Travel with a dog?

[Scuba]

DH and I are spending 3 months in the USVI's for our retirement celebration trip. We have a 13 lb indoor dog that we brought with us, thinking we didn't want to be without him for this long of a trip. Since we've been here, even though he lives indoors and only goes out on leash, he has already had to go to the vet 3 times, all for relatively minor issues but it has still been hard on all of us. The vet said adjusting to island life is often hard on pets. Wish I would have realized that before bringing him here.

For those of you with pets, how long of a trip would you go on without bringing your pet?

 

[Silver]

I'm so sorry your pup is having a rough time.

We have an 11 lb papillon that we travel with, and we have never even considered leaving him with anyone. Sometimes we will just take off for a few days, but he always comes with us. I just made Airbnb reservations for an ocean front house in St. Augustine FL for a month, and made sure the dog would be welcome.

So my answer would be that he is always with us, regardless of the length of trip. I do hope that there will be no further vet visits for you and your family. It most certainly is tough on everyone.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

i cant imagine leaving my dog for 3 months, he would die of a broken heart, i certainly would , but i consider him my child,some people dont feel strongly about it, i left him at the vet when we went on a 1 week cruise, he was skin and bones when we returned, that was the last i ever left him, i spent almost 23,000 in vet bills on him since we got him, worth every dime as he is my best friend

 

[travelover]

3 weeks is the longest we've left the dog, but the dog loves the pet sitter, who hosts the dog in her home.

 

[Bamaman]

We're on 1 month vacation right now, and boarding our rottweiler would be about $500 for the time gone.

I left the dog at my daughter's house and paid her $100 her to deal with Zena.

The breed of the dog often prohibits leaving them with friends not used to dealing with them. If they're big dogs that require manual walks on leashes, it's worth quite a bit to board them with kennels.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We have left the dogs for 2-3 weeks but only because my son moves in and totally babies them while we are gone. When we take our RV we always take them. I think you did the right thing by taking your dog.

 

[Ready]

I really want to spend a month on the Big Island of Hawaii but DH doesn't want to go without the pup. Taking a dog to Hawaii is a major ordeal with much advance planning required. I don't think it's practical, which may prevent me from getting my month on the island.

We do have a pet sitter who the pup loves, and they just stay at his home while we are gone, so no cages or anything like that. He sleeps in their bed and they even take him out to eat, and go shopping with him. I think he actually has a lot of fun with them.

But I still don't think DH will go without him for a full month. Three weeks is probably the most I'll get.

 

[DrRoy]

So far, about 3 weeks. My son house and dog sits while we are gone.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

im with him

I really want to spend a month on the Big Island of Hawaii but DH doesn't want to go without the pup. Taking a dog to Hawaii is a major ordeal with much advance planning required. I don't think it's practical, which may prevent me from getting my month on the island.

We do have a pet sitter who the pup loves, and they just stay at his home while we are gone, so no cages or anything like that. He sleeps in their bed and they even take him out to eat, and go shopping with him. I think he actually has a lot of fun with them.

But I still don't think DH will go without him for a full month. Three weeks is probably the most I'll get.

i stopped the bride from going on vacations because i couldnt bear the thought of him crying while im having an umbrella drink

 

[samclem]

We've left the pooch with our neighbor when we've been gone for up to 2 weeks, but that's about as long as I'd want to do that. She seems to enjoy it and I know they treat her well, but it's an imposition on them (we watch their dog when they go on vacation, so it does work out).

One of the reasons we got a small travel trailer to to allow us to travel with the dog more easily. It can be hard to find a hotel where a dog is welcome, and I've been surprised by the fees these places usually charge (it can add about 50% to the price of the room--or more). This little 12 pound poodle is not tearing up the room or leaving it a smelly mess. And many airlines won't even take dogs outside of the passenger compartment for large portions of the year (potentially too hot or too cold during layovers--but they were willing/able to do it 20 years ago).

Good luck with your dog, I'm sorry to hear that her trip isn't going well. I'd recommend, if possible, that you try to replicate your home routine as much as you can (same food, if you can get it, same little rituals regarding walks, etc).

 

[48Fire]

2 days for my wife and our dog. I could go longer, but.....

 

[48Fire]

And I think she is comfortable with about 4 days without me

 

[Elbata]

Wife and I find when we go on vacation, we're not vacating too much because we miss our dogs.

We have someone stay at our house dog sitting while we're gone. We have cameras where we can see our dogs. Perhaps we're projecting, but we believe they miss us terribly. We certainly do them.

 

[REattempt]

I would re-home the pet so I wouldn't worry.

 

[AllDone]

We leave the dogs with their grandparents. We spend more time fretting over them than they spending fretting over us. They are all sitting in the living room right now watching TV.

 

[Scuba]

Thanks to all for your kind responses. We have gone on 2-week vacations before and left our dog with a pet sitter who takes excellent care of him in her home. But I can't imagine being away from him for 3 months.

