Boarding a dog v. dog sitting? (Raleigh: to live, pricing, yard)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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It seems to me that dog sitting in your home for a dog or two at a time is the same as fostering a dog from the animal shelter. No special license is required for that.
It seems to me that dog sitting in your home for a dog or two at a time is the same as fostering a dog from the animal shelter. No special license is required for that.
There's one HUGE, legal difference. If pet sitting, you are getting paid. If you do that with any frequency, That makes it a business.
I don't know about licences in this area of the country, for pet sitting,pet boarding or having a home based business. But I'd bet that your HOA would react negatively if they figure it out (that's the downside of WOM advertising.)
Throwing a curveball here, but do any of you who offer dog sitting (in someone elses home) happen to also be willing to do cat sitting?! I have two cats that are fairly self sufficient (fancy auto scoop litter box and the like) but we are taking a vacation to Florida this fall, and don't want to board them. Seems pretty stressful on the cats. :/ We've been here less than a month and also don't want to inconvenience or pressure new co-workers/friends into dropping in to check on them here and there either. Feel free to DM me if anyone knows of a great cat sitter.
LibrarySue and goodbyesnow, which of you lives closest to me? Will you both PM me so I can figure out which is closest? We're looking for someone to pet sit in December. I can't board my dog...it makes me too miserable. He's a VERY sweet and well-behaved Aussie. :-)
I'm way out here in the middle of nowhere-Clayton. Oops-that wasn't a PM and I cant figure out how to delete it.
Throwing a curveball here, but do any of you who offer dog sitting (in someone elses home) happen to also be willing to do cat sitting?! I have two cats that are fairly self sufficient (fancy auto scoop litter box and the like) but we are taking a vacation to Florida this fall, and don't want to board them. Seems pretty stressful on the cats. :/ We've been here less than a month and also don't want to inconvenience or pressure new co-workers/friends into dropping in to check on them here and there either. Feel free to DM me if anyone knows of a great cat sitter.
I'm sure you live nowhere near me-seems not many do! But, that is something I'd do. We just left our cats for a few days when we went to DC and they survived. We took our guinea pigs to daughter's friends because they need to be fed/watered daily and we didn't know anyone-good thing she has one friend!
My problem is that I have my own cats, which is why if I do pet sit, it would have to be in a situation where the animals could stay at their home and I go there to feed, water, etc as you need. I am not sure my cats would befriend visitors. If I find anyone close enough, I could let dogs out, but I'm way out here in Clayton, and it'll be hard for me to find many out here that need pet help!
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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Library Sue,
Would dog-walking be a profitable business for you? If you're going to be home during the day, I'd imagine some two-income families would have a need for someone to walk their pet during the day. From there, you can always offer to watch their dogs.
Do people seriously leave their dog at home while they're away and have someone check in 2-3x a day? Seems like that's a recipe to get things torn up or otherwise freak out a dog.
I don't love dog boarding at commercial places, but at least the dog is monitored frequently and gets play time with other dogs.
My preference is to have the dog stay with friends.
One of my dogs is so much happier at home. I took him to my mom's once and he howled for me when I went to visit my dad at the nursing home for a few hours and left him with my mom. At home he is chill, just relaxing. Doesn't tear anything up. He's used to us leaving him for a portion of the day anyway and he feels much more comfortable in his own space. I'll never board him. He would be traumatized. My sister boarded her sheltie once at her vet's I think — some place that she trusted that was very nice — and he was so worried sick he wouldn't eat and lost a bunch of weight.
