Internet brings expansion in holiday pet- care options
WHEN WE had just one family dog, Spot, he went on his own ‘ holiday’ to local boarding kennels when we had our annual summer holiday. It felt strange to enforce this on Spot: he was used to having his own place in our home, wandering around the house as he pleased, settling into his basket when it suited him, and generally doing his own thing, as well as coming on regular walks with us.
All of a sudden, we were saying ‘ goodbye’ to him, taking his freedom away, and putting him into a cage with a locked door. The kennels were good to him, walking him twice daily, but there was something that did not quite feel right about changing his life so radically for two weeks. When we picked Spot up at the end of our holiday, he often seemed depressed for a few days.
These days, we have two dogs, as well as cats and poultry, and we use a live- in pet sitter. Our dogs continue their normal daily routine, being taken for their usual walks, to the places that they know and love. We have the added bonuses of having our garden tended and the extra security of someone living in our home.
We are not the only people to have changed our pet- minding habits: there has been a huge recent expansion of holiday pet- care options, driven by the internet. There are two new possibilities, with the best choice depending on the specifics of the situation.
First, for single dogs, like Spot, there's an online service that connects up pet owners with dog- loving members of the public who are happy to mind pets in their own home. The website, www.housemydog.com, operates in Ireland and the UK, and is becoming an increasingly popular option.
There are two types of “customers” who use the website. First, there are people who want to mind pets. When they visit the website, they click on the ‘ Become a Minder’ button: they then register their details, undergoing a screening process to ensure that they have the right credentials and experience to be a reliable dog minder.
They control their own work, deciding what rate they want to charge, what types of animals they are prepared to mind, and they have a personalised booking calendar on the website so that they can choose which dates they want to make themselves available.
A wide range of people sign up as pet minders - from professional pet sitters to veterinary students and nurses to members of the public who are experienced dog owners. They all have two things in common: they enjoy the company of dogs and they are able to fit an extra dog into their home and lifestyle.
The second ‘ HouseMyDog’ customer is the dog owner who is looking for an alternative to boarding kennels for their pet. For these people the process is simple: they type in the area where they live, and the dates when they want to have their pet minded. A list of potential minders then pops up: they click on the minder of their choice, and the booking is made.
There are reassuring security aspects built in to the system: for example, all pet minders are covered by complimentary emergency veterinary coverage and 24/ 7 customer support for extra peace of mind in case their pet has an accident or falls ill. And the online review system, similar to Tripadvisor or AirBNB, means that pet minders soon build up track records of reliability.
Most people make sure they meet a new minder first ( perhaps going for a short dog walk together), and ideally they arrange a ‘ trial stay' for a couple of hours or overnight, so that they can thoroughly check the minder and their home out before leaving them there for a longer period.
For pet owners who have more than one dog, rather than leaving them to be cared in someone else's house, it can make more sense to have a pet sitter come to live in your own home while you are away. You can set this up informally, with a friend ( which is what we
“What do you do with your pets when you go away? Would one of these new services appeal to you?”
do for our own pets), or you can employ a professional pet sitter.
Websites such as petsittersireland.com make it easier than ever before to find somebody to help. There's a daily cost to employing a pet sitter, but if you have more than one pet, this will often be cheaper than paying for the animals to stay in boarding kennels.
Another new website, Trustedhousesitters. com, offers another innovative option: having your pets minded ‘ for free’. You offer potential pet sitters the opportunity to live in your house, and perhaps even use your car, while you are away, in return for looking after your pets. If you live in an area that people from other countries wish to visit, this allows them to have free accommodation in return for the daily task of pet minding.
When researching this article, I discovered that somebody on a Greek island wants to have three dogs cared for in the autumn: I offered my services and have been accepted. So while my dogs are minded by our own friendly pet sitter, I will be in Greece, minding somebody else's dogs in the sunshine. It'll be a bit of a busman's holiday for a vet, but I enjoy the company of dogs so I'm looking forward to it.
What do you do with your pets when you go away on holiday? Would one of these new pet care services appeal to you?