The main problem here is the environment. We're on a rural piece of property and a lot of the plants have thorns/sticky parts that can easily injure him. We're going to try to limit his walks to the gravel and paved roads and keep him away from grasses and shrubs. Maybe that will help since two of his three vet visits are related to minor injuries sustained on walks.

It's nice to hear that many others feel like I do about their dogs. I love my dog so much, it's been hard to see him suffering.

 

[Texas Proud]

We have 2 indoor cats and 1 (sometimes 2) outdoor cats....

The longest so far is 3 weeks... but had my sister come over to feed them once a day and do litter... the cats are used to the house and can lounge around most of the day even if we are here... our last trip our sons stayed home and fed the animals...

The outside cat does not eat as often if we are not here and will lose a couple of pounds... but we fatten him up a bit when we get home.... he is 'wild' but has now allowed us to start petting him... the second one will come to eat but will not allow anybody to get close to him...

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We always either take the dog, leave him with our adult kids or sometimes one of us vacations with friends or family and the other stays home with the dog. He does like watching other dogs so we're going to look into putting him in a kennel for day trips. But he would be heart broken if we left him in a kennel for weeks on end. He's our baby.

 

[Mdlerth]

Love those mutts

Since we're still w*rking, the longest trip DW and I ever take is a week. During that time, our adult children look after our two dogs in our house. Pups do fine in the familiar surroundings with people they recognize as family. They're happy to see us return, but they haven't suffered loneliness.

Even in retirement, I don't realistically see taking any extended trips longer than a couple of weeks as long as the dogs are alive. I suspect it would take me several years to work up to being away from home that long. I'd probably follow SamClem's idea about buying a travel trailer so we could bring the pooches along.

 

[Dawg52]

I take my dog with me to my vacation condo every month for a week stay. He has no problem with condo life. About a year ago I took a 2 week rode trip out west and didn't take him on that. I boarded him at a good facility but really hated driving off leaving him there. When I picked him up he didn't want to leave! The lady who kept him let him walk around with her in the building and she just gave him a lot of attention. Didn't always stay in a kennel. Kind of made me feel bad he didn't want to leave but at least I know he had a good time while I was gone. Ha.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Samclem: with a 12lb dog you can put them in a travel bag and they can be under the seat in front of you on a plane. We have done this before. Of course they charge you for this and count it as a carry-on.

 

[shortstop14]

We've got a neighbor that boards dogs, and the dog seems pretty content to be there. So on flying trips, she stays there. She's handled some two and three month trips with no issues. On long driving trips, we take her along, sometimes camping along the way to avoid the hassle of finding a hotel that takes dogs.

Of course, the cost adds to the daily cost of travel, but that's the downside of owning a dog.

 

[Teacher Terry]

The time I was away for 3 weeks I really missed my doggies so now not more then 2 weeks. Plus by week 3 my son says that they start to act weird too.

 

[samclem]

Samclem: with a 12lb dog you can put them in a travel bag and they can be under the seat in front of you on a plane. We have done this before. Of course they charge you for this and count it as a carry-on.

Thanks for the note. We've done this in the past, but sometimes the folks at the ticket desk won't allow it if they deem the dog too tall ("I'm sorry, sir, but she can't stand up fully, her head is touching the top of the carrier."
Me: "So? You don't have any problems jamming me in a seat where I can't stand up or straighten my legs, either!")

I talked to a lady who regularly flies with a little Yorkie under the seat, she says other passengers sometimes give her looks or even comment about objecting to having to ride with the dog in the cabin. I'm sure some folks are allergic to them, but as far as hygiene goes, I've flown next to plenty of people who were far more objectionable than a clean, well-groomed dog.

 

[Rambler]

We leave the dogs for no longer than 9 days...drop them off the day before we fly to Hawaii for 7 days, and pick them up the day after we get back. And, we miss them terribly during those 9 days. If we are RVing, they always go. If we have a 4-5 day trip for a wedding or similar, we leave them in a local kennel that takes superb care of them. If our daughter and SIL had their own home, we'd leave them there and take a month long trip to HI, but they don't so we cannot. I don't think I'd travel with a cat. Some folks do, but I wouldn't. Thankfully we don't have too worry about that. I grew up with a few cats hanging around outside the house, as well as a dog or two, but I don't like the idea of cats in the house, and DW hates them in the house (DS has two, in the house, not well cared for in terms of cleaning the litter box, so we never stay with him and his wife...can't stand it...and this turns DW off to cats even more.). Sometimes, we will leave the pups in day care or one overnight when RVing due to social activities that keep us away from the RV for too long. We've even talked about buying a condo in HI and spending winters there, but taking the dogs back and forth due to HI quarantine rules is a huge hassle, so that is out until the dogs pass. Then we have to decide if having dogs is more of a priority, or wintering in HI is more of a priority. Both of us will be torn with that question.