It’s vacation time: Do you know where your dogs are?

I’ve been MIA for the past couple weeks for good reason – my sister’s wedding! I had a fantastic time (it was a destination wedding on a beach – how could I NOT have a good time?) but knowing that I would be out of the country for almost a week and completely dogless made planning and preparing for the event a bit more stressful.

I don’t go on vacation often. I never go on vacation. Part of this is due to the fact that I kept up a rigorous horse show schedule so time and money didn’t really allow for it. In my eyes that was a fair trade (I loved my 14 hour days spent at the shows), but it also meant I cold take my dogs with me which was an added bonus. When I started traveling more for work, I was very fortunate that most of the time I could bring along a dog or two so I always had some of my crew with me. The dogs that stayed home were under the watchful eyes of my parents so I really had nothing to worry about!

I don’t believe in kenneling my dogs. For dogs who enjoy doggy daycare and are already used to that type of environment staying at a facility is fine (possibly even more than fine – it’s like they get a vacation themselves!), but my dogs have never been kenneled and dropping them off at a place with a lot of new people and new dogs would be extremely stressful for them. Since they’re most comfortable at home, it seemed like the best option was to find someone to look after them at our house.

The wedding was the first time the dogs were all home without grandma and grandpa. Fortunately, Nick stayed home with them but his rigorous work schedule meant fulfilling all their needs would be tough. Cue our amazing dog sitter, Meg.

I can’t begin to tell you the value of a good dog sitter when you have multiple dogs. Someone who can come in, pick up where you left off, AND keep six dogs (my five plus my father’s elderly dachshund Barney) happy and organized is worth their weight in gold! Meg does a fantastic job with my dogs, following my instructions to the letter so their schedule stays as normal as possible – and they adore her. I literally cannot say enough good things about her. I tend to stress out whenever I have to leave my dogs home (and drive everyone nuts) but I’m a lot more comfortable leaving when Meg is around!

Who watches your dogs when you’re away?