Training
The holiday is booked and your dog has never slept a night without you. Choose the place to suit the dog, visit it and do a trial night a few weeks before.
You have booked flights for August, ten days away, and only now has it hit you that there is nobody to have the dog. Your mum cannot, the friend who had him last year has moved away, and online you find boarding kennels with lovely photos and five-star reviews. And your dog has never spent a single night away from you. Here is how to choose between kennels, a pet sitter and a friend, what to check in person and how to prepare him well ahead, so his first holiday without you does not frighten him.
Every option works for some dogs and not at all for others.
Boarding kennels. He stays alongside other dogs, in kennels, rooms or groups, with people looking after them all day. It suits an adult dog who is sociable, healthy and has been to new places before. It is hard on nervous dogs, dogs who bark when shut in, old dogs in pain and dogs who cannot cope with other dogs close by.
A pet sitter. Someone comes to your home two or three times a day or stays overnight. He stays among his own smells, on his own routine. It is usually the gentlest choice for old dogs, dogs on daily medication and anxious dogs. The risk is the person: you need someone you trust, get on with and who answers the phone.
Home boarding. He stays in someone's house with a small number of their own dogs. A good middle way for sociable dogs who get bored on their own.
A friend or family. Works when they know the dog and have time for him. Works badly when they have a garden with a low fence, small children who do not know him or a cat he chases.
He comes with you. If where you are going will have him, sometimes that is the simplest option. For flying or other countries, see our page on air travel, and check the paperwork early.
Go to the kennels with your dog, without rushing, and look at real things:
In the UK, boarding businesses need a licence from the local council; ask to see it. Elsewhere, ask what registration the place needs and whether it has it. And if they will not show you where the dogs sleep, they have a reason.
With a pet sitter, meet at your home with the dog there. Watch how they approach him. Someone who leans over the dog and hugs him in the first minute cannot read dogs. Someone who lets him sniff and waits can.
Three or four weeks before you leave, book him in for a night or a weekend. If he eats, sleeps and comes home tired but settled, you have chosen well. If he refuses food for two days, barks for hours or comes back thinner and frightened, you still have time to change.
One page is enough. Put down what he eats, how much and when; his walking routine; any medication, with the times; what scares him (fireworks, bikes, men in hats); whether he pulls on the lead, runs off or jumps fences; your own vet's number; his microchip number; an emergency contact in the country who is not you. He wears a collar with a tag carrying your phone number, and the microchip is registered to you with current details.
Bring his food split into daily portions, plus two extra for delays. His bed or a T-shirt you have worn, unwashed. Something to chew. Hand him over calmly, no ceremony: a stroke, a word, and go. A ten-minute goodbye winds him up more than you leaving does.
| When | What you do |
|---|---|
| 2–3 months before | Look for and visit places. In summer the good kennels book up early. |
| 4–6 weeks before | Check his vaccinations with your vet and catch up on anything missing. |
| 3–4 weeks before | The trial night. |
| A week before | Care sheet written, food portioned, collar tag checked. |
| Departure day | A short, calm handover. |
Puppies. Until he has finished his vaccinations he does not go anywhere with lots of dogs. A young puppy is safer with a sitter who stays at your place or with a family who knows him. Tell them what you are practising together (where he wees and how you praise him, for instance), so two weeks do not undo what he has learnt.
Adolescents. Between 6 and 18 months dogs are nosy, they jump, dig and test fences. Ask what the outdoor area is like and whether he joins the play group only once they know him. If you know he jumps or bolts, say so straight out.
Adults. This is the age when kennels go most smoothly, especially for a dog used to new places and people from puppyhood. You still need the trial night.
Seniors. An old dog finds a changed routine, cold, slippery floors and other dogs' noise harder. He is usually best at home with a pet sitter. If he does go into kennels, ask for a quiet spot, a soft bed and someone who gives his medication on time. Tell them if he wakes confused at night.
You start two or three months ahead, though the actual work comes to a few hours: the visits, the trial night, the care sheet. Dogs who go to the same kennels or stay with the same sitter regularly settle faster each time, because the place becomes familiar.
The good signs: at drop-off he walks through the gate curious, without being dragged; he eats from the first or second day; in photos and messages he looks relaxed, stretched out or playing; at home he sleeps a lot for a day or two and drinks more, then gets back to normal.
Normal after he comes home: tiredness, thirst, a softer stool for a day, and a dog who follows you round the house for a few days.
Not normal: a dry cough as if he were choking (it may be kennel cough, so see your vet), diarrhoea lasting more than two days, wounds, obvious weight loss, a dog who flinches or hides from people. Tell the kennels what you found. A decent place wants to know.
With a trainer you can put together a plan over a few weeks: new places introduced gradually, short separations, new people who feed him. A dog who has learnt that every time you leave you also come back is far calmer wherever you leave him.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer.
Go there with your dog before you book. Look at how clean it is and how it smells, how many dogs there are and how they are split up, the fencing and gate, and who is there overnight. Ask which vaccines they require, which vet they use and whether you can bring his food. A place that will not show you where the dogs sleep is not a good choice.
Usually up-to-date core vaccines, rabies included, worming and flea treatment and, often, kennel cough vaccine given a few weeks before. Every kennel has its own list, so ask early and talk to your own vet a month or two before you go, to leave time to catch up on anything missing.
It depends on the dog. A sociable adult used to new places copes well in good kennels. Puppies who have not finished their vaccinations, old dogs, dogs on daily medication and anxious dogs usually do better at home, with a sitter who visits several times a day or stays overnight. The trial night soon tells you which works.
The first few hours or the first day can be hard: he eats little, barks, waits by the gate. Most dogs who have been prepared settle quickly, especially with their own food and a T-shirt that smells of you. If on the trial night he eats nothing and stays curled up the whole time, go for a pet sitter or get help from a professional.
Most often it is kennel cough, a respiratory infection that spreads wherever lots of dogs are kept together, even among vaccinated ones. The cough is dry, as if he were choking, and usually starts a few days after he comes home. See your own vet, especially with a puppy or an old dog, or if he has a temperature and is off his food.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
He howls from the first minute and only goes quiet when you walk back in. That is panic, and panic is worked in seconds at first, not in hours of 'getting used to it'.
The passport takes a day, but the rabies vaccination needs three weeks before it counts for travel. The order you do things in matters.
A goose-honk cough a week after kennels, a night-time cough in an old dog, bursts of sneezing after a field walk. Three sounds, three directions, one first step: film it.
The chip is the size of a grain of rice and has no GPS. It only gets a lost dog home if its number leads, on the database, to the phone you use today.
In Puppy Class and the basic obedience course these exercises are worked in a group, with real distractions and feedback at every step.