consider this not adequate for a 7 month lab?
I really just don't know enough about dogs, sigh.
Thanks for any comments/advice,
Pat
So, I am looking for a boarding kennel for him. I hate the idea of having to board him, but am hoping to find somewhere with sufficient number of play periods with other dogs (which I am pretty sure he would LOVE) that he will be too tired most of the time to really be too sad
1) he was only at the SPCA shelter for maybe ten days before we adopted him, but was rather sad and stressed there. I am really concerned that he will think we've abandoned him permanently
2) he is crate-trained and semi-housebroken but prone to accidents if left loose in the house (even supervised) for more than maybe 2 hours. Most of the boarding outfits around here seem to keep them in indoor-only kennels (no free access to outdoor run) and then let them out 3-4 times a day to exercise and to pee/poo. Is that likely to be ok, or would it be important for me to spend a bunch extra money (sigh) and drive extra far in order to use one of the maybe two places that either have them running around loose all day or have all-day free access to an outdoor run? (e.t.a -- for comparison, his normal routine at home is: crated overnight, and either loose (mostly snoozing) when I'm home or crated if I'm running errands during the day, with fairly frequent pee outings, a 45 minute walk in the morning, and an hour or two loose in the backyard with us in the afternoon)
3) Do you think that three 30-minute outdoor group play sessions is sufficient exercise and mental stimulation, or do you consider this not adequate for a 7 month lab?
I really just don't know enough about dogs, sigh.
Thanks for any comments/advice,
Pat
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