Five Tips for Sending Your Dog to the Sitter
[Music]
hello this is Darcy the dog trainer
owner and head trainer of communicate on
training and behavioral counseling where
it’s my passion and purpose to connect
dogs and people with the holidays coming
up a lot of you are going to be leaving
your dogs in the care of a dog sitter
and having had some experience looking
after people’s dogs in the past I can
tell you there’s a few things that
you’re going to want to make sure you
don’t overlook to ensure that everybody
has a peaceful time while they’re away
so before you even go off on your
holiday you’re going to want to make
sure that you’ve done a trial run with
your dog sitter if that’s possible so
have the dog go to the facility for an
overnight stay when you’re still in town
or if it’s somebody coming to the house
see if they can spend some time over at
the house or take the dog for a walk
just to start to build a relationship
with them if it’s somebody they don’t
already know
the next thing you want to make sure of
is that you pack plenty of extra
supplies for your dog so enough food for
several days after your intended to
return enough medication for several
days after your scheduled to return
often especially around the holiday
times flights get delayed some that can
be hangouts holdups and you don’t want
to leave the dog care provider short of
any kind of supplies especially medical
ones
now in the event of an emergency you’re
going to want to make sure you both your
dog sitter and your veterinarian know
what your specific requests are for your
pets so let’s say one of them gets hit
by a car unfortunately what would you
want them to do in that case is there a
specific limit financially that you’re
willing to spend on your dog’s care do
you does your dog sitter or does your
veterinarian have permission to make
decisions on your behalf when they can’t
get a hold of you and sometimes what you
would do in the event of an emergency
with your pets isn’t what somebody else
would so you want to make sure that
you’re very clear with them of what your
limits are as to help how far you want
to go with medical treatment and letting
them know at what point you wouldn’t do
treatment any further because that’s a
pretty tough decision for somebody to
have to make on your behalf if you
aren’t reachable
fourth thing is emergency contacts now
we all know to leave an emergency
contact number for ourselves but maybe
you’re going on a Caribbean cruise and
you aren’t reachable or it’s going to be
really hard to get ahold of you so make
sure to leave the number for one or
several other people that can make
decisions on your behalf and who also
know your wishes for your dog
and finally for the dog care provider
have a tag made with that person’s or
that facilities information on it your
dog’s name and that facility or persons
phone number because it is actually more
common than you think for dogs to escape
from their their sitters when the owners
are away because they’re a little less
comfortable especially if it’s the first
time they’re being left alone and the
last thing that the finder wants is to
call somebody who is not available for a
phone call and of course the sitter is
going to be losing their mind trying to
find that dog and nobody’s going to be
able to reach them in the event that
they find the dog on their path so keep
those things in mind when you’re getting
your dog’s ready to go to their sitters
as you get ready for your holidays and
in addition to that nice list you’re
going to leave for the care provider of
everything that the dog does on a day to
day basis and their routine make sure
you add those other things in there as
well so have a wonderful holiday season
and I’ll see you soon
