# Who feeds your dogs?



## Meng Xiong (Jan 21, 2009)

I was just curious what you guys do about caring for your dogs when you have to go out of town for a couple of days?


Especially when you have a "one-person" type dog who is aloof to strangers?


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## Selena van Leeuwen (Mar 29, 2006)

no one, we don´t go away for longer than a day.


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

I'm with Selena. But when I used to be gone I would fill up a feeder for my dogs. Can't do that with the couple I have now or they would eat themselves to death. Anybody can feed my dogs, they aren't aggressive or aloof enough to be a problem. Just nobody but me knows which food goes with what dog or how much at a feeding. In a pinch I could cut out the suppliments for a vacation period and feed everybody the same food and same amount to make it simple for a family member to deal with but I just can't seem to find anywhere important enough to leave my dogs for.


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## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

we rarely go anywhere, if it's an overnighter my neighbor is trusted, the dogs know him and he'll feed the dogs. If it's an extended stay one of my training buddies will put up the dogs in his kennels. I wouldn't trust a regular pet dog person to care for a working dog. In the case of my neighbor, his father is a K9 officer and he grew up with real working dogs in his house so I trust him with my sport dogs.


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## Carol Boche (May 13, 2007)

I wish I could say that I don't go anywhere, but alas, I do travel to seminars, trainings and also actual missions. 

Therefore I have *trained* Doug, my daughter Heather, and a great young team mate Elizabeth to take care of my dogs when I am gone. Most times I take 2 to 4 dogs with me, but on a mission I only take the dog(s) I need, which is a live find and a HRD/Cadaver dog. 

I have taught the routine of feeding half of either the am or pm meal which is placed in a crate so the dog can see and the dog is let out and goes right into the crate to eat. The kennels then get cleaned while the dogs are crated. Then, the other half of that meal is used in reverse. This way, the person taking care does not have to enter the kennel with the dog. 

When I leave, Esta goes into the large grassy day run (1/2 acre) and is only fed, I pick up when I get home. Not sure that she would not bite someone, especially Doug. (yikes) She is the only dog here that will actually bite for real if she is messed with. But she is pretty happy for anyone to set her food dish inside the run. 

Now, with starting sport work with Ajay and the field being almost done, I am going to be staying home more. Time to start doing something that I want to do as I have spent the last 6 years going everywhere to help others. I will always do SAR, but I have always wanted to do sport work and now have the dog to do it with, as well as working Esta who is already titled to an IPO II. 

So now hopefully I will stay home more. yay!!


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

With my schH dog, most trips I take are dog related so he goes too. Iif we went somewhere that we couldn't take him I would board him & have them feed him kibble (even though at home he is RAW fed). I wouldn't board him because he is horribly vicious or anything, (he's just a tad bit nasty !!!!!) but he is an escape artist & I don't trust a relative not to accidently let him out of his run or not double bolt it. Better to be safe than sorry.

The others I would leave home (they have the run of the house & the yard). We have family members for whom we take their dogs when they go on vacations, so I would hope they would come over and feed our dogs once a day for us. They are kibble fed anyway so no change there.


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## steve davis (Mar 24, 2009)

if we leave our dogs we leave them with our trainer. if we are going to be away for a short period of time we will ask a family member that the dogs know to stop and feed.


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## Courtney Guthrie (Oct 30, 2007)

I left them with a friend over christmas that "knew" dogs. Yeah, BIG MISTAKE. NEVER AGAIN with any friend. 

I have left them with my parents and they do OK. But anything longer than a few days, my TD would take Judge and watch him. Judge isn't bad, he will get frutrated and bite after not doing anything for a while. Red is easy and stays with my grandma and my parents come over and feed ehr/let her out. 

Courtney


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Meng Xiong said:


> I was just curious what you guys do about caring for your dogs when you have to go out of town for a couple of days?
> 
> 
> Especially when you have a "one-person" type dog who is aloof to strangers?


My roommate takes care of them - except the high-drive ones intimidate her when I'm not there, so they stay in kennels and she tosses the food over the fence.

I have a friend that works in kennels and is very dog-savvy, so she comes over if my roommate is gone, or if I am gone longer than the high-drive dog's water bucket lasts. 

A breeder who is the president of the working dog club (mostly weight pull) has a boarding kennel. It is almost 2 hours away, but worth it to know the dogs are handled competently and won't have learned any bad habits in my absence.

I'm leaving this week for the longest vacation I've taken in 7 years... we'll see how it goes...


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

The biggest detriments to a boarding kennel is the help, and or the design of the thing.

Having said that, I have had a lot of customers with "bad ass high drive wonder weasels" that were absolutely no big deal once the owners were out of sight. I think that should say it all.

Most of the people I had working for me that lasted for any amount of time were absolutely fearless, and it made the dogs a lot less weird. They also knew when NOT to go into a kennel, and have me do it.

The problem children were nerve bags. Working dogs were never a problem, however, some of the owners sure as **** were.

I have seen weight loss with some working dogs, as we were given X amount of food, and it was not enough. Most of the time, the dogs are running back and forth like idiots, and that combined with the fact that these dogs do not have any life experience with being in a kennel until they are 6 or 7 years old, many complained about chickenshit stuff and drove me nuts. I had an owner get mad, because the dog was allowing the girls to take him to the play yard to run about, and that the dog was allowing us to pet him.

If you really have maniacs, then, OK, I agree, don't go anywhere for too long, but most people will be fine.

Check out the kennel, look at the dogs, look at the long term dogs, and ask to see the boarding card to see if the dog had been there as long as you were told. They should show you, you are no weirder than all the pet people, we are used to you. : )


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

_"Check out the kennel, look at the dogs, look at the long term dogs, and ask to see the boarding card to see if the dog had been there as long as you were told. They should show you, you are no weirder than all the pet people, we are used to you."_ 


I'd add: Stop by to check the place out ("in the back," too) without advance notice.

I'd probably also add not to consider one that's part of a vet practice (because of personnel- and other cross-contamination).

Kinda weird how many of those there are, both day- and longer-term; sometimes patients and healthy kenneled dogs are not even separated except by a doorway.


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## Chris Michalek (Feb 13, 2008)

susan tuck said:


> Actually, regarding the care of dogs when boarding, most dogs, when taken out of their own environment AND out of the presence of their owners usually are pretty easy to handle as far as that goes. It has nothing to do with whether they are "bad asses" or not.


For me, I worry about the males getting into a fight. I'm pretty dominant and I notice all/most of the little things they do to each other thought could cause a fight around a stranger.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

I have a farm-sitter who takes care of all of our dogs and horses, except for the youngest 2 dogs. It's cheaper for me to do that than to board dogs in a kennel, which I used to do when I worked at a kennel and only had to pay $5 a dog a day. The prices here are $35 and up per dog, and that doesn't include walks or exercise. With 5 dogs, that would be $175 a day. Our farmsitter is cheaper than that, _and_ she takes care of the horses too! 

Our farm-sitter is awesome, but the 2 that I don't leave with her are just too much for me to expect her to handle. I "baby-sit" dogs for teammates and they return the favor by taking those 2.


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## Faisal Khan (Apr 16, 2009)

When I am on business travel my wife takes up doggy duty. When both of us are gone then a friend comes by twice a day to let out in yard, feed and put up again.


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## Tina Rempel (Feb 13, 2008)

I only have my parents take care of the dogs. They will come by about 4 times per day, the good thing about them living close. If they aren't in town (which is often!) and I have a seminar or something to attend, all the dogs get loaded up in the trailer and go with me. Even when they are taking care of the dogs I have to be careful who is in what kennel or yard. One of the Vet Tech's will stop by and take care of the mules, sheep, cats, and the rest for me if needed and I have the dogs.


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Jeff Oehlsen said:


> I had an owner get mad, because the dog was allowing the girls to take him to the play yard to run about, and that the dog was allowing us to pet him.


If they were taking the dog out and the owner asked that he not be taken out, then the owner had every right to be pissed off. I would be too. I wouldn't care about my dog letting them pet him, that's always a good thing, but if I say leave the ****ing dog in the kennel, feed, water and clean it, then by god that's what I expect to have happen, and there is no reason on earth for people to take a dog out and **** with it if the owner has asked them NOT to, unless the dog is sick. You know why? Because it's my damn dog, I'm paying to board him, so they better follow my goddamn rules.


so there.


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