I'm more in favor of pet sitting (in your home) rather than boarding. As a long-time pet sitter (not any more), I promise you that pet sitters love their work and the animals they work with. Most of them will go above and beyond whatever the official agreements says. I once made an entire extra round to visit every house after a bad summer storm to make sure everyone's AC was still on, that there were no broken windows or anything, and that all the pets were okay. I mostly worked independently, but also with an agency for a while. Sometimes people would call and want every other day cat visits, but we didn't like to do that because we wanted to check on them every day, even if the auto-feeder was going to make sure they didn't starve.
I took care of lots of different breeds and some of my colleagues were vet techs. People gave us all kinds of detailed, sometimes crazy instructions about taking care of their pets. We worked with lots of rescue dogs with food issues, separation anxiety, injuries, you name it.
Lots of experienced independent pet sitters advertise on Care dot com and Sittercity. There is a Canadian version of Care; not sure about Sittercity. Also, look at Yelp for reviews of pet sitting companies. Start calling around and interview some people. If a person or company tells you they have a certain thing they do and aren't flexible about it, move on. A good pet sitter will say "Here's what we typically do, but every pet is different, so tell us what you need." The list above is a good place to start. Expect that for the basic overnight fee you'll get about 12-14 hours of in-home care (roughly 6pm or 7pm to about 8am). If you want someone to come mid-day, expect that will be additional. Most pet sitters do this at a discount from a regular mid-day visit, if it's an add-on to an overnight. Also, they should be willing to give you regular updates while you're away (assuming you're out of town, not just overnight somewhere). I used to send text messages, email photos, all kinds of stuff.
You'll find someone that you love, I'm sure of it!
I took care of lots of different breeds and some of my colleagues were vet techs. People gave us all kinds of detailed, sometimes crazy instructions about taking care of their pets. We worked with lots of rescue dogs with food issues, separation anxiety, injuries, you name it.
Lots of experienced independent pet sitters advertise on Care dot com and Sittercity. There is a Canadian version of Care; not sure about Sittercity. Also, look at Yelp for reviews of pet sitting companies. Start calling around and interview some people. If a person or company tells you they have a certain thing they do and aren't flexible about it, move on. A good pet sitter will say "Here's what we typically do, but every pet is different, so tell us what you need." The list above is a good place to start. Expect that for the basic overnight fee you'll get about 12-14 hours of in-home care (roughly 6pm or 7pm to about 8am). If you want someone to come mid-day, expect that will be additional. Most pet sitters do this at a discount from a regular mid-day visit, if it's an add-on to an overnight. Also, they should be willing to give you regular updates while you're away (assuming you're out of town, not just overnight somewhere). I used to send text messages, email photos, all kinds of stuff.
You'll find someone that you love, I'm sure of it!
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