Leaving an anxious dog

June 7, 2020 10:17 AM

I recently posted about my highly anxious and neurotic dog. I have to go out of town in July for 2.5 half days. I need to figure out a game plan.

This short trip is non-negotiable. I don't want to go into details, but it's something I must do.

My dog is a hard dog (2 years old). She is afraid of new people (which for her takes the form of excessive barking), new animals (only likes dogs smaller than her) and has some degree of separation anxiety (crated when I'm at work because even though she's mostly okay, that 5% of the time she gets really destructive).

She is also the world's worst car dog, so taking her is also not possible.

I am going to be exploring medication options, but I need to find a solution for this specific trip.

As I see the options are:
-boarding
-in-home pet sitting
-pet sitting with drop-ins

I don't think boarding is even an option due to what I described above. It seems like in-home pet sitting is the best option, but I've only ever had family watch her (not an option this time) so I'm nervous about it. I am nervous about just doing drop-ins because I live in an apartment and I don't want her to bark excessively when they leave, which she does if anyone besides me leaves her.

My question is: What has worked for you in leaving an anxious dog for a few nights? Does in-home pet sitting seem like the best option? Anything else I should think about?

posted by Aranquis to Pets & Animals (9 answers total)

I board my very very anxious dog at a vet clinic where they can take care of him if his anxiety gets too bad. He's always been just fine and hasn't needed any anti-anxiety meds.

My concern with in house pet sitting was worrying he'd be more likely to bolt or try to escape on walks.
posted by ilovewinter at 10:26 AM on June 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

The problem with in-home professional petsitting is that very few sitters will stay home more or less 24 hours a day. They have other gigs, and it generally means they'll stay overnight but be gone all day with a lunchtime-ish visit only.

Since you have time, I'd suggest you find a petsitter who does in-home boarding in their home*. Chances are really good they're also a trainer, which means they're going to be better prepared to deal with your dog's anxiety and might even help you make some headway with the anxiety. Find this person and maybe have them come do weekly walk/sessions between now and then. In my experience, sitters who do this are doing it as a family business, so someone at home who's holding down the daycare/in-home fort pretty much all day.

*If you happen to be in San Diego, message me and I'll point you to the awesome women I worked with there.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:43 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I foster shy and anxious dogs for a rescue. When I go on vacation, if I have a foster who is particularly anxious, I board them with one of the rescue vets. Those dogs are the most likely to struggle with a change in routine, but they are also harder to keep safe than dogs who are less shy or anxious. I have really good house sitters who can handle my dogs and most fosters, but the shy and anxious ones require a greater level of safety preparations. Also, I don't have pet sitters walk my dogs. I don't trust anyone to walk my dogs, as other people don't know them as well as I do, and dogs do not like great changes in routine.
posted by answergrape at 10:59 AM on June 7, 2020

Response by poster: My vet doesn't offer dog boarding. These are really useful things to consider - thanks everyone for the suggestions so far.
posted by Aranquis at 11:06 AM on June 7, 2020

My sister is a pet-sitter who specializes in hard-to-sit dogs. Some are aggressive, some have a lot of meds, some are anxious. She mentions this in her listings on Rover and other pet-sitter apps. She charges a fairly high rate and yes, she will stay at the person's house basically 24/7. Her reviews talk about how she's done a great job handling difficult dogs, and sitting for people who never felt they could take a vacation before. She also does a (paid) meet & greet beforehand so she can come to the house, meet the dog, and be taught whatever the nuances are for that pet. So these people are out there. (If you're in the Boston area, MeMail me.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:41 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Last summer my husband and I had a two-week vacation to Europe booked. We hadn't been out of town for longer than a weekend in years, due to the high needs of our various rescue dogs. When we first booked the vacation, we had two dogs - one elderly and ill and on a special diet and lots of medications, as well as a very young rescue who was terrified of everyone but us, and had two bad bites on his record (he bit the woman who found him, when she tried to surrender him at a shelter which then refused to take him, and he bit a vet tech at our vet on the eye socket after we adopted him.)

We'd had a terrible experience with non-vet boarding, and okay experiences with vet boarding except for the expense being more than both our plane tickets to where ever we visited. So I went on Rover.com and found a few people with good reviews in our neighborhood. I interviewed two people and hired the one I felt the best about (trusted my gut), and my stranger-hating dog actually approached her right off and let her pet him.

Our elderly dog passed away a few weeks before we went, so we went off our trip, with me in a total panic, and left our anxious little biter with this woman who agreed to stay with him in the house. And the results were amazing! She took our dog to baseball games! He went for runs! He made best friends with the her dog! She sent me pictures of my dog sitting on her lap giving her kisses, and giving her husband kisses, and getting a bath, and I couldn't believe this was my anxious little terror who we had kept in our house for ages because we were scared of him biting a stranger again.

This experience changed my view of my dog! And gave me so much more confidence to be able to travel again (until well you know.) We booked her again at Thanksgiving, after we had adopted another little terror, and she did great with the pair. For this booking, she took our dogs home with her a lot because I trusted her and knew it would be okay.

I would suggest looking at one of the pet boarding services, and interviewing a few highly rated sitters. It could end up improving your relationship with your dog (and helping with your own anxiety about leaving her.)
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 11:51 AM on June 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

I can't offer a solution other than what has already been offered of boarding with a vet as they can give anti anxiety meds. If you go another route vet speak to them about anti anxiety meds for such a short time they'd probably have no problem prescribing them.

Whatever solution you go with you may like to get it a pheromone collar too. I found them very helpful with my anxiety ridden dog. Plug ins can also help.
posted by wwax at 2:04 PM on June 7, 2020

Depending where you live, Rover might be an option. I've used this service a lot. You usually bring the dog to the sitter's home, although some people will come to yours. If you live in a place where there are a fair number of sitters, you can search specifically for people who are comfortable with anxious dogs, and you can also find someone who'll be home a lot. Maybe easier now, as more people are working from home. Regardless, you can spell out up front that you have a high-needs dog, and you can meet them in advance to make sure it's a good fit. Here in NYC I've had some great sitters for my very old, very high-needs dog.
posted by swheatie at 3:22 PM on June 7, 2020

The problem with boarding is that they often don't exercise the dog, and a nervous dog generally benefits greatly from tons of exercise. An experienced pet sitter who will do a lot of exercise should do well, even if your dog needs to be crated part of the time. I'd ask the vet for meds, just in case.
posted by theora55 at 5:26 PM on June 7, 2020