You may wish to have your wishes for your funeral, dogs, etc. entrusted to someone(s) who can take action promptly as those matters (esp. funeral/burial) need to be handled quickly upon your passing...whereas a will is sometimes (often?) handled at a more leisurely pace (in spite of what you may have seen in the movies. LOL)
omni
Yes, what I did was I told my cousin and mother who I have decided to make co-executors where the original will is located in the house in a firesafe place.
In instructions attached to the will, I let them know funeral, dog, and financial instructions they would need. I also have a trusted coworker who has the key to my house, who comes over often for work projects. He would take care of the dogs, feeding and letting them out, at least temporarily. He is named as first preference I have for person to call, in the instructions for dogs, attached to the will. The will says the executor may decide who takes the dogs, and has a note that says please see instructions for guidelines.
If anything changes with the coworker in a few years, say he would not be able to take care of the dogs, I will change the instructions/guidelines which are not part of the will -those instructions can be changed without re-doing the will. I also have 2 alternatives listed (in the instructions, not in the will) to call where dogs would likely be able to go. My cousin who is executor also does a lot of rescue work and does a lot of pet-sitting as a side job. She would make sure they were ok.
That was one of my big concerns because my mother does not know any of the people I know - she would not be able to take care of the dogs for various reasons- and she's getting forgetful. She would likely be overwhelmed and let co-executor, my cousin, take over the job which would be good. My cousin mentioned that about my mother and said she's be glad to help her or take over the job - only if mom requested her to.
The burial instructions are clear also, with the dog instructions, also information on how to find my financial account information, passwords etc.