Don't Want To Leave My Dog Behind...

[e71465]

My English Bulldog Spencer goes to his Grandpa's while his Grandma and I cruise. I worry about him but I know he loves spending a week with his Grandpa where he gets to sit on his lap and eat lots of human treats that he normally doesn't get at home.

 

If I didn't have Grandpa to leave him with, I'd probably worry to death about him but I know he's safe with family.

[Pollensalta]

Luckily I have cats. I come home ready to love and squeeze them because I missed them, and they look at me like, "Oh, were you gone?" :cool:

[jenn_x]

You wasted how much money just because your dog was only 5 months old?!? Why didn't you wait until after your cruise to buy a dog or not book a cruise because you were thinking about buying a dog? How wasteful!

 

Thats uncalled for. Its their money and their cruise to skip or not skip. What business is it of yours? Yeesh.

[tetleytea]

I made that mistake with the "it's just a dog" thing when I was younger. Not now.

[hobbyhrs97]

I know the feeling..we have a older golden,see above picture(she also have a grade 4 heart murmur(sp?) as well some cancer and she has been having fits lately) and I am scared(this may be her last winter) that it may to be to much for her to be away from the family.

My oldest is house sitting for us and she will be staying home this time.. might make it easier for her rather then being shipped off. She is our baby and we will sure miss her.

[klfrodo]

I made that mistake with the "it's just a dog" thing when I was younger. Not now.

 

There's nothing wrong with "It's just a dog".

I have emotional attachments to my pets. I also realize that they are just "pets".

House is on fire,,, I'll die trying to save my wife and kids. The pet? Not risking my life to save.

I have $5K invested in an upcoming cruise and at the last minute the pet requires $2K in hospital care to live? Sorry fluffy.

Now, if the wife or kid needs the surgery,,,,,, sorry cruise

 

It's all perspective. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong

[PGCRUISERS]

I am really struggling with this we have a little Mini Aussie and she is an odd girl. She likes her mom and dad and her routine. If we go anywhere she goes with us camping in our RV and riding on our Quad. She won't know what to think with us being gone for so long.

 

Trying to find the very best solution for her which I think will be our neighbor who she adors, but I know it won't be the same.

[FightOnRon]

I was worried the first time too (BTW I have not read ANY replies so excuse me is this has been repeated). This was 3 cruises and one land vacation ago (4 years). What I did was took the dog to where she was going to stay a couple of times for an hour or so then brought her home. Then once I took her, left her there and my wife and myself went to lucnh then came back to pick her up. The idea was to show them that you may leave them, but you will come back.

 

BTW, my dog is not just a dog either,,she is a family member,,,actually we never had kids so she is our kid,,sans the fact she doens't want to borrow the car, have a cell phone, or go to college.

 

Dogs seriously have no concept of time,,they know you're here, you're gone, you're back. So if you reinforce to them you will come back that is what they remember. Seriously no different then leaving them to go to work and come back (BTW I help rescue racing greyhounds so I know a bit about dogs,,I am no Cesar Milan though!).

 

The key is if you totally trust where the dog is staying, that the invironment is good and you trust whom you leave them with. It's your emotions that have to be checked, not so much the dog's.

 

I will admit the first time was the hardest but the sitter agreed to email me everyday with a report and she even attached a couple of photos too. My dog enjoys hanging with the other greyhounds (she is an only dog) and has fun,,although she is happy when she comes home too.

[WCAB]

Since our dog is 14 years old he does not do too well being boarded, although last time they kept him near the cats. (they are quiet) and they said he enjoyed watching the cats. Our trips are shorter. We try to leave him at home and my sister comes over to take care of him. We are doing a five day cruise in February and my sister took vacation time so she could stay with him. As people do he has reached an age where routines are very important to him. He sits at the door at his walk time, comes in and walks to the cupboard for his dog bone, waits for his one bite of ice cream cone and then heads off to bed. You can tell he is agitated when forced from this routine. Its hard to not cater to a dog when they think the sun rises and sets with you. Biscuit was my daughters dog but from the beginning he followed me from room to room. He will not get up in the morning until I get up and when I am running around I must wear him out because he feels a need to follow me from room to room. Needless to say when my daughter left home, he stayed with us.

[tallyho8]

We have vacationed many times leaving our dog with someone that we truly trust. The best part of the whole trip is coming back home and seeing your dog's reactions when he sees you. Jump, lick, wag, jump lick wag etc. :)

 

We have so many animals that we had to stop cruising for a few years until we found someone reliable to watch them again. Getting a dog sitter isn't too hard but our other pets (children) are 5 horses, 6 pygmy goats, 2 cats and Harold and Maude, the world's oldest percula clown fish (Nemos).

[tetleytea]

I tend to totally disagree that dogs have no sense of time. My buddy can tell the time of day without a clock. He knows my WEEKLY routine, and he gets thrown off if I don't follow it. He knows when I'm supposed to go to work and when I'm supposed to come home.

 

We used to have a backyard dog when I was younger. Didn't want to mess up the house. Big mistake--the dog is more important than the house. I would apologize to her now if I could. Now I train my buddy not to mess up the house, but if he does, then I fix the house. Not because he is a better dog than the one before--but because I am a better person now than I was before.

[OnewiththeOcean]

I have a seven year old Pomeranian mix named PennyLane. She is my heart and my baby. Whenever I would go on vacations, before I started cruising, I would leave her with her grandparents(my mom and dad) and she would love it because grandpa had her spoiled rotten. A couple of years ago though my parents got themselves a Pekingese named Max that they rescued. Well, Max and PennyLane do not get along! So now I leave her with her aunt(my sister) who also has her spoiled rotten and also has a one year old Shepard mix that adores PennyLane. But of course she doesn't like him either, but will tolerate him, lol!

 

It's really hard to leave her because she senses when I am leaving to go somewhere and she gets so sad and I feel so guilty about leaving her. I worry about her but after a couple of days I realize that she is good hands and I don't have to worry.

[tetleytea]

I know the offended feeling, but I also know I made that mistake before myself. I'm not here to judge--I learned one of life's little lessons standing at my dog's graveside: LET HIM IN. And I don't just mean literally. If I had it to do all over again, I would have done it quite differently. Fortunately, I DID have it to do over again, and I don't regret it. Not all of life's wrong decisions are we so lucky.

[nrdsb4]

I guess I fall in the middle. I do consider our pets as "part of the family," but I do not consider them my children. I have children, and as much as I love our animals, they do not rank equal with my kids.

 

I think it's great to love your animals, but there are some people who value their pets more than the humans in their lives. They will put their pets over their family or close friends, and I think that is crossing into the inappropriate.

 

That said, we do incorporate our dogs and kitty pretty much into our daily lives, and this sometimes really inconveniences us, but those animals really enrich our lives. And they just love us to pieces.:) They all follow me around in the house all day-yes, two dogs and a cat following me from room to room as I go about my day-and it's a little sweet knowing that they think I just hung the moon. I doubt anyone else thinks that about me, lol!:o

[h_blond2]

There's nothing wrong with "It's just a dog".

I have emotional attachments to my pets. I also realize that they are just "pets".

House is on fire,,, I'll die trying to save my wife and kids. The pet? Not risking my life to save.

I have $5K invested in an upcoming cruise and at the last minute the pet requires $2K in hospital care to live? Sorry fluffy.

Now, if the wife or kid needs the surgery,,,,,, sorry cruise

 

It's all perspective. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong

 

If it came down to taking a cruise, or spending that money to make sure that my dog lives...I would spend the money on my dog in a heartbeat! And if my house is on fire, my dog is the first thing that I'm taking out with me, but I don't have children.

[CruiserinCarlsbad]

I thought this was a thread about how people cope with leaving their pets behind when they go on a cruise. Now it's about whether you love your pets enough. It seems simple to me: if you can't bear to leave your dogs or cats behind don't travel. If you feel that you deserve a vacation and that you can make accommodations for their care, then the decision you make is your business.

[silverfoxcruiser]

You wasted how much money just because your dog was only 5 months old?!? Why didn't you wait until after your cruise to buy a dog or not book a cruise because you were thinking about buying a dog? How wasteful!

Who made you the judge of how they SHOULD be spending their money? Judgemental much? Quick to criticize? Wow, you must be a really terrific person to be around --

NOT!! Silver

[futaba951]

My wife has an Australian Shepherd that hates everybody but her. He would bite me in a heartbeat if he thought for a minute that he would live long enough to remember what I tasted like. When we are away, we turn all the dogs out in the back yard. The Pit Bull, the Aussie, the Chihuahua and the little bitch with the crooked teeth. I leave the side door to the garage open and dump a 50lb bag of food in a big bin so they can eat whenever they want. We have a self waterer for horses mounted low enough so the dogs can nudge the lever with their nose to fill up the bowl. Our neighbor will peek over the fence once in a while to make sure they haven't killed each other. We do the same for them when they are away.

[donaldsc]

My fiance and I actually skipped our cruise last year because of our 5 month old American Bulldog, Bella. Because she was so young, and such a baby, we opted to vacation with Bella in Cape San Blas, Florida. It was voted America's most dog friendly beach several years in a row. We had a wonderful time in September on an almost deserted beach (one beach was completely deserted) for 7 days, and Bella absolutely had the time of her life. We will definitely cruise again and she'll stay home while my niece (who she dearly loves) puts her in the back yard every morning and hangs out with her in the house for a couple of hours every night.

 

You guys have really serious problems.

 

DON

[cmjb4ever]

We have two cats and hire a family friend/pet sitter to come once daily to watch them. They will be mad at us when we return, but after a day, they'll return to normal. I only feel sad that my one cat is very shy and therefore won't talk to the pet sitter while we are gone. I know she will be lonely as she enjoys our love when we are home!

[WCAB]

I tend to totally disagree that dogs have no sense of time. My buddy can tell the time of day without a clock. He knows my WEEKLY routine, and he gets thrown off if I don't follow it. He knows when I'm supposed to go to work and when I'm supposed to come home.

 

We used to have a backyard dog when I was younger. Didn't want to mess up the house. Big mistake--the dog is more important than the house. I would apologize to her now if I could. Now I train my buddy not to mess up the house, but if he does, then I fix the house. Not because he is a better dog than the one before--but because I am a better person now than I was before.

 

I have never understood the concept of backyard dog. I do not go to extremes with our dog. I realize he is a dog but what good is a pet, if it stays in your back yard and you only go out and feed it once a day. I agree with you, if they are not part of your family, why bother?

[blindrid]

I know I'm not alone when I say that I'm worried that my dog will not take the trauma of me leaving him while I go on a 4 day cruise. OK, I don't know if I can take the trauma of being away from him. Our pets are our children... we do worry about them.

 

I am lucky to have a neighbor to watch our Chinese Crested while we are away but I still worry that he will not adapt to our leaving him behind. What is your experience.

 

Thanks....

 

Joe: it is a DOG, not a kid. Ours has survived us being gone a lot. No problems. It's obviously your choice whether to cruise or not.

 

Not a big deal one way or another.

[babies12]

You guys have really serious problems.

 

DON

 

Hmm, my post keeps getting deleted by the mods, however this person is allowed to keep his post telling us dog lovers we have serious problems. I have a problem with that! I will once again state this, I LOVE MY LAB!

[MrPete]

Hmm, my post keeps getting deleted by the mods, however this person is allowed to keep his post telling us dog lovers we have serious problems. I have a problem with that! I will once again state this, I LOVE MY LAB!

 

I don't mind reading some saying they love their dog, but the personification of such is outrageous.

[friedshrimp]

We have two cats and hire a family friend/pet sitter to come once daily to watch them. They will be mad at us when we return, but after a day, they'll return to normal. I only feel sad that my one cat is very shy and therefore won't talk to the pet sitter while we are gone. I know she will be lonely as she enjoys our love when we are home!

 

 

Your cat talks?!?!?!? Have you taken it on Leno???