Hi,
We live in SW OKC and have three dogs. The older is a Sheltie who is a fully house trained, wonderful 6 yr old Sheltie. The pups are doxies and will be one this week. They are not as well trained. They all are doggie door trained and play both outside and in. However, the pups love to spend time asleep in someone's lap or in my recliner. They are doing much better but not well enough that I will feel comfortable asking someone to watch them for us when we go out of town at Thanksgiving. The older dog would be no problem.
So...I need to find a place to leave at least the two pups for about 8 days in November. I hate it but they cannot go to Disney World with us as much as I would like. I need a safe, clean place for them to stay and would like them to have time outside so maybe we don't have to completely start over house training when we return. We took them with us for a few days vacation this summer and used a kennel we had researched online for a couple of days. What a mistake! The place turned out to be nothing like we had been lead to believe and I felt horrible leaving my dogs there but it was a small town area in another state and we felt stuck. We got them early but they smelled horrible, their bedding was soaked and stunk and they were not the same pups for days. I think all the traveling and being left somewhere really took a toll on them. They were so glad to be home.
I love my dogs and so do my kids but we have to travel once in a great while. This is really our first vacation in several years. We are on a budget so we need ideas about where we might leave them. We would drive a short distance for the right place. I would appreciate any referrals.
Thanks.
We've used Rose Rock Pet Resort in Norman for our beagle and have been happy with them. They get outside playtime and walks. Here is their website:
http://roserockvethospital.com/rrresort.html
Have fun on your vacation. We went to Disneyworld at the end of April and my boys LOVED it!
I haven't had good luck with boarding my dogs either--they came back stinky and "shell-shocked," it seemed, even from the nicer places!
However, I've had great luck using a dog sitter service in my home: Carey Pet and Home http://careypet.com/
We have two dogs, but used to have cats as well (they have since passed on). The sitters leave detailed notes for each visit--and we typically paid for three visits each day. You might need more than that for pups. It's more expensive than a boarding situation, but I felt the pets did much better overall since they were in their normal environment.
I don't know if you are driving or flying, but there are kennels at Disney World if you want them to go along. The problem there is you would need to go walk them, and since you are only there eight days, I really think it would be more of a hassle than it's worth. Our dogs have been with us to WDW many times, but they get to stay in the camper at Ft Wilderness. Just an option if you WANT to take them.
With the number and ages of your dogs, they wouldn't get the same "full house" w/free reign to the doggie door treatment that most of my boarders get if they came to my home because I have a 13 year old dog and a 16 year old cat that need some "down time" from the chaos, lol, or I would offer to take them. Since I'm fortunate enough that I never need to board mine, I'll let other people give you referrals - I just wanted to let you know about the kennels at WDW.
Have a wonderful time, and if you have any specific WDW questions, feel free to e-mail me (we go often)!
We've used McNeel's and loved it. Since it is also a 24 hour vet hospital, it was comforting knowing someone was near them the whole time.