My other dog could possibly go to some facilities, but I think she's much better off at home, too. She's friendly to all people, but can be aggressive with some other dogs (not my older dog — they're fine home together), so I wouldn't want her to interact with other dogs w/o me there. She does have an occasional supervised playdate in the backyard at home, but I wouldn't feel comfortable letting her play with other dogs at a boarding facility at all. She's also fairly big (around 60lbs) and all muscle. I don't have other people walk her because she's way too excitable if she sees another dog and jumps and pulls. She will sit for me, but I wouldn't want to put someone else through that, so we have someone come into our home (both dogs love people to visit them) and then they let the dogs out into our big backyard and throw the stick for the young dog to give her some exercise. That's one of her favorite things to do. She can also jump really high, and used to jump over the fence before we had a 6 ft tall privacy fence installed. She can get her head and shoulders over that, but can't get the rest of herself out, so she'd be a hard one to place somewhere else. And don't even talk about invisible fences — she feels no pain and would be gone in a flash.
That dog is a bit of a special case — all instinct and not the brightest bulb in the bunch. I did some great training courses with her, but she's a pointer mix with a huge hunting drive and is not really very focused on rewards/treats (or punishments either, for that matter). She's all about dog stuff and pack order and can sort of understand "human" a little bit, but is much more fluent in "dog". Our older dog thinks he is a human and would do anything you ask for a treat. Younger dog will eat a treat, but if there's something more interesting happening she'll leave it and go chase whatever. She barely registers pain. Got bit by a copperhead the other morning and was feeling completely fine w/in two hours. She bent one of her toenails all the way back until it was bleeding when she was digging a hole and kept digging. She's a freak, but she's sweet (to people).
They are both way, way less stressed at home than they would be at a kennel or even someone else's house. They're in their own space and very happy.
Nope. I consulted with the vet, but she was feeling completely fine w/in 2 hrs. Dogs handle copperhead bites much better than people do. Both of our dogs have been bitten before a few years ago. I _think_ that's what happened this time based on what I saw happen before when I actually saw the snake, but I did not see the incident this time, so it could possibly have been a hornet or some other bite/sting, but it looked like a snake bite to me based on the other time. Her snout swelled and her eyelid got all puffy and she had some other swelling around her face. She was in a lot of pain and pacing around when she first came in the house from being out that morning and that's when I called the vet. Talked to the receptionist who said that the vet would be in the office in about 30 minutes to an hour (it was about 8 in the morning when she got bitten). I watched her over that time period and she started to feel better, so I talked to the vet again when he got in the office and I decided to watch her and keep her at home. I gave her some benadryl on the vet's advice, but I think she would have been fine w/o that. Two hours after the incident she was back out on the deck running around and barking her fool head off and trying to attack our older dog and goad him into playing with her. She's pretty indestructible.
Our older dog got bitten 2 years ago on his face and it swelled up. I saw the snake that time. Our younger dog was barking at it and the older dog went over to see what she was barking about and stuck his nose in too close. (We did get rid of the snake, but we have a very wooded yard.) We took our older dog into the vet where the vet kept him all day, shaved the bite site and put some antibiotic ointment on it, and gave him meds and monitored him. He felt much better by the time we picked him up at the end of the day. I knew what the vet would do and I felt like I could monitor this one at home. I also knew she was likely to recover very quickly. She was bitten on her paw 2 yrs ago later in the summer after the older dog's bite, but it was late on a Friday night and having dealt with a snake bite before we opted to monitor her overnight rather than take her into the emergency vet and she was absolutely fine the next morning — no swelling, no pain, nothing. Happy as a crazy dog can be.
FTR, I know people who have been bitten by copperheads, too, and it's a completely different thing with horrible swelling turning the leg or arm black and blue all the way up to the limb and sometimes requiring surgery to prevent nerve damage from the swelling. Folks I know who have been bitten have ended up in the hospital for several days to a week. Dogs just seem to metabolize the venom much better than people do, at least my dogs do.
Last edited by poppydog; 08-09-2013 at 08:15 AM..
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I have two cats that are fairly self sufficient (fancy auto scoop litter box and the like) but we are taking a vacation to Florida this fall, and don't want to board them. Seems pretty stressful on the cats. :/ We've been here less than a month and also don't want to inconvenience or pressure new co-workers/friends into dropping in to check on them here and there either. Feel free to DM me if anyone knows of a great cat sitter.
