Vacationing? Preparing Your Pooch For Kennel Life

Your precious pet needs both psychological preparation and physical preparation for spending time at the sitters or in a kennel when you go away. Here are a few simple steps you can take to make going away more comfy for your beloved fur friend.

Preparing your dog psychologically:
Animals communicate telepathically, so it's important to visualize what's going to happen and send pictures of the facility to your pet.

Taking your pet to a place she or he is familiar with is different from taking your pet to an unfamiliar boarding facility. If he hasn't been there before, it's important that he gets a chance to visit the facility a couple of times before you actually leave him overnight. He needs to get familiar with the people and smells of the facility, so a 1 night stay on a couple of occasions is ideal prior to leaving for a vacation.

Reassure your pet verbally that you will be back. Telepathically, imagine yourself coming to the facility to pick him up and bring him home before you leave him there and once you have dropped him off. While you are gone, think or imagine loving your pet and returning to the kennel to bring him home. This will reassure him while you are gone from wherever you are.

Leave favorite toys, blankets, beds, dirty laundry and other things that smell familiar to your pet with him or her at the facility.

Try to choose a kennel or facility where the animals have some space to run free as opposed to small cages. If you know your animal is claustrophobic (many are) search out the right facility. Many of them have large runs and yards and are fun places where the animals are social but surpervised.

The way you communicate time to an animal (I'll be gone for a week) is to visualize the sun setting or the world getting dark five times/nights before you come back. Then imagine yourself coming back.

Pets also reflect our own emotions so don't allow any member of the family to be overly dramatic about saying goodbye for a few days. That will make your pet unnecessarily anxious.

Physically: Check with the kennel regarding their policies on what you can bring. All kennels require up-to-date immunizations and many also require proof that they're up to date. Avoid feeding your pet at least 4 hours prior to kenneling to minimize the possibility of stomach upset